Intricate Simplicity

We're moving!

2007-08-07T13:07:00.000+12:00

Not literally.
At least, not this week anyway (though we are going to an auction next week and will bid if it's the right price - but Father Bear expects the bidding to *start* at our limit - like the last one we went to!!!!)

My change of address is in cyberspace.
The hilariously-makes-you-laugh-out-loud-funny Sarah, who writes The Funniest Blog in The World commented on a discussion board that Wordpress leaves Blogger for dead. She gave some pretty compelling reasons as to why this is so....and I determined to show her how much I value her professional opinion and Made The Move. This time yesterday she was wishing she had not given any unsolicited advice as I emailed her every hour or so with very particular not confined to blondes technical unique to wordpress problems. I'm sure she would have given me undivided attention except that Karen (who recently moved from just-round-the-corner-to-me to very-far-away-from-me-and-not-too-far-from-Sarah) went to visit her. That would not have been so bad in and of itself - they could have emailed me together....but the visit meant that Sarah, who is obviously a Very Good Hostess, went out to buy milk, because she had visitors coming. And so I was left in the lurch without any help whatsoever until late at night when she was supposed to be doing business administration. Sarah's big trip out to the dairy caused me to drop from her memory and I suspect Karen-n-Sarah spent the day yakking instead of checking for my emails - I'm sure it didn't take All Day to buy milk.
Ah well, all's well that ends well.
Which reminds me, you don't know that all was not well.
At least not HOW BAD it was.

Wordpress is meant to be amazingly better.
It has more options and more themes and better commenting facilities and easier editing functions and fancy schmancy things called Widgets (that's the bit that sold it to me I think - coz let's face it, you only need one theme and you do nothing with the remaining 732 that you don't choose, except perhaps wonder if they would have looked better.....or, if you're like me, you try them all first and in the process lose half your posts and upload pictures that take over the whole computer screen).
I think you're starting to get the picture.
Wordpress was not all roses.
It ate an entire blog. It chewed up my header photo and spewed it out split into three horizontally. It would not let me access the kids' blog and suggested I transfer all hundred-and-something blogposts manually. It insisted on putting my pages in alphabetical order even when I ordered them numerically. And right back at the beginning it didn't tell me I would be stuck with my username forever....if I'd known that I would never have chosen a name with nineteen letters!
I still haven't worked out how to do anything with photos, but that is an invalid complaint right now as Father Bear played with the computer the other night and now the camera and computer are not talking to each other so I can't get photos anyway.
The camera and computer might not be talking, but Father Bear was talking to me. I have a sneaking suspcion that he got a bit nervous about my very nonchalant dropping of new words like "widget" into dinnertime conversation. Now you need to know I will never be mistaken for a techno-geek. Never. Father Bear, on the other hand, could be. Well, only if you heard him talking. If you *saw* him your fears would be allayed, because he really is quite stunningly striking/debonair/spunky/just plain gorgeous - tall, dark and handsome, that's him (though the dark now has to refer to his skin tone and not hair colour as that is becoming speckled).
Anyway, Computer Consultant Father Bear must have been a tad disconcerted that Blonde Wife could use a technical term he had not taught her (in fact, that was probably the hair to break the camel's back - she had been caught doing her own html-ing a few weeks earlier - the first html episode left Father Bear with a slight smile of admiration shimmering on his face, but this widget-talk turned the admiration to threatening-behaviour-alert)....and so he got involved in my blogworld....he even solved one of the Problems (quite funny really, in teaching me the solution, he talked about gif and png.....to Father Bear that is a such-n-such file "just like bitmaps or something else he said that I can't remember and didn't understand at the time"....to me they are gifs and penguins! I told you I wouldn't be mistaken for Computer Geek!)

There you have it. The transition from Blogger to Wordpress.
Here's the link.
Don't try this at home yourself unless you have a Sarah - and make sure you buy her a bottle of milk before you start.

speed quilting

2007-08-03T09:45:00.000+12:00

twenty-four hours is all you need to make a quilt
(and supervise chores and knit a few rows and do some shopping and visit friends and cook dinner and read a chapter and grab some shuteye....)

presenting.....

the twenty-four hour quilt......
(complete with fluff that needs to be picked off but I'm oh-so-impatient about getting it onto the blog!)

Laying it on top of the Blue Quilt was probably not the most aesthetic thing to do, but I can't put it in the garden as it's raining! And I really *wanted* to lay it out on the dark brown bark...coz this is The Ghecko Quilt for The Ghecko Boy, who is turning five next week.

But I don't think it's *ever* going to stop raining, which takes me back to the impatient comment above.

TGQ is a leftover quilt: leftover ghecko material from the boys' shorts last summer, leftover cord from our lounge suite, leftover brown cotton from my pants, leftover checks and plain brown from the boys' jackets, lots of leftover suede (which never got made into what it was bought for - heehee) and a little cord that wasn't leftover, but *was* a bargain from the Sallies.

The back looks just as good as the front.....in spite of me throwing all caution to the wind and just picking up random pieces (Very Not Me, but it's how you Get It Done in 24hrs...and more importantly, Before The Birthday!)

God Bless the Sallies

2007-08-02T21:13:00.000+12:00

What a find at the Sally Shop....
(BTW, last week it became apparent that some of my smaller kids think the Sally Shop is so-called, because they *sell* things)

$2 for a bag of Very Useful Bits and Bobs.

More specifically, a latch hook hooky thing (OK, so not too much more specific!).

Not one, but two, darning mushrooms. Just yesterday J12 had brought me ER's wooden stacky toy thingy and suggested the base of it would make a good darning mushroom if only it were smaller. Well, now we have one each - and one of them is even red with little white dots. (Who said all preteens are into playstation and Harry Potter?)

There are self-cover buttons....just last week J12 learnt how to use these and made herself three buttons for a vest so her beady wee eye spotted them pretty quickly in the bag.

But wait, there's more.
Zips, thread, bias binding, Metal Things and a very cool wooden and metal contraption,which will probably need an Engineering Mind to devise a use for (or at least explain to me the intended use....all I know is it's something to do with a bobbin).

ah the agony

2007-08-01T15:33:00.001+12:00

The maths books had to be abandoned.
There was a Big Lie Incident.
How can you concentrate on Exciting Books when you're sleuthing and refereeing?
That's no rhetorical question - I have an answer.
It's quite simple really - I can't!

I can, however, make up a knitting pattern.
Looks quite nice don't ya think?

And while we're on the knitting theme, I finished this hat and vest this morning while the kiddos ate breakfast.

J11 has kindly offered to make the requested-by-M4-for-whom-the-vest-and-hat-were-made- pompom to dangle off the end of the hat. I valiantly started it myself, thinking how sweet it would be for me to make a *whole* something for my darling M4 all myself, but crikey, pompoms are BORING (and that's a word we don't use round here - except, of course, in Exceptional Circumstances - and this is one of them). J11 doesn't know it, but I would PAY him to do it! (I told you this was an Exceptional Circumstance). Now don't anyone go letting him know, OK.

(And yes, the vest is enormous for a four year old......but next week he'll be five....and next year when he's allowed to start wearing it he'll be six and I hope it'll last two years, by which stage he'll be eight....so methinks it's just perfect! Goodness me, it's nearly only one year till we go away!)

One last comment - I know I shouldn't have bothered doing a cable in a variegated wool, but I was finding the going round and round all the way from waist to armpits to be rather monotonous so I needed something *different* to do.......a pocket eventuated....and then I thought I'd better repeat the cable pattern at the top of the vest too. So even though you can't see it, I know that little labour of love and creativity is hidden in there;-) I had intended doing it up the hat aswell, but plain ol' forgot. So the hat is just plain ol'.

the height of excitement

2007-08-01T11:50:00.001+12:00

There's nothing like hearing that knock on the door and racing up the hallway to discover, not a face-to-face-friend, but a New Friend all wrapped up in paper and cardboard and a big plastic bag.

Yesterday the first of our recent book purchases arrived. All the way from America.
Which ones would this box hold? Latin books? Knitting books? Farming books?
No, it was the maths books.

J12 and J11 are a good way through their first ever maths text book and they were keen to get a hold of A Human Endeavour after they're done this b*o*r*i*n*g, but useful one (to be honest, I'm impressed at how they are sticking with a book that is just page after page of sums - they are not *overly* enjoying it, but they can see how much quicker they are getting at the basic facts through their almost daily practise and they are ploughing on of their own free will).

We flicked through the new orange book briefly yesterday...there's no way we'll be waiting to finish the current book before starting this one. It's FANTASTIC. We didn't want to put it down, but other things (like dinner preparation) were calling and we had to be grown-up responsible people! Can't wait for the littlies to go for naps this afternoon (hence why I'm betting the blog out of the way now while I munch on grated carrot, lettuce from the garden and a fried egg).

We dipped into Challenge Math as well. I had bought that mistakenly thinking it was a small book and would be a great one to throw in the backpack for our seven months in China and Mongolia......it's not so small, but it's definitely coming with us!

And the last one: Ten Things All Future Mathematicians and Scientists Must Know (But are Rarely Taught). Well who could leave a book like that at Amazon?

We're looking forward to getting to know our new friends this afternoon.

I really shouldn't have.

2007-07-31T14:28:00.000+12:00

No brand new purchases-this-year-n-all-that-jazz.

I needed a button for my Kaffe Fasset-inspired blue bag. It used to be an open bag,

but I'm using it all the time and it bugs me that things *could* fall out (never mind that the whole bag fell off my shoulder in the carpark ~ I would never have noticed except that a lovely big burly workman shouted out to bring the misadventure to my attention. Bless his woolly worksocks.)

Anyway, I had added a "top bit" in very funky wool....

....and just needed two buttons to make it a closed bag. One had to be not too big, because one of the buttonholes didn't really work (not sure what I did wrong), so it will remain The Permanently Closed Side. The other one needed to be enormous, coz the buttonhole was gigantic (not sure what went wrong there either). I'd raided my own stash and found a suitable Permanent Button and put on the biggest one I had as the other, but it was too small and the bag kept popping open.

So I checked the local op shop clothes for Big Buttons.
No joy.
In an effort to support local business rather than The Big Red Shed, I ventured to Knitworld and they had Just What I Needed.
What's more, it was only 70 cents.

But did I have even a dollar on me?
No, not me.
And I felt silly using my Eftpos card for 70c.
So I had a quick sneak around hoping to find a cheap ball of wool to use for my last Sock Knitalong pair (it would be a reward for finishing all the unfinished socks, y'know)

There was no cheap wool.
But there was this:

Real sock wool.
Not chunky.
Will require more than 36 stitches to make a sock;-)
And needles so tiny you could mistake them for toothpicks.
But at the end of it I will have a pair of REAL socks.
Actually I hope to have four pair, all different.
All the girls have some purple in their Trip Clothes so this wool will be perfect.

I'm keen to knit both socks at once to avoid Second Sock Syndrome and I was fortunate enough to realize that if I did that working from opposite ends of the one ball of wool, the pattern would turn out upside down on one sock. Hence the TWO balls.
And that should be enough for six small socks and hopefully the tops of the last two!

The Continuum Concept

2007-07-30T20:33:00.000+12:00

I was going to write a review of Jean Liedloff''s book, but I think I'll just stick to the questions it raised for me and some Helpful Information.

1) Do people really *believe* that as babies we have expectations inside of us, which are dependent on what our ancestors experienced over millions of years????
2) How can someone who has visited a couple of remote tribes five times (totalling about two years with them) speak with such authority about how they never do this or always do that?
3) Closely linked to number 2, and assuming she's not a linguistic genius, wouldn't a huge amount of everyday interaction have gone over her head because she simply didn't understand? Perhaps the apparent total absence of arguing was merely due to the fact that they argue differently to us - just like they greet people differently and have different mealtime customs. Who knows?
4) Has she overlooked the problems that do exist in that society? (I'll be upfront with my underlying beliefs: I do not believe there is a perfect society anywhere around - of course, some may do better than others and we could all learn from each other....but none are perfect. So when someone writes a totally glowing report I am inclined to think they are romaticising it a bit. Call me cynical; I'm OK with that!)
5) How would she, as someone who obviously believes it is detrimental for a young baby to be "not carried" during the first six or so months, describe my children? With the exception of the one who cried from pain for hours a day (and he yelled whether he was held or not), they have all happily slept in an old cane pram.

We didn't experience the agonising screaming described in the book as children are separated from their mother and their world turns upside-down. When our little ones would wake we would attend to their needs and they seemed genuinely secure - certainly no signs of despair at all.

A few of them needed to be close to us for the first few days, especially at night. But this didn't last long - the worst was ER, the one who got the most holding out of all of them!!!!! She was only content if being held from 6 to 11 each evening...and this went on for about seven or eight weeks. There she is at *that* time of night:

However, this didn't last for anywhere near as long as Liedloff suggests, and she was more than happy to be separated from me during the day. How would Jean explain this?
6)At the risk of sounding like a defensive parent who didn't do what Liedloff said, I will ask my final question. Will parents be left feeling guilty if they don't follow her formula? It's not rhetorical.

I read this book having had a background of parenting reading that erred more on the side of "parents doing stuff to their kids".
So this book was VERY different, and in many ways, in spite of the fantastical (IMHO) assertions about humanity, it was a breath of fresh air.

I loved:
*the value placed on the *relationship* between parent and child
*the value placed on the children themselves
*the description of what a baby experiences upon entering the world - it explained in part for me, why our little ones really do *need* to be so close at the beginning. This was something I had *worked out* for myself (in spite of reading that books that were pretty strong on needing to teach bubbas to sleep right from the start and Plunket warning otherwise)......so I had spent nights sleeping with babes in my arms, mainly in that first week.
*the acknowledgement that babies are social
*the encouragement to allow your children to co-operate with you.
*not so much in the book, but certainly on her website, Liedloff talks very convincingly about children needing to be included in the adult world - not being the centre of the world, but just being an active participant. This is one of my soapboxes, and I'm more than happy to move over on it and share it with her!
*again, on the website, discussion about children needing to know parents are in control.
*the article about two women sharing their lives intimately - I have to admit I tire a little too easily of the pervasive view that if it's "tribal" it must be better than what we as modern white men are doing. So the terminology of this piece gets to me a little - but the sentiment of working together in community is definitely worth noting, and something we need to be intentional about these days if we live in suburbia.

Funny thing is, these ideas are not new. And I don't even think Liefloff can lay claim to them. They are Biblical ideas (OK, not the inbuilt-expectations-handed-down-from-ancestors-over-millions-of-years-bit....I mean the "good" bits!) And quite frankly, I find a Biblical worldview reflects the reality I see around me far more consistently than Liedloff's wild claims about *evolutionary expectations*.

But all in all, an interesting read.

how special is this?

2007-07-30T10:21:00.000+12:00

Very. Very. Special.

It came with this explanation:
"I drawed this card for you, because I love you very very much."

Thanks M4. I love you too.

How much?

Squeeze.

This much.

Well, *you*-who-happen-to-be-reading-this won't know what that means, it's a special M4-n-me thing.

I can't even remember how it started. Something at the back of my mind says it was something to do with one of the medical procedures he had done that he was a bit scared about and I did something to take his mind off it...or maybe it wasn't. Anyway, he now often comes up to me and grabs one finger and squeezes it as tightly as he can, whilst asking "Do you want to know how much I love you Mama? This much."
Then I show him just how much I love him.

Squeeze.

This much.

I like this kind of weekend

2007-07-29T21:54:00.000+12:00

Yesterday I had my winter Out Day. Father Bear was unimpressed that I should wake about 6 and he informed me there was nowhere I could go in the rain before the sun was up! So I snuggled in bed for a bit longer. I even managed not to remind him of the time he told me it was half past six when it was only half past five. It was on the tip of my tongue. But then I remembered that a) *that* day turned out wonderfully b) it seemed to go on and on and on (that's what happens when you leave the house at 5.45am) c) it wasn't raining on that occasion and d) the sun was virtually up despite the early hour. It must have been summer. All in all I concluded I would not win if I were to pursue this unnecessary argument and decided to take some Biblical advice - "even a fool is thought wise if he keeps his mouth shut"
But in the end I just couldn't lie still any longer and I got up.
I scrambled around in the dark (not too difficult as I had laid everything out the night before - pays to be prepared for the big day out) and tiptoed out of the house, embracing the possibilities of the day. I had packed the car with a couple of knitting projects, an art book, some trip stuff, my current read and most of my scrapbooking paraphernalia, as well as my pile of scrapbooking magazines for inspiration. I wasn't sure what I'd end up doing, and I sure didn't want to limit myself!

I didn't have far to drive and then spent a couple of hours sitting in a carpark waiting for The Warehouse to open (as a matter of principle I am trying to avoid this place - I think this was the fourth or fifth visit for this year and I put aside all principles as I went in and purchased plastic scrapbooky stuff which came inside more plastic wrapping and had pieces of unnecessary cardboard aswell.......I encouraged myself to learn the art of calligraphy, but, knowing my previous attempts at this art, which clearly requires some discipline to acquire, I bought stickers for this particular project - and precoloured papers as well seeing as I am not yet an accomplished watercolour master either) Wow that was a long sidetrack, wasn't it? (Maybe I should have just left out this whole paragraph and you wouldn't need to know about my lack of resolve.....but this is meant to be REAL!) Back to the story.

That done, I was ready to Make The Scrapbook.
So I went home!
Well, not quite. I ended up spending the rest of the day Next Door To My House at Father-in-law's place. He kindly let me spread all over both his dining room tables (two tables, that is, one dining room).
Occasionally a child appeared at the door - I tried hard not to shoo them away too quickly.
Once or twice I needed to return to My House for the one or two scrapbooking bits-n-bobs I had thought I wouldn't need. The kids actually looked pleased to see me - that was nice!
I built up their excitement by leaving immediately.
And not coming home for dinner.

Best of all, I got finished. One complete album in one day. Well, let me qualify that. I got all the backgrounds done, all the page headings and even a few other extra bits. I just haven't done the photos. In fact, some of the photos haven't even been taken yet. But at least now I have a list of what I need to do.
So one more morning to *take* photos, another hour to send pics for developing, the rest of another afternoon to stick photos in and one evening to embellish and it'll be totally done. One album, two days.
"a Kiwi Life", a nice little record of our life in NZ to take with us wherever we end up going. We had been going to buy a book to take, but none of the many we flicked through in Borders reflected *our* life. So we've ended up making our own.

That was all done by the time the last kids headed off to bed.
I realised I was hungry and heard the local Turkish kebab man calling, so I left the guys watching rugby (yawn) and enjoyed the solitude of being the only person in Mr Turk's restaurant for half an hour. There happened to be a real estate paper sitting on one of the large slabs of treetrunk that double as tables and I happened to pick it up.

Armed with that piece of information you don't need to know about the knitting I completed Saturday night......fast forward to just before noon Sunday. There we were wandering around ten acres looking at a three bedroom house and a two beddy cottage. I told you it was a nice weekend!

We raced home to have lunch with friends. We just hung out together all afternoon, enjoying each other's company. The children played, the adults chatted.
We'd done similarly on Friday night - different food, different friends, same enjoyment. Plus we saw *Amazing Grace* together too. Not often you get a movie with good theology, great costumes and sets, accurate history and a jolly good yarn to boot.

It really was my kind of weekend.

he'll wish he didn't tell

2007-07-27T09:46:00.000+12:00

Father Bear came home yesterday saying, "They need someone to deliver the programme in China in February"
My Excitement Metre raced off the scale!!!! It has a habit of doing that.
Within one second I had worked out that would mean two summers in a row - and right now, in the throes of week after week of drizzle and downpour, the concept was instantly appealing. The next second was devoted to wondering whether this summer's clothes would be suitable for China. Affirmative. Second three and I was on to organising passports, vaccinations and visas.
Then I remembered my TO DO list. "The Trip Planning" hasn't even made it on there yet!!!! That's still at-the-back-of-my-mind. There's no way we could be ready for The Big Trip in six months' time.

I slept on it.

And woke to tell Father Bear there's Definitely No Way We Could Do It.
I think I heard an audible sigh of relief!

BUT......

New day. New thought. New research.

What if we went up for the February - April stint and then returned for three months....and then continued with The Trip as per the original plan? My Live In Fear Of Global Warming Friends would certainly be scared by such a proposition.
*All*Those*Air*Miles*
But as I've said before, I am yet to be convinced that it is anything more than political hype.
So my conscience is clear.

We could do our planning while we're up there. No interruptions.

But if we went up there now, could we afford to do The Trip? Gut instinct (aka Father Bear) gloomily predicted it would cost (before you read how much he said, I need to insert a footnote and I'll do it right here to save you the trouble of scrolling to the bottom of the page: Father Bear has been known to err on the side of caution in the past, very much so, in fact. Which is why I have become an Expert in the Field of Creative Accounting. It's probably his caution that got the mortgage paid off - that, and his Amazing Miracle Number Crunching Computer Programme he wrote. Anyway, as I was saying, he thought that to go up to China now-ish would cost....) $50,000 - or did he say $60,000? I forget. Either way it was way higher than my guesstimate-based-on-careful-research - insert cheeky grin here -;-) Unless my figurings are wrong (and they might be, but check my track record, it's never happened before), I work it out at $3993. That seems pretty cheap for ten people for three months of *Cultural Exchange*. It would also give us the opportunity to "try before we buy" the Big Concept of traipsing right round the world potentially forever.

Can you feel my excitement?
I've even sent the kids to play outside ~~so I can write~~ because the rain has stopped and I'm feeling sorry for them all cooped up inside for days on end.
Isn't it funny how you can sit down at the keyboard with just a vague idea of saying "I got excited that Father Bear might take us to China sooner rather than later, but it's not going to happen after all".....but what comes out is a full story about global warming, our mortgage, How My Brain Works, what kind of people we are and justifications for today's parenting methodology. Intricate Simplicity!

Going Bush

2007-07-26T16:18:00.000+12:00

"Look at all the school kids" came the cry from the back seat as we pulled into the Information Centre carpark. Our kids - a dozen of them - gathered picnic basket and jackets, big kids escorting little ones across to the picnic table, past The Other Group.

We eyed them up.
They eyed us up.

We decided they weren't school kids at all, but a Homeschool Group.
They probably decided the same about us.

There are some things that give it away.

Firstly, there's usually a Mama with a baby in a sling.
There will be toddlers as well as teens.
Lunches are carried in icecream containers and baskets instead of little individual lunchboxes.
There's often a mother off to one side "having a word" with one of the youngsters.
There's always someone called Zechariah or Ezekiel, and he's usually called a few times.
The baby in the sling will be lucky to have socks on - definitely won't be wearing shoes.

We exchanged friendly smiles.

They were there to be Bush Detectives.
We were there because we two families had got together for lunch and some board games, and decided at the last minute to pack sandwiches and make the most of the break in the weather with a walk through the bush.
We didn't have any worksheets, but L6 darted about reading the plant identification signs. M4 and T3 noticed lots and lots and lots of "fellen down trees". We all stopped to *listen*. Conversation raced from Maori myths to pirates to church growth to blogs.

The rain started to fall as we got back to the car!

to do take two

2007-07-25T15:17:00.000+12:00

aka Listmaking 200

Principle 1:
You gotta cross things off (would be great if someone could teach me how to do those little crossing-out-lines on your blog)
Principle 2:
You gotta revise what's already there in case you've changed your mind
Principle 3:
You gotta add some more

So here's the revised list a couple of weeks on:
TO DO LIST
Sub-heading 1: SEWING
*winter clothes All done except for three buttonholes, which J12 could do herself. So consider it done - it's no longer on my list!
*summer clothes definitely too cold to be thinking about summer clothes yet - put on hold
*The Trip clothes cannot be started before Summer Clothes are finished so Put On Hold.
*Christmas stuff I've been doing for three years *this is the year* but not till December, so I don't even need to think about this one yet either.
*pencil rolls soon....sooon.....these ones are making me feel guilty
*quilts (should be a subheading of its own given that there's Father Bear's to bind STILLaha, maybe it doesn't need binding - Sharon got to use it when she was here and it's been on our bed ever since....., J12's to finish before her birthdayI went so far as getting it off the shelf to show Sharon....oh there's still soooooo much to do on it...as soon as the Blue Quilt is bound I'll be working on this one....September will be here before I know it, a pink one cut out and half sewn, fabric for at least four more sitting thereno hurry on these - they are now officially packed away for A Rainy Day (of which we have been having plenty!))
*redwork embroidery wall hanging suffering similar fate to above quilts
*snowman wall-hangings...don't ask! December

Sub-heading 2: KNITTING
*vests (ER1, M4, L6, K8, K9, J11, J12) M4's is very nearly done!! wool is wound into balls for the girls' ones and L6's.
*hats (L6, K9, J11, J12, me, Father Bear) mine is done, but now I add another one for M4 coz I've imagined-up a funky pattern to match his vest and there's gonna be stacks of wool left over
*mittens for J12
*cardy for me (just a plain old sensible boring one....and if I ever get time, I've seen some really funky patterns for wild ones - it's no longer going to be totally boring - I'm going to do some Nicky Epstein fancy patterns on it somewhere)
*socks progress made - remember this?
*giant cooking bag that'll be the summer camping project
*needle holders (really not an essential item at this point in time, but I started on this project and would like to FINISH it) and I'll take them camping too!
*cotton dishcloths (some for us and some for Helen - as promised) eager to do some in the pattern I used for the collar - might just happen soon
*nativity collection (well, when I bought that booklet, I *knew* it was a put-away-until-much-later thing, but I just love it and so I can hardly wait to start) definitely not yet. Plus I can't decide whether I want to do it all in cream wool or in bright funky colours. Not to worry, I have a few years to make up my mind!

Sub-heading 3: READING (books on my shelf that I want to devote some serious time to)
*Don Quixote
*The War on the Poor
*American Adventure Series all 48 of them
*Mollison on Permaculture
*The Blessing
*Endangered Minds we've lent this to someone and I haven't written down WHO...if it's YOU, please drop me a line and let me know coz Father Bear is asking for it.
*The Hurried Child
*The Overload Syndrome
*Complete Charlotte Mason Series
*Houses That Change the World
*A Landscape with Dragons
*Is There Life After Housework?
*Pilgrim's Progress
*PET
*borrowed The Long Emergency from the library. RIVETTING. Nothing happening with any of the others! Expect a review.

Sub-heading 4: THINKING
*non-adversarial parenting now also called non-confrontational in my mind, but I'm looking for a positive term
*response to The Continuum Concept formulating - does talking about it this weekend count?
*my work

Sub-heading 5: OTHER
*Christmas scrapbook
*J12's childhood scrapbook
*have purchased materials to make an Our Life In New Zealand Scrapbook - add it to the list so I can cross it off! Then add "Our Life In New Zealand Scrapbook".
*Website
*Garage sale collecting items
*Book purchases all done - and then some! Got some real bargains on ebay. $85 book for $4.99 and the $30 accompanying workbooks for 99p. Latin here we come. Plus the textbook seller offered us any help we should ever want - she's a Latin teacher. YAY. I'll do a "books purchased this year" post when they all arrive.
*sort through photos DONE. totally completely finished
*the paper pile (sigh) stacked in a banana box!

something for me

2007-07-25T12:53:00.000+12:00

I was meant to make *My* Travelling Things last, just in case I ran out of time - I don't mind freezing my own ears off, but it just wouldn't be fair for it to be one of the kids with no hat. However, I needed to start something easy-peasy and thoughtless while Sharon was here and I had just wound my wool, so that seemed a good place to begin. Besides, I had a pattern on hand and the right sized needles hadn't been put away from the last project. As it was, I had to start it twice because I cast on the wrong number of stitches. By the way, what is with The General Population? They all seem to think that women can multi-task. Either I have a few chromosomes mixed up, or I am a Different Kind of Woman (No rude comments thanks). I cannot multi-task.
End. Of. Story.

And the fact that I had to cast on my stitches twice just proves it. Actually, it's not QUITE that bad. I cast on the right number according to the pattern. But whenever have I been known to follow a pattern? They told me to change my needle size to get the right gauge (does that mean I did a tension square? You've got to be kidding! I just measured another item I'd already made out of the same type of wool). I liked *that* tension, so I just upsized the pattern a wee bit.
FYI, JUST was used rather ambiguously in the last sentence. It does not mean "only" or "that's all I did to the pattern". As well as upsizing, I knit "just a wee bit more" before decreasing (and I'm so glad I did) and then instead of casting off "in knit" at the end, I did a fancy little number - I do love picot points. They are not only for baby pants (I could've said JUST instead of "only", eh) ....they are for Big Grown Ups too!

But I haven't finished with it yet; it needs to be a bit longer at the back. If I don't run out of wool, I'll use more of the same, if I do run out before the cardy is finished I'll use a contrast - the same as I'll have to use on the cardy. And what will I do with it? I'm going to add another flappy-brim-type-thing to the back, gently easing round to the sides. Well, that's the plan!

PS Do you like the collar? It's not getting any rave reviews in my face-to-face encounters! As far as I can see, either it's too *different* or my temperate-townee friends just cannot imagine being really truly cold. Yes, that must be it. I'm sure if they knew the meaning of COLD, they'd think it was a Fantastic Creation.

what a wonderful weekend

2007-07-24T14:15:00.000+12:00

It started early on Friday morning with a trip to the airport to pick up Sharon. I had only met her face-to-face once before and on that night the time had flown by all too quickly. This time we would not be returning her to the airport until Monday evening - and the children would have a car-picnic on the way home.

She was the Most Wonderful House Guest Ever. She made her own bed and took the sheets off on the final day, she washed dishes and vacuumed floors and made her own coffee when I didn't think to, she engaged children and even offered to take one of them home, she didn't leave anything in the bathroom sink and she didn't snore.

Not that we slept much.

Friday night I had a group of friends over ~ Sharon went out to visit with her own sister, but left us Brand Spanking New Only Just Arrived From Amazon The Day Before craft books to pore over......and she still managed to spend a couple of hours with us all as the other friends* didn't leave until their customary 12:01am......*these ones: Jenna who doesn't blog, Jess and Karen.

Saturday night we had even more crafty-type friends over. Fifty of them if you count the kids and partners. For Dinner. But my Father Bear went out! Well, do you blame him? He marched back in the door along with Midnight before All The Guests* had taken their leave.....*I'm not listing the blogs of all that lot!
On Sunday we dropped some kids off at church, picked up Karen and headed out. Sharon and Karen disappeared for the morning to a slightly-disappointing eco-tour. I took J12, K8 and L6 to make felt in a friend's garage.

This was a Massive Hit and there are now Big Plans to make a fullsized blanket! Thankfully the expert-felt-making-tutor who had never done it before, but had googled a lot was happy for me to sneak inside to the house and play with yet another friend's swift and wool winder.

Was it the wildly spinning swift or the bright roaring fire or the two-late-nights-in-a-row to blame? I wondered if I looked as cross-eyed as I was feeling to the girls sitting round the table with me - girls whose blogs I would link to if they wrote them, but they don't.

Dropping off Karen after lunch was.........well, it should have been deeply-something. I mean, it was the last time it would happen for a Very Long Time. She would be leaving town the very next day. Maybe the momentousness of the occasion was softened by the fact that she'll be back for a midnight craft night in three weeks!

We returned home to Chocolate Cake in the Late Afternoon.

The problem with this is that it always means dinner is late and the smallest kiddlies who didn't get chocolate cake end up scratchy. But hey, as I said, Sharon was an impeccable guest and her only comment was that her own son squeals much louder and longer and at a higher pitch. How polite can you get?

Fortunately when you get to that time of night anything is bearable, because you know it's now a matter of minutes and not hours until the angels will be tucked up in their beds! And so it was not long until we were sitting in the lounge with yet another bowl of chocolate cake (*bowls* this time, to contain the overly generous dollops of whipped cream).

We sat. We knit. The tv was on. We browsed through the craft books again. We knit some more. We hardly even talked. I realised it was a moment of "companionable silence" I had first read about in Trixie Belden (at the time I thought I'd plagiarise that phrase one day! The Day Has Happened!)

Monday we sat, knit and talked lots. It was The Last Day. So we made the most of it.

Sharon finished a wonderful baby cape, I finished a project I had started the night before from one of her new books (using wool I had wound into balls that afternoon). It will always remind me of Sharon, of the weekend, of the new friends....even when I'm wearing it in deepest Mongolia!

You see it's a little collar to keep your neck warm - just like a scarf but without being as big as a scarf - we're trying to keep our packs Not Too Heavy remember! This will be just perfect.

But back to the present...yesterday's airport trip was just to the domestic terminal.

And Sharon flew home.

a personal challenge

2007-07-21T13:59:00.000+12:00

Look what I'm doing!

I've joined up for the Sock a Month Knitalong.
Actually that's two socks you're meant to knit every month!

And I'm on target. I joined two days ago and have already finished the first one. But I can't finish the second for a couple of weeks - because it has to come off the needles during the month of August. The problem with this is that I'm all keen to get my next one done and actually finish a PAIR....for once, I'm not suffering from Second Sock Syndrome.

Generally speaking, I tend to start things with a whizz and a bang and loads of enthusiasm.....and precious little thought about whether I actually have the time or resources - and I have proven time and again that I don't have the staying power to see most things through to completion.....(everything seems like such a good idea when I hear about it)....but at least on *this* occasion I know I have the resources, socks take so little time and I'm sure I can do a five-month-challenge...it's not like I have to keep going for my my whole life!
Maybe I'll start my September pair now as well while the interest factor is sitting on HIGH...and perhaps even the October and November and Christmas ones too; then I'll really be ahead of the game! In fact, in my possession are three or four carefully-knitted-but-still-waiting-for-partners-socks, so I am halfway there already. I'm going to use this challenge to finally finish the sock-mates.

i can do that!

2007-07-19T15:00:00.000+12:00

I just read Mr No Impact Man's blog post for today.
Ah I love it when I find someone more extreme than I am. Makes me feel slightly more...well, normal. It's not that I actually *want* to be mainstream-and-mediocre, but sometimes it's tiring to be a circus act when you go out for a walk with a baby on your front, one holding each hand and still there are five more milling around you....and really those bigger five *should* be at school (but they're not, coz we don't do school). And when you consider one of them has failed again to find matching shoes or is incredibly grubby, at least one of them is likely to be practising his cricket bowling technique with an imaginary cricket ball, another is probably climbing each tree we pass or at least jumping out from behind them to scare everyone and the baby is squealing in delight at being outside or squealing in disgust at being outside, you realise you stand out even more (as if you didn't anyway).
However, this post is not about our Going Out Antics.
It's about Not Making Trash (or Rubbish as we call is Down Under).

As I read Mr Extreme's list, I patted myself on the back that I do many of those things...and even felt somewhat smug that I have an answer to his not eating Chinese, Italian or Indian dilemna....experienced that "oh yeah someone is more extreme than me" feeling for twenty seconds......and then started thinking "I could do that......and that....and that too"

The Rubbish Revolution is on!

T IS FOR TABLE

2007-07-19T13:39:00.000+12:00

Our table didn't start its life with us.
A newfound soul-sister (who also had seven children in nine years) moved away to America. Her table with the accompanying benches she had had made to go with it came to live at our house and be a constant reminder of a Very Special Friend. The dents at one end where her littlest would bang his cup have worn away - or at least amalgamated with our own bangings to create quite a smooth surface! The varnish has peeled away and we have sat around with more than one set of dinner guests scraping the top so it is now almost entirely bare timber.
Father Bear has grand plans about cutting the sides square and fixing in extensions - we talk about these plans every few months;-) In the meantime, the table is collecting history, collecting memories.

The table is for working at....

chopping parsnips

making pizza lunches (with friends)
making plans

fulfilling dreams (aka excavating, albeit on a smaller scale than dreamed of)

creating musical instruments

building gingerbread houses

creating masterpieces (with friends)

conducting experiments

The table is there when you're playing the goat

The table is there when you meet friends you've been writing to for years - friends who live in Romania

The table is there when you're celebrating with family

(and sometimes we even put a tablecloth on it!)
celebrating with friends
celebrating birthdays

and doing real Su-do-kus too!

The table is for eating at

and eating under (when it's made into a hut)

The table can even be made beautiful....

this photo is one which prompted a friend to tell me I really should start a blog!

dreams are free

2007-07-18T12:35:00.000+12:00

While I'm going all foodie on ya, let me tell you about my dream kitchen.
I've always said I'd like a cellar and everyone thinks I'm joking.
But I'm not - I'm dead serious. A real cellar would be so useful.
It would give me somewhere to store all those preserves and chutneys that I do actually make.
It would provide space for a potato box and an onion box (instead of the basket I trip over every time I walk into the laundry).
It would give me somewhere to hang my strands of plaited garlic and dried mushrooms
It would hold my fresh milk and cream and homemade butter - can someone tell me, does the butter churn live in the cellar?
It would certainly have room for bags of wheat berries and oat groats and other whole grains.
Ah yes, I'd love a cellar.

I'd like a nice big table with a long bench too. I like to be able to sit down when I'm peeling potatoes for a dozen people. None of this standing up at the bench business. And my kids like to gather round and help aswell...again, much more *communal* around a table than standing in a line at a bench. Maybe my table romance is coloured by our dining room table. It's not the fanciest table around, but it's wooden and it has a history. I'd say we've done as much cooking at that table as we have at the bench, and as I turn into a more-n-more natural girl, the fact that it is made from a tree and not formica really appeals. It smells nicer, it feels nicer, it's warmer and when you drop a knife on it the dent adds to its magic instead of making it look tired and tatty.

Now because most of my stores would be in the cellar, I wouldn't need such a big pantry. Just enough room for the bread box and other *basics*. My ceramic mixing bowls, wooden spoons and cast iron cookware would probably fit in there. And I'd like a wooden sideboard for the crockery and cutlery. I don't just want to go into Early Settler and buy the oldest-looking piece I can find. I'd be really happy to wait and have it made by Dadda and the kids who want to help.

And something to cook on. Yes, we'll need to cook.
I used to think I'd like an outdoor oven, but then I thought "why waste all that good heat when it could be attached to the house and warm us all up? and why build a special shelter over it for when it rains when it could just be part of the kitchen itself which would already have a roof"
So I think a wood-burning oven INSIDE would be essential. I love the fact that you fire it up, cook a few pizzas (enough for our whole family and friends all at one time), throw in a leg of something to roast with veges and a pot of stew and then when all that's done it's the right temperature to bake a few loaves of bread and some bikkies or a cake. All that without using electricity all day long. When The Great Power Crisis happens, I'd be all set! Imagine that - cooking half a week's food from two hours of burning wood.

I might not need electricity in my kitchen, but I'm yet to be convinced that running water from a tap isn't a good idea! However, I would make sure the greywater was funnelled out to the garden when it was finished with.

And in a corner, on a rag rug made by J12, would be a rocking chair. Beside it would be my knitting bag and sewing basket. I've recently moved a comfy-to-work-in-chair to the place-where-the-kids-play-most and it's been great to sit and work while they mill around.

One day...some of this dream just might happen.
I'm filing it away for After The Trip.
But I won't forget.

Sourdough Regurgitated

2007-07-17T15:47:00.000+12:00

This blog of mine......some weeks craft-blog, some weeks trying-to-engage-brain-blog, some weeks green-thumb-blog.....but I would never have thought it would ever turn into a foodie-blog.
And I guess by the usually-understood definition of "foodie" (y'know, tiny bits of nice food served on a big plate, all fancy-looking, with swirls of something to cover up some of the Big White Space of plate, which frames the Exotic Ingredients), by *that definition* this will never be a foodie blog.
BUT this is the third kitchen post in not too many days.
So maybe I'm on the way to becoming a foodie.
Or just fat.

Ah well, I thought I'd tell you about a kitchen mishap. But I'll start with a success first. I've worked out why my sourdough starter is bubbling within minutes of joining the flour and water. It's those organisms in the air. We have lots of them round here - because (wait for it) I Don't Dust. I did enough dusting when I was growing up to last my whole lifetime, so now about the only times the duster comes out are before my mother visits (wink). The kids....now that's another story...THEY dust...gotta keep the tradition going! But I don't make them go back seventeen times to move those specks that settle when your back is turned. Maybe that's why *I* have to do the dusting before Visits From Mother - because, quite frankly, the kiddos do a pretty shonky job of it! Anyway, at least I now have a reason to not dust...it's to keep my sourdough bread alive!

And that's what the mishap was all about. The bread, not the dusting.
I completed steps one, two and whatever...and put the bread in the tin without leaving it to rise in a greased bowl under a damp cloth. I totally forgot about that step. I was too busy wondering if it really would work if you didn't put it in a bread tin (as I had suggested the other day you might do if you didn't have a tin). So there I was carefully arranging one blob of bread on a flat tray and putting the "control loaf" in a tin. After they had been rising for a couple of hours I realised my mistake. To my sheer delight, though, they had actually risen heaps, and I decided that not only would I try the bread-on-a-tray-trick, but I would try the bread-only-gets-one-rising-trick as well. Now I know you should never change two variables in a scientific experiment, but really, this is my *kitchen*, not a science lab (though the things that grow in the back of the fridge sometimes look pretty chemistry-lab-ish)
A mere two hours had passed since the kneading had been completed and my loaves were sitting there looking ready to go in the oven. The oven, which, of course, was not up to temperature - primarilly because I had not as yet turned it on.
I have been accused of being and all-or-nothing-chick at times...and this was going to be one of those times. If I had already changed two variables in my experiment, what would it matter if I changed three? So I slid the trays into the oven and turned it on. Didn't even wait for it to come up to temp.

And. It. Worked.

The bread turned out great. Unfortunately I can't remember if I had to let it cook longer or not, but even if I did, it certainly wasn't 20 minutes longer, which is how long the oven takes to warm up, so I discovered a way to use less electricity.
How ecologically-correct of me!

Now can I tell you a funny story to finish?
I know an elderly gentleman who makes The Most Amazing Sourdough Bread. He gave me some of his starter once. And An Explanation. You have NEVER heard such an intricate explanation of how to make sourdough bread - no, not even if you read mine the other day. Man, that was tame in comparison. Not only did I get the full lecture, but he gave me pages of his notes. You see, he takes notes of every loaf he makes; how much the bug weighs before he begins, how much flour he adds, how much of everything he adds for that matter, how long he cooks it for and at which temperature. And he doesn't only keep these screeds of information somewhere safe, he puts the Really Important Bits of Data on a sticker on top of his Starter Jar AND he refers to them.
Well......here's the funny bit......this gentleman had to go to Australia for a month and he asked me to babysit his Starter. I think he doesn't actually *know* me as well as he thinks he did. Just because I haven't killed the starter he gave me two Christmases ago does not mean I am capable of maintaining his pet! (goodness me, our birds flew away and our fish died so we don't exactly have a great track record). And he obviously had never read this post or he wouldn't have even contemplated entrusting his Precious to my care.
But there you have it, Mrs MuddleBrainWhoDoesn'tEvenLikeTheKitchen is looking after
Mr Particular Gentleman's Starter (couldn't call that one gloop!)

Look at them sitting in the fridge - can you guess whose is whose?
Hint: my one has an ill-fitting lid, OK, so it's not even a lid, its a round plate on a square container....his has the aforementioned stickers with each successive loaf''s details written in a contrasting colour.

And THAT, my dear friends, is why I'm not dusting at the moment.

Kitchen Makeover

2007-07-16T14:22:00.000+12:00

We fell off the healthy eating wagon. It's not like we jumped....it wasn't intentional....as the truck slowed down we didn't notice the tailgate had dropped and we slowly slipped over the edge. We bounced along on the ground for a while, occasionally noticing the view was not quite the same, but I don't think we were really aware.

This morning I woke up to the fact that lots of little things have slipped, and lots of little things multiplied together become A Big Thing.

So I'm about to drag together all the little things from the dusty corners of the kitchen and the even dustier nooks and crannies in my head, and Make An Action Plan.

It all started over a year ago when the oat groats we got from our organic farm were full of husks. For a few weeks we tried all sorts of things - cooking with husks and trying to ignore them (impossible), cooking with husks and picking them out, picking out husks after flaking but before cooking, soaking and seeing if the husks would rise to the top of the water (they didn't), grinding the oats into flour (the grain mill got plugged....every time), dehusking the oats before flaking (now there's a job for monkeys).....and before we knew it, we started buying "shop oats"....just once or twice, to mix in with the husky oats.....then three or four times......then to eat just on their own...meaning we still have an almost-25-kg bag of oat groats sitting in its bin in the garage.
When you get out of the habit of flaking your oats, soaking them and cooking them up in the morning to make a nutritious porridge, you start thinking about other cereals (especially when you are actually stopping in the cereal aisle at the supermarket to buy oats!)...and so now we have a big batch of muesli sitting in the pantry. To be fair to ourselves, we did make it....but it doesn't change the fact that porridge is Better For You (and much easier on the wallet).
So I think if I sorted the Husky Oat problem, we would be well on the road to recovery.
That is, after we get rid of the white flour that somehow found its way into the cupboard. That came on the heels of wholemeal flour.....you see it's a slippery slope; you stop grinding your own flour (for a not entirely ignoble reason - the farm ran out of wheat) and resort to buying shop flour....when you pick up a bag of wholemeal, it doesn't seem quite so bad to then grab just one bag of white and before you know it the kids are saying "oh I like white bread"
So the shop flour needs to go - I've emailed the farm to see if they've got any more wheat in stock yet. And if not, I'll bite the bullet and buy it from our local organic shop who charges an arm and a leg (pity he won't take tummy rolls or fat from the hips instead!)
And with no white flour, the kids may lose their interest in making chocolate chip cookies and so the big bag of white sugar may last a bit longer...then it can be replaced by organic dehydrated cane juice instead and if said kids want to do any more baking they can choose something from Nourishing Traditions.
Perhaps I should remove the recipe books from the kitchen - except for my well-worn copy of NT, of course.

Now why is it that making lacto-fermented cabbage does not hold the same appeal as making chocolate brownie? If I could just work that one out, then I could convince the kids to take over making the pickles each week and we would be bouncing around with a renewed zing! In the meantime we can pile up our sourdough bread with the pickles in the fridge. In the recipe book it says they improve with age - I wonder if the author had twelve months in mind?

Thankfully, dinner hasn't been such a problem. We're very much in the habit of roasting a chook or a leg of lamb and then making soup from the bones the next night and stretching it with lots of garlic and chilli to do a third night...and it's been very soupy kind of weather recently. I'll go easy on myself and just continue the same ol same ol. One day I'll become an Interesting Chef (or not).

Taking the time to Stop and Think was all I needed to get back on track. No need for an action plan. I'll just go and tell the kids we're back to porridge with yoghurt or cream or butter-n-salt for breakfast, eggs and sourdough bread for lunch with as many lacto-fermented veges as they can eat, and if they want to bake, I choose the cookbook! I might even insist on the drop of cod-liver-oil and a half-cup of beet kvass before breakfast each morning. You're sure to hear their groans when I mention that one.

simply stripes

2007-07-15T13:42:00.000+12:00

Friends have just had a little boy.....but I didn't want to do a "little boy blue" present.

He's got a manly stripe blanket!

And it's got to be the ultimate in simple.

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a piece of polarfleece in half, wrong sides together.

Cut along the fold.

At one inch intervals around the edge snip the fabric two or three inches in towards the centre (3 inches on the not so stretchy sides and 2 inches at the stretchy ends)

Tie the two layers together. Don't tie too close to the end of the cut or it will pucker up and not lay flat.

I had visions of applique-ing a big r for Riley on it...or even a giraffe...but the cable pocket I'm knitting was calling!

double trouble

2007-07-14T14:59:00.000+12:00

Virtually once a week I get asked if these two are twins. For the record, they're not. They are, however, very often partners in crime;-)

But that's not the point of this post.

The point is:

I just made two sweatshirts in two hours. Go me!!!!

Special thanks to Sandi at Portabellopixie for giving me fantastic instructions on The Easy Way To Set A Sleeve In A Small Hole - it worked perfectly! I think I love sewing again!
OK so if you look very closely you'll see one of them isn't hemmed yet...but give me another five minutes....they were done *enough* to get the camera out....and once you've got the picture you might as well do the blog-thing. (Please to announce I finished the hem while the pictures were uploading...AND I put the camera away - wonders will never cease!)

I did a wee applique on the sleeve - just for fun.

And now a wee note to myself, something I don't ever want to forget.
M4 has been having "laughing parties".
He starts to laugh and he laughs and laughs and laughs.
It's actually infectious and others join in too!
Yesterday he laughed so hard he fell off his bike.

give us this day our daily bread

2007-07-13T18:08:00.000+12:00

We have been through a many-week-stint of purchasing French sticks after church on Sundays.....so much so that it has reached Habit Status.
Why have we ended up doing this?
We started the year buying ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with hydrogenated oil (and if I wasn't sure, I just didn't buy it - I still don't know about French sticks, but my suspicions are......well, obviously they are merely suspicions, and certainly of less consequence than my principles!)
We make perfectly good bread ourselves. Much better even than store-bought-fluff-that-leaves-you-hungry-in-spite-of-eating-twice-as-much-as-usual.
And to top it all off, we end up coming home with a plastic bag which is really not good for anything other carrying French sticks in - and we all know what I think of that!
What is a girl to do about it?
a) stop buying French bread until all ingredients are identified
b) take plastic bag to church in anticipation of the spontaneous bakery-drive-by on the way home
c) buy two linen tea towels at an op shop while you're waiting for KnitWorld to open (I wouldn't have been early if the clock in the car hadn't been running six minutes fast, so you could say that it was the car's fault that I ended up in a situation that lent itself to making an unnecessary purchase - oh, where HAVE my principles gone?)....then you come home and turn them into French Stick Carrying Bags.

By the way, that's not French bread in the bag. That's perfectly good homemade sourdough bread. Do you want to know how to make it? It's easy-peasy. You just need flour, water, salt and a big dollop of patience. Good things take time.

Mix together two cups each of warm water and flour. Cover with a cloth and set aside somewhere warm until it's frothy (could take a few days or as little as a few hours, depending what organisms you've got floating round in the atmosphere....stirring it every day is a good idea if you can remember to)

Take out two cups of this gloop (which is also known as a starter by Expert Bread Makers...you'll see I call it gloop). Feed the rest of the gloop with a bit more water and flour and put it in the fridge if you're not going to want it for a few days (which you won't, because you've already taken some out to use now). When you're ready to make more bread you can omit this first step and just take your gloop container out of the fridge and join the recipe at this point. (But before I go on, let me tell you that from here on in it's really hard to go wrong. Your gloop will appreciate being fed a bit of flour and water every few days if you're not baking, but it's not absolutely essential. You might think it's getting temperamental if it develops a black layer on top - this is called hooch - really, truly, it is. But don't worry - there's nothing wrong with hooch - just stir it in to your gloop and away you go. In fact, you can stir your gloop whenever you think of it if you like.)

So you've got your two cups of gloop in a big bowl. Add two and a half cups of warm water and four cups of flour (I use organic ground-at-home whole wheat, but you can use what you've got) Leave it to go frothy (this is where the patience bit comes in). You can leave it anywhere from 8-24 hours without causing any damage; and you can stir it if you want to. When it's nice-n-bubbly, add a teaspoon of salt and another four cups (more or less, depending on the humidity and temperature and type of flour and which apron you're wearing) until the dough is not sticky. Knead for about ten minutes (or longer if you get distracted and realise you're pampering the dough rather than kneading it).
Put the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let it rise in a warm place for a few hours - you'll have to be patient to wait for it to get at least fifty percent bigger than it was. Trust me, it will happen and it's nothing short of a miracle.
Split the dough into two loaves and pop them into greased bread tins (or I guess you could just plop them on an oven tray if you don't have tins).

But you're not ready to bake yet! I told you, you'd have to be patient! You need to wait for them to rise for another few hours (one would be a bare minimum......five would not be too long....I'm not sure about longer as I haven't waited any longer than that).

Preheat the oven to 200*C and bake for about 40 minutes (or a bit longer if it doesn't sound hollow when you tap the bottom of the loaf).

Once it's cooked, you still can't eat it though. You won't be able to cut it tidily for another hour.
But once you cut it and smother it with butter you'd better get that gloop container out of the fridge and start again, because these loaves are not going to last long!!!

I realise it sounds like a massive long drawn-out process, but really it's not. Yes, it takes a lot of time...but most of that time you can be weeding the garden, making preserves, darning your socks, cleaning the toilet, sleeping, reading War and Peace, visiting your friends, feeding the poor...oh yes, feeding....the bread.....it only takes about 15 minutes hands-on time, and that includes grinding the flour. Give it a go!

PS this is the point in my blog-life that I realise I am actually writing TO you...it has turned FROM me putting my ideas into a plastic box TO a conversation with you (well, with those of you who comment and talk to me in real life and email me). I guess you're the ones I feel I'm writing to - there are plenty of lurkers according to my Stat Counter, and I suppose I'm writing to you too, just I don't know who you are!

List-Making 101

2007-07-12T15:46:00.000+12:00

This is what Leigh commented the other day:

Well I read your *to do* list - and it has just reminded me why I NEVER do lists - unless I am getting incredibly stressed and can't sleep and then it's a 3am job. Because I am Leigh....my lists go like this; I am walking through the lounge and the sun is shinning through the doors, and I think I must wash those windows - so I put down the pile of whatever and go and clean the windows - unfortunately the pile of whatever was my previous job, which now that I have cleaned the windows doesn't look quite so exciting....somehow by the end of the day I get my house back into some form of tidy - but my surprise visitors throughout the week are often welcomed by an eyefull!! Oh but it is fun, and does make my day a bit more unexpected!
July 9, 2007 1:21 PM

LEIGH, my dear, you are Missing Out.
You don't get the *satisfaction* of CrossingOff the list "make winter clothes". I did it on Tuesday...and y'know what? The absolute best part was - not actually finishing something (though that does rate Very Highly round here, given how not good at it I am) - but it was being able to Cross It Off The List! (OK to be totally honest it was a metaphorical crossing off, seeing as the paper list has disappeared - in spite of my predictions to the contrary - and just this virtual one remains). But it's crossed off. And I'm satisfied.

Dearest Leigh, I think I worked out one of your issues.
Window washing.
That is simply not a task worthy of elevating to list-standard, no matter how humble the list.
This is how window washing happens round here.
Every so often, Father Bear gets out the squeegy-thingy and a bucket of water and disappears for an hour or so. Soon afterwards, I re-discover the scenic New Zealand bush just beyond my house without having to go outside to see it....and about this time I usually hear murmurings of "WOW, look out the window! Crikey, you can hardly see them, they're so clean!!" (that's Father Bear)
You see, I figure that if Father Bear likes washing windows (and it's never occurred to me that he doesn't - if he does it with such alarming regularity, that can only mean he actually enjoys it, right? I mean, he wouldn't do it if he didn't like it, aye. Surely he wouldn't take on this task just because I'm such a bad housekeeper and it wouldn't get done otherwise....surely?)...anyway, before I get sidetracked, as I say, if Father Bear loves window washing so much, why would I put it on my list? (like lawn-mowing....I've never mowed a lawn in my life.....you see, I'm not sure at which point it would be safe for me to do. All through my childhood when I wanted to mow the lawns I was told it was too dangerous....well I got to being twenty years old and getting married and I still hadn't been allowed to mow a lawn....and I don't consider myself to have matured an awful lot in the ensuing seventeen years, so that means it's still too dangerous for me to mow lawns....one day I will be eighty years old and will say "I never mowed a lawn in my whole life"....it's one of my life ambitions, you know.....why would I start now? I have a Father Bear and a handful of kids who are big enough to push a mower...if I start they just might think that mowing lawns should be one of *my* jobs.....and even though it does have some attractions (the main one being that you put on earmuffs and can't hear anyone for half an hour), they just don't outweigh the thought of having another job to do, a job that falls in the same category as window-washing, no less)

So, Leigh, find some things you love and pop them on a list!
Things like putting away folded washing, cleaning toilets and cooking dinner can be done in your sleep - the list has to be reserved for things you are looking forward to doing! That's the first principle.

wild wild west

2007-07-09T21:11:00.000+12:00

Sunday afternoon:
one family ambling across the black sand of Piha
enjoying the fresh air and big open spaces
after a couple of weeks of rain
and too many hours indoors,
kicking balls around and
watching one race down the river to the sea,
watching a small sand cliff tumble down,
feeling invigorated.

"Thanks so mush for bringing us Dadda.
Could we come back again tomorrow?"

Monday:

family battled across the Karekare sand dunes in the wild wind.
It swept up the sand and whirled it around in little "tornadoes" and
sent sheets of it blasting across the beach.
Often we had to turn our backs to the blast and
wait for the sand to settle before fighting back into the wind.

We found a sheltered spot for lunch.
It was just like a summer's day.
Beautiful.
The children tumbled in the grasses,
explored, climbed, adventured, contemplated.

The day hadn't started too well.....
whining, complaining, arguing, pushing.
I almost suggested we all hop back in the car
when we arrived at the beach.

But three hours of walking did *something*

It turned into a wonderful day.

K8 summed it up as we waited for another sand flurry to pass
"This has been the funnest time we've ever had at the beach"
qualified only by
"when we couldn't go in the water"

tada....to do

2007-07-08T21:38:00.000+12:00

Here followeth an awfully mundane organisational post.
I certainly don't expect *anyone* to read it....but I want it here on my blog, because then I can be certain I will not lose the piece of paper it's written on if there is a backup copy elsewhere....and frankly, here seems as good a place as any!

TO DO LIST

Sub-heading 1: SEWING
*winter clothes (really must finish them before winter is over...on the other hand, I've learnt the boys can get by on two pairs of trousers each)
*summer clothes
*The Trip clothes
*Christmas stuff I've been doing for three years *this is the year*
*pencil rolls (started right back at the beginning of this blog....hmmm, the kids keep asking about them)
*quilts (should be a subheading of its own given that there's Father Bear's to bind STILL, J12's to finish before her birthday, a pink one cut out and half sewn, fabric for at least four more sitting there)
*redwork embroidery wall hanging (though I did tell Father Bear I wouldn't have time to do it and so he really shouldn't get it for me for Christmas last year and that was before we even decided to do The Trip and so any spare time I thought I might have had has gone into that...and rural-block hunting which we also were not going to be doing up until a month ago...so no wonder that one's not done...but I do feel a bit bad about it coz I haven't done ANY since Christmas Day and it was the most expensive present I've ever been given!!)
*snowman wall-hangings...don't ask!

Sub-heading 2: KNITTING
*vests (ER1, M4, L6, K8, K9, J11, J12)
*hats (L6, K9, J11, J12, me, Father Bear)
*mittens for J12
*cardy for me (just a plain old sensible boring one....and if I ever get time, I've seen some really funky patterns for wild ones)
*socks (I sooooo want to learn how to do two at once - I suffer badly from Second Sock Syndrome, a condition that disempowers you from making the matching sock once the first one has been completed)
*giant cooking bag
*needle holders (really not an essential item at this point in time, but I started on this project and would like to FINISH it)
*cotton dishcloths (some for us and some for Helen - as promised)
*nativity collection (well, when I bought that booklet, I *knew* it was a put-away-until-much-later thing, but I just love it and so I can hardly wait to start)

Sub-heading 3: READING (books on my shelf that I want to devote some seroius time to)
*Don Quixote (it's only been three years so far)
*The War on the Poor
*American Adventure Series (I need to know why my eldest two enjoyed every single one of the 42-or-so books so much! 42 is a number I plucked out of the air, but it really must be close to that...they take up almost a whole shelf)
*Mollison on Permaculture
*The Blessing (I borrowed this one from a friend adn then came home to discover I already owned a worn second-hand copy - now to read it!)
*Endangered Minds (funny thing about this is I think I've read it all, but I can't remember what it says!!!! oh the irony)
*The Hurried Child (haven't found the time to finish this one yet!)
*The Overload Syndrome (in light of the above two comments, this should probably be further up the list, but given that the list is in no particular order, I guess its placement doesn't matter, except in a metaphorical sense)
*Complete Charlotte Mason Series
*Houses That Change the World
*A Landscape with Dragons
*Is There Life After Housework?
*Pilgrim's Progress
*PET (well, it's not on my bookshelf, but I have asked to borrow it from a friend...I don't even know exactly what the letters stand for...something like Parent Effectiveness Training)

Sub-heading 4: THINKING
*non-adversarial parenting
*response to The Continuum Concept
*my work

Sub-heading 5: OTHER
*Christmas scrapbook (so very nearly up-to-date...quick finish it before another Christmas arrives)
*J12's childhood scrapbook (actually I've filled one album and hardly made a start on her photos...I'm wondering about getting all the photos we want printed out and then presenting them to her to do herself! Or maybe we'll work on her pages together or something)
*Website
*Garage sale (or do I just take everything to the Sallies and cross this off the list?!)
*Book purchases (Latin, Sonlight, watercolour text, ?polyface books?)
*sort through photos
*the paper pile (sigh)

ratty relationships

2007-07-07T13:30:00.000+12:00

I've borne witness to some yukky internet relationship stuff recently.
I'm sure part of the problem is the medium.....there are no facial expressions or tone of voice to aid understanding.
But it seems to me there's an awful lot of "think the worst" and "jump to the wrong conclusions" too......and throwing in a handful of smiley faces or winks doesn't make it OK.

Can anyone explain to me.....

Consumer Chick, who hasn't caught up with the fact that vintage is in and knitting-and-crocheting is today's hot, sees Not-Quite-A-Nana showing pictures of her knitted socks and macrame flower pot holders (OK poetic license in force - there was no macrame...but I'm sure it's coming...you just wait!).
What are Consumer Chick's options?
She could not look.
She could look and not comment.
She could look and say something polite, even if she doesn't mean it (OK, that's not an option, but my mother always taught me to say nothing if I had nothing nice to say).
But what does she say?
"Hasn't Not-Quite-A-Nana heard of shopping malls? Doesn't she know you can buy three pairs for, like, $10?"
Was that necessary? Wouldn't it have been more encouraging to congratulate Nearly-Nana on her newfound skill? That wouldn't mean that Consumer Chick has to stop shopping or that she is interested in learning to knit herself....for all I know, she doesn't even want to. And That's Fine.

But she could be kind.
Or quiet.

Here's another one:

Eco-Dude tells how much she's using her car...and how she's trying to limit its use.
How do Non-Eco-Dudes respond?
They could not read her post.
They could read and not comment.
They could wail about how impossible it would be for them to do that kind of thing, because their needs are so different (or whatever).
They could put forward a strong argument In Favour of Car Usage.

But what happens?
They attack Eco-Dude and condemn her for preaching.
That seems about as profitable as scenario number one.

Why can't we just take each other at face value? Maybe even have a good debate. Why do we have to turn our guilt into their fault? Why do we attack personally instead of encouraging others' successes? Why are we threatened when someone is different to us? Why do we get really defensive when someone is better than us? What is wrong?

I'm ready for a museum

2007-07-06T21:57:00.000+12:00

OK so I'll admit it.

I'm no techno-geek.
When I was in hospital with L6 a month or so ago, Father Bear left us his phone....mobile phone, that is. Honestly, it was easier to walk up to the ward phone, put 20c in the slot and call home on that! There was a handpiece to hold, nice big buttons to push and no chance of taking anyone's photo!

One of our kind friends sent us a text message. It took me over half an hour to reply....and do you know what I managed to say?

ta

Yep, that's all. (And just in case you North Americans don't use the term, it's Kiwi slang for *thank you*)
I could almost have run to the guy's place, told him in person and been back at L6's bedside, wiping his fevered brow in the time it took me to say TA!!!! Would've been a lot less stressful too.

But that's not the end of it!
Ah well.

At least they sent another text the next night.
That time I wrote a whole word. Three Whole Words, in fact.
But I sent them to the wrong person!

I haven't heard from the texting friends since.
And I still don't know who knows "we're still here"

Maybe that's why I like my friend who prefers a piece of paper and HB pencil to a Palm Pilot!
Could be why I liked what Mr No Impact Man had to say today too. Have a look here.

And on a related-but-totally-different note....when we were at the museum, the kids had A Great Deal of Fun learning how to use those *old-fashioned* (gasp) phones. Do you know the sort? The ones you put your finger in a little hole and twist the whole dial round and then release it and wait for it to return to Starting Position before you could put your finger in another hole and turn it all the way round...clockwise, dear, you have to turn it clockwise....take your finger out now and wait, no, hang on, it has to go all the way back to the beginning before you can do another one, yes that's right, now you can do the next number, yes it does take a long time doesn't it, clockwise remember, and wait...."
Using the Real Thing, which was set up to ring another phone, was so much more exciting than googling "ancient tele-communication", more exciting even than anything Wikipedia could tell us......and I bet Wiki fails to tell the kids you have to replace the headset on those little black buttons...you can't just lay it down on the table!

anticipation

2007-07-05T08:21:00.000+12:00

T3's vest is DONE....all ends woven in and buttons attached. She loves the buttons....and I remember having some exactly the same when I was a little girl! Red, I think they were.

But she doesn't get to wear it.

For one, it's too big.

For two, it's a when-we-go-away-item.

All the when-we-go-away-items are residing on a shelf that is standing as a tantalising reminder of Things To Come, Adventures To Be Had and Places To Be Visited.

fourth of july

2007-07-04T15:40:00.001+12:00

I just noticed the date when I posted the lightning post (lightning in content and in the amount of time it took me to write!)

The Fourth of July always makes me think of.....well....America.
At least, it has for the last seventeen years.
You see Father Bear and I got married on the last Saturday in June and then on the Monday we left New Zealand, bound for the rest of our lives together.
We chose the Fourth of July to go to Disneyland. But we didn't realise it was The Fourth of July. At least, we didn't think about it being That Auspicious Day. Admittedly, we were a bit surprised at being handed little American-flags-to-wave before we even entered the hallowed gates, and then American-flag-pins-to-wear once we got through those gates....but we just thought, "Well, it IS America, they ARE patriotic and I guess this IS Disneyland"!!!!!!

It was midnight before we realised. We climbed off a rollercoaster, which had hurtled us through darkness and just about made me cry (I'd never been on anything like that EVER before that day...and I vowed never to do it again, a vow which has been broken on numerous occasions in a number of countries and one that I remake in the middle of every subsequent breaking)...anyway, we stumbled out of my source of despair and looked up.....I thought I was seeing stars exploding...and indeed I was. There was the Fourth of July fireworks display in all its grandeur...and we realised it wasn't just the fact that this was Disneyland....or even America....we were there on
The Fourth of July.

Funnily enough, I remember the fourth of july easier than I do the wedding anniversary!
It was one of the best days of our lives. I am so not into canned entertainment and America-mania and big-business-exploitation now....but oh our memories of Disneyland! We didn't leave until it closed in the wee small hours of the morning. It was a wonderful day.

KIDSPEAK

2007-07-04T15:35:00.001+12:00

"The light's on in the sky"

T3 on lightning

published!

2007-07-03T12:16:00.000+12:00

For those of you who have asked, and for anyone else who might want to take a nosey, the children's accounts of The Science Competition can be found here.

I must admit, what the older two were going to do was deemed unacceptable my their publisher!
Actually they only got as far as the first sentence
"These two photos show...."
and I said,
"Hey guys you can do *more interesting* than that".

I gave them a sentence starter:

After many years of weather watching......

and they were away.

When they were done we went back and I enquired,

"do you think there's a more interesting way to write "very good"?

how else could you describe those games?".....

and so "very good" became "most professional"............

and so on.

They really jumped on board with trying to write in an interesting style - this is a first, and so worthy of note! And it turned out a little differently to their usual scratchings!

plagiarism

2007-07-03T10:16:00.000+12:00

another "what I just read" post

this time by Lisa

You'll notice in this month's news, when life is fullest isn't always when as much gets "accomplished". The "things" that get completed usually aren't the most important things in life. We've had some accomplishments, but we've also just lived life in the fullest, and don't have anything to check off a list for that. Time playing with children, talking with teens, in God's throne room for friends and family, isn't the stuff that makes it on our "works" list. And neither really is time hearing the Word, searching the Word, and living the Word. Life, abundant life, really has very little to do with our works. Abundant Life is about something Someone else hasalready done for us, that we could not do for ourselves, and our humbly stepping into that and reverently living it for His Glory.

Writing Questions

2007-07-02T22:38:00.001+12:00

I just read this:

*Strive to have an interesting life*

And I oscillated from thinking "yes" to "no"!!

And not much more.

My gut reactions were

"interesting doesn't just happen,

you do need to be intentional"

and

"it's not about *interesting*"

To give some context, the author was Tahir Shah and he was giving advice about being a writer.

Does this make a difference? Is it valid for someone with the gift of communication to look for interesting things to write about, but not for the rest of us? Is it necessary even for them?

It's not the first time I've come across this very piece of advice (john andersen at unconventional ideas says the same thing, exactly the same)

What do you think?

Proud Mummy Moments

2007-07-02T21:21:00.001+12:00

The kids will blog the same story tomorrow....I'll do my version tonight and then we can compare notes!

K9 was entering his very first University of Auckland Science Competition and he really really really wanted to get a "highly commended" mention (like his brother and sister had done three years earlier on their first time)

But there were eighty contestants...and some of them had Very Smart Entries. As he looked around, K9 was coming to terms with the thought that he just might not have made the grade.
Then Mother overheard the judges discussing his piece - the JudgeWhoHadInterviewedK9 was rooting for him. Desperate to keep listening, she Did The Right Thing and moved away so as not to hear any more! But she couldn't help noticing the JudgeInARose-PatternedTop went over to talk with K9! Then the Official Photographer took his picture. K9 came running across the hall, full of excitement. "Mama they want you to sign a thing that says my photo can go on the university website" Thoughts of highly commendeds were banished - he was about to be famous!!

The Prize-Giving
The five highly commendeds were read out. The anticipation of coming fame was not quite enough to soften the blow that K9's name was not among them. He looked disappointed. How I wanted to hug him! All my talks about "the effort you've put into this has been fantastic, you have done your best and that's what really counts, our family will enjoy playing this game for many years " just weren't cutting the mustard.

Third place....goes to.....
K9.
What? Me? They didn't say my name right, but it sounded kind-of close!
Woohoo. I won a PRIZE. A real prize.
AND I'm going to be famous.

Then it was on to the older kids.
J12 and J11 had told me they were hoping they might get a Highly Commended, but so many of the other entries were STUNNING, so they just weren't convinced theirs measured up.
They too got that disappointed look at the end of the Reading Out Of Highly Commendeds.
For an instant I wondered if they might actually get a prize...but there were still so many Great Projects out there.

Third Prize.
Second Prize.
First Prize...well, the guy couldn't read K9's name, and he did even worse with J11's and J12's!
It didn't even sound like them! But it was. For the second year running, they were delighted with first place.

And while those were proud moments for me, the best was when J12 came up to me and said, "Mama I'm happy to get first" (mistress of understatement! I'm sure she was VERY happy)....and she continued, "but I'm really REALLY happy for K9. He'll just be soooooo pleased." That was the precious moment of the day for me.

soTOASTY

2007-06-30T19:14:00.000+12:00

toastyTALE #1

M4 won't be cold again this winter! He wore his new longies last night and LOVED them.

"They were soooooo warm Mama"

toastyTALE #2
Father Bear was cold last week and nearly bought a beanie...he wouldn't be convinced that I could make him one for well under the $30 they are in the shops....well, he knows I *can*....it's just that he would like one with a funky little tag on it! After seeing some young surfie dude on tv with one just like I was proposing to make, he conceded to let me give it a go so long as it is very fine and not at all bulky. That means teeny tiny needles....sigh....and the first one I started just wasn't big enough, so it's now undone *double sigh* and I've started something else! I'll come back to the 130 stitches for his big-full-of-knowledge-head after I've done a vest for a little boy!

before the un-ravelling party

Definite Dreams

2007-06-29T14:20:00.000+12:00

Well the dreams are everything from this to this to this (if you have a look at the last one, you'll need to go to "Barge Brokerage" on the left...and then scroll down a wee bit to "Lanikai" - it's so worth doing - a very exciting prospect.....but one we will totally NOT be doing given that we don't have a spare NZ$400,000 in our back pocket.....that's the same reason we won't be doing the first one either!)

We've been considering getting some more land to do the semi-self-sufficient thing. If it were left up to me, I'd wait until after The Trip, but if we found the perfect piece now, Father Bear would be keen to go for it. My wee head doesn't have enough space to do trip planning and website designing and clothes making and ongoing home educating all at the same time as trying to buy land and learn how to use it - so most everything else has been put on hold while I run with Father Bear's Crazy Ideas and look at land......but I'm about to drop that baby and pick up some of the others again.

Partly because the trip is a Definite Dream. That's one that IS happening (well, God-willing, of course - one of our latest Sripures we've learnt has been "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day will bring forth" - so true)
The mostly-definite at this stage is: next August visit family in Malaysia, September to December Father Bear will work in China, then four months of *something* (hopefully Mongolia), May-June will be the Great Britain Pilgrimage towing a caravan behind a van with Grand-Father-Bear.....that much is planned.

Dreams beyond that.....well at the weekend we talked about everything from Father Bear getting a European University stint onto his CV...through to buying an acre of land with a house and well on it in Russia (would cost less than $5,000 - what a cheap year or two that would be, learning traditional farming methods from old babcias!)....through to us making a Kiwi contribution to the Simpler Times Village linked above.....through to having an organic poly-culture permaculture set-up with guest accommodation that people could come and stay in for a few days and milk a goat and make cheese and knead bread and read books and and and....

Without vision, the people perish - I don't think we're in danger of fading away through lack of hope or inspiration!

catching up

2007-06-29T12:02:00.000+12:00

My email inbox is overflowing - quite nice really!
But I know I should get some answers out......so here we go.

COCONUT OIL
I get mine from East West Organics - they order it in from Ceres, so you out-of-towners might be able to contact Ceres directly if your local shop doesn't stock it. If any of you are purists, I'd better mention it IS refined. You can get unrefined, but it costs three times as much and so we have stuck with the cheaper-but-still-beneficial option. And even that is not cheap. 10l cost $109 last week.

The other issue with it is SATURATED FAT.
If you have got the heebie-jeebies over it, please go here and read at least three of the articles.

ISN'T THE WEATHER COLD!
Why, yes it is! In fact it's been so chilly in the evenings that I ended up feeling sorry for M4 who wears a knitted soaker over his night nappy (and no PJ pants coz they wick moisture through). I started knitting him a pair of longies a couple of days ago. They will be done in time for tonight.

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN READING?
I've been lent a copy of "The Continuum Concept" by Jean Liedloff, which I really need to FINISH by this weekend. I'm bound to discuss it some time next week!

I've got a great stack of self-sufficiency books by the bed and even Father Bear who is renowned for saying "I'm not a farmer" whenever I'm having a rural-dream picked one up and conceded it was "pretty interesting".

At the bottom of that pile are a couple of books about rural New Zealand architecture in the past 150 years. Why? Well, you never know when knowing that might come in handy! I researched traditional villas a couple of months back. Very interesting.

Two of my *own* books are being flicked through too - the old encyclopedia has been too overwhelming in terms of the amount of information that I don't know....but now in comparison to my newest acquisition, Mollison's tome on the right, it makes positively light reading!

And as these photos show, I am desperately in need of reading Father Bear's new book:

Actually, when we travel next year I am hoping to take the time to learn to a) use the camera well and b) sketch and use watercolours. I wonder if I'll be able to sneak this book into someone's pack;-)

DID YOUR KIDS MISS YOU AT THE WEEKEND?
ER (13 mo) had two very snuggly days when we got back, and M4 struggled having his first weekend away On His Very Own With No Other Siblings (in fact he ended up sleeping one night at Grandpa's with two sisters!) and T3 got a wee bit teary at church when she could see all her family in the distance....but apart from that....they had a ball. One watched lots of tv * another enjoyed playing Mother to ER * another didn't even have to do any chores, only clear the table * one was surprised to discover it's not just our family that goes to open homes at the weekend! *

Thanks all you families for taking one or two, even at last minute notice, and giving us a wonderful weekend.

WHAT DID YOU DO?
Dropping off kids took an hour and a half! Not bad we thought!
Friday night we ate at a Mongolian restuarant and dreamed. "Let's dream this weekend and no judgements" Father Bear had said. That will be a post of its own!
Friday night we Did Not Sleep. I was awake from 2-4am, at which point I decided I didn't NEED to go back to sleep right now coz I didn't have to get up in the morning, so I read until 5:30.
I then slept in till after 9! Just before 9:30 we discovered we could go to look at a house half an hour away at 10am. We raced out the door and turned up only to discover the gate closed. Hmmm.
Time for some shopping Father Bear needed to do for work....and while he was doing that the house guy rang him. We could go back - but not until after an auction of a villa on two acres that we were en route to. Bidding started above our final price so we were not in the running - actually noone was. There were no bids and we raced off to the other house. Father Bear loved loved loved it. We looked round for an hour, chatted with the owner and agreed to let him know what we think it's worth (it's not on the market).
Then we had a spontaneous-due-to-circumstances shopping afternoon, picking up some great bargains to get packed away for The Trip.
A weekend away for us almost always involves at least a few hours at Borders....this was no exception, but we were exhausted by 7:30 so headed to the hotel for the night. We both had a new book to read, but only managed to glance through the newspaper!
Sunday morning we wandered around the Viaduct Basin, stopped for breakfast in a cafe....Father Bear let me take my knitting and he watched the rugby replay on a big screen. Win-win! We thought we could get used to having no children and no church every weekend!
We wandered along the waterfront and stopped for ENORMOUS icecreams before heading back to pick up kids. It would be nice to say everyone lived ahappily ever after, but the reality is the older ones were tired and scratchy and snitching with each other and generally quite unpleasant.
It was still a wonderful weekend though.

WHICH FORUMS HAVE YOU BEEN LURKING AROUND?
http://www.ruralvillage.org/
http://www.lifestyleblock.co.nz/
http://www.bootsnall.com/
and one with a few friends.

ARE THE OLDER KIDS READY FOR THEIR SCIENCE COMPETITION? ISN'T IT SOON?
Yes! And yes. They're tossing up whether to blog about it now (coz they're all done) or wait until after The Day - Monday.

bursting with excitement

2007-06-22T14:58:00.000+12:00

The kids are all going on holiday to six different homes around town tonight.
Father Bear and I will be HOME ALONE!
Then tomorrow we're going in to town to a hotel for the night.
We're planning on going to a house auction, doing some "trip research", eating out at a Mongolian restaurant, visiting Borders, indulging in Moevenpick icecreams at Mission Bay, chatting about life dreams....and we'll probably even watch the All Blacks test (if we do, I'm allowed to knit so that's a win-win scenario!!!!)

A friend, who is very family-friendly, recently told me her reaction to those martyr-mothers who "never spend a day away from their children".
OH HOW BORING.
WHERE'S YOUR SENSE OF ADVENTURE?

I'm with her all the way!
Only a few hours to wait now!!!!!

LOLLIPOP LOVE

2007-06-21T14:14:00.000+12:00

I am having such fun knitting up the lollipop wool.

The pants and mittens I did almost entirely in hospital a few weeks back with L6. Although I must admit the legs went on F.O.R.E.V.E.R.

Then I started the vest (my first time ever using a real bought proper pattern), but it just wasn't going fast enough for me so I whipped up the soaker for a wee break. My parents brought me up to finish something before starting something new....but it's just not me! I believe in having at least three projects on the go at once!

an easy-peasy-no-thinking-one

a need-to-concentrate-one

and a long-term-one

I had lots of fun trying to create blocks if colour interspersed by only a row or two of contrast...lots of short rows and knitting from three balls of wool at a time! And having worked out how to do it, I then forgot to on the crotch and just zipped back and forth. Ah well, never mind, I like it all the same. I'll do a cord once I've finished the vest - don't want to run out of wool!!!!!

every time a coconut!

2007-06-20T14:00:00.000+12:00

Over the past few years we ahve become ardent believers in the healing powers of coconut oil! Every time someone has had the vaguest suggestion of a cold Father Bear has dosed them up with extra organic coconut oil - and apart from our sickly M4, it has worked every time!
We use it liberally in cooking as well as coconut cream and dessicated coconut too.
Two weeks ago our 10l box ran out.
This week we are all - without exception - suffering from heavy heavy colds, runny noses, coughs and some lost voices!
We raced to the organic shop and bought a small jar of the liquid gold ($90 for 10l - but $8 for not even 200g) to tide us over to when the Big Box comes in. We are slowly coming right, but it's definitely worth nipping this type of thing in the bud early on.

Are we scared of dying of heart failure due to consuming this saturated fat?
No, and while we're not ordinarily conspiracy theorists, this is one topic that does have a scientifically dodgey past.
Can I encourage you to get hold of Mary Enig's book "Eat Fat, Lose Fat" for the inside scoop!
And if you can't get hold of that, you could always google Weston A Price Foundation and read some of the cholestrol and fat articles. You just might be surprised.

it's quiet round here

2007-06-18T13:48:00.001+12:00

I've got no energy to climb up on any soapboxes today!
And even if I were able to do so, I've got no voice!

I've noticed all the children are talking quieter! I didn't think I was that loud!!!

Racing round my head are ideas for our travelling website......thoughts about a house auction Father Bear is threatening to bid at on Saturday.......musings about another house we were shown but was withdrawn from the market and seemed pretty ideal.....travel plans.....a couple of conversations I'm taking part in on a discussion board......what's for dinner....wild dreams of moving to Simpler Times Village and doing something like this (and we're not even farmers....at all....not even a little bit)......wondering why J11 has taken himself off to bed three afternoons out of the last four......more travel ideas....all topped off with an itching to scrapbook and crochet and knit and sew all at once!!!!

she seems so sure of herself

2007-06-15T14:44:00.000+12:00

I have been dubbed a schedule nazi by more than one friend (OK, by two!)
So how is it that I can be so informal with the children?

It's been a journey, and one that I have agonised over. I have come to philosophical conclusions through my readings and thought-wanderings.....then I have had to make the reality of our life reflect those new-found beliefs.
I have questioned the *beliefs*, wondered if I'm just being lazy, occasionally considered I might be ruining the kids!
Time will tell.

As an example of some of my indecisive questioning, here's one more "old piece of writing" (then I promise to hop off this soapbox next week!)

QUESTION: when I plan out what I am going to do during the week, I achieve more than if I just leave it to decide from day to day. Where does this fit in? Is it appropriate for me to be more formal because I am older and at that “stage” of life? How much formal do the little ones need? How much structure to the reading plan? To what extent should even that move in seasons rather than doing science/history/geography all the time? I’ve done the little-bit-of-everything-every-day approach, the month-of-one-thing-at-a-time approach, the something-different-every-day approach.
Is there too much mother-directed? What about the missed opportunities (eg fascination with Vikings at the moment and I haven’t done anything at all about them). This interest was sparked with some reading two years ago and they are revisiting it. Would the interest even be there if we hadn’t done it together first?
Am I really harnessing their interests?
Which approach worked best? Is there yet another way?

still going on about home ed

2007-06-14T11:45:00.000+12:00

I dug out this piece I wrote four years ago.

A Brief Glimpse into Our Life and
How Our Children Are Learning Naturally

There are certain learning tools we want to teach our children that will enable them to learn anything they want/need to know. We teach these tools somewhat informally by the kind of lifestyle we lead. For example, one of the tools is curiosity. We don’t have a ten-step action plan for teaching it, but rather model interest in our environment, ask questions aloud, wonder about things…our children can’t help but start doing the same.
Our focus is on these tools rather than on teaching “subjects”.

In spite of books that tell you so, I do not believe there is a certain body of knowledge that five-year-olds should know, and another for six-year-olds and so on. There are, however, certain ideas, which govern science, history, music, geography, art, communication, mathematics…I think the key, as parents, is being aware of the ideas so that we are capable of leading our children. We don’t need little tick charts for all those things, but being aware of them will help us help our children interact with the ideas or try new things. We need to educate ourselves.

Learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and certainly may not happen if opportunities are not presented (you only need to think of Romanian orphanages to realise children don’t automatically learn to walk and talk if left on their own). Little ones need lots of encouragement, someone telling them they’ve done a great job or helping them to get up and try again – they learn in the context of relationships.
So, from a parent’s point of view, it is a matter of “know some stuff” and share it with your child. Because it is not all linear, many things can be tackled at a variety of ages. It doesn’t much matter whether you encounter beetles at age six or twelve. The same goes for Brahms, Bulgaria and Botticelli. We “open doors” to these things for our children by providing a rich environment for our children to interact with (and plenty of time at home to do just that). Showing pictures by Rembrandt and discussing them or trying to copy them might spark an interest for one of them to pursue. Going on a nature walk might do the same for another child. Yet another might be inspired when Mama reads a book about a country far away or someone who lived long ago.
We have not experienced any resistance at all to these mother-directed parts of our day – in fact, there are frequently requests for another page or “Just one more chapter…please??”
And I have developed my relationship with my children more because I have been involved in the process.
After chores and some “door opening”, our children are free to pursue their own interests. This is time for them to become immersed in something of their own choosing…getting to know something deeply, instead of just having superficial knowledge about lots of things.
When they are little, children seem fascinated with everything, but we are assured that as they grow up, their interests will become more focussed. We are just starting to see that happening – in her free time, J, who is eight, is likely to be found creating something, whether it is out of cardboard or material or dough or sticks and stones from the garden. J, a year younger, will be collecting and identifying insects, birds or shells, or trying to start a fire with a magnifying glass.
(J constructed a “real” hide and J sat in it with binoculars, watching birds. J rescued the dying butterfly with holes in its wings and J made it a house. J collected cicada shells and J displayed them in a shadow box).
That doesn’t mean they don’t do other things – J has been seen sewing doll’s clothes and J will go fishing or ride a bike. But as our children have had time to “live”, we have started noticing patterns.

Can I encourage you to open some doors and see where they lead.
Know your children.

a day in the life of......

2007-06-13T20:53:00.001+12:00

today may not have been a "typical" day....but neither was it a-typical

you can find the details here if you're interested

and add to them: rang IRD, fielded a few phonecalls, knit a few rows of a vest, bought vege seedlings, supervised chores, folded nappies, emailed a couple of real estate agents!.....

home schooling is not alone schooling

2007-06-12T13:10:00.001+12:00

One of the joys of modern times is the ability to be part of a community even if physical distance separates you. Here's a handful of websites I have visited over my home-ed-career.

(If I were a real blogger I would provide links; if I were a real educator I would provide reviews, but I'm short on time today, so I'm doing a copy-and-paste-with-no-notes-attached. Google is your friend!)

ambleside online
classicreader.com
cornerstonecurriculum.com
dianawaring.com
educatingforsuccess.com
elijah company
good book reviews
greenleafpress.com
highschoolscience.com – go there for more good links
home.school.nz
homeschoolingbooks.com
homeschooloasis.com
homeschool review something or other
ignitethefire.com
me-and-my-house
MOMYS (mothers of many young siblings)
unconventionalideas.com
valerieslivingbooks.com
wholeheart.org
worksoftheheart.com
1000 Good Books List (classical Christian home educators)

a decade of maths

2007-06-07T20:50:00.000+12:00

I started off my three year old….yes you read that correctly….three year old….doing worksheets which I studiously made up for her. Fortunately, she enjoyed it! Unfortunately I didn’t really know what I was doing!!!
Before she was even four years old I had three other little ones and I was wondering how I would ever keep up the pace! I got hold of a maths book, which had LOTS of exercises as I thought kids needed HEAPS of practice to learn anything. How could they possibly learn otherwise? Fortunately again, she enjoyed that too.
I did a bit of reading to find out what I didn’t know about teaching maths and ?unfortunately? discovered I was supposed to have been giving my dear daughter concrete experiences. OOPS! Hoping it was never too late, we put the book away and I started playing games and looking for real life maths. A friend challenged me to “live” and let the learning happen. I was sceptical, but J4 was already two years "ahead" of herself, I was pregnant and very sick with number five so I decided to take six months off to see what would happen (and the worst case scenario was that she would only be one year “ahead” if nothing happened!). So sceptical was I, that I decided to record everything mathsy my son did during that six months (I wanted to compare what he learnt with what J had done at the same age). Within a month I had stopped recording – there was soooo much.
Although I stopped writing every little thing down, I did notice some things.
Firstly, HEAPS of maths happens in everyday life.
Secondly, each of the children learnt in their own way and at their own pace (not exactly rocket science, but the reality was so different to anything I had ever known. I had come across the concept and thought it meant that some kids would finish the textbook sooner than others!)
J would spend a long time “playing around” with a concept. For example, he got a stopwatch for Christmas when he had just turned five. This stopwatch hung around his neck for two years straight – he used it all the time to work out how long it took us to do the shopping, how long car trips were, how long sermons lasted, even how long it took to fill a vial of blood at the doctor’s!!! It seemed he was always checking the time and by the time he was seven, he had a very thorough understanding. The textbook I had used with J devoted one week’s worth of lessons to the concept and once we had filled out the pages I considered we had “done” time. In fact, I thought we had done very well because I got a “real” clock out to use! But J’s understanding at that stage was far deeper than J’s… J became interested when she was eight years old and with no apparent effort “got it” almost overnight. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, seasons, leap years, twenty-four hour clock, digital, analogue. They have both picked it all up in real life…and both of them in different ways. K (just turned 7) and K (5) are currently learning by reading out the numbers on the clock and having me tell them what it means. Even three year old L is on the act! (By the way, I should have listened to my friend who told me not to give my kids the same intitials!!! At least we have a boy J and girl J, boy K and girl K!!)

Another example. As dedicated interest in the stopwatch started waning, I noticed a tape measure in J’s pocket! For about six months he carried that round and if something could be measured he probably tried! Everything from insect wing spans to the length of an Olympic running track in Ancient Greece.
Measuring, measuring. The front seat in the car became a favourite because you could see the odometer from there!
J picked up measuring through an interest in making things. At first she made all sorts of “creations” out of scraps, giving no thought to sizes. Then she discovered books in the library with instructions….including measurements. As she developed sewing skills her understanding of measurement deepened. Again, no textbooks.

I was the only person I knew using this kind of methodology for maths, but I believed God wanted me to trust Him with this one, so I stepped out in faith. Every so often I would get concerned and look into various curricula or start keeping records of what we were doing or even have them take a test (well, once….)……(recently!)……
But now I am confident that this is working.
J is nearly ten and we haven’t worked through another textbook yet. I don’t even plan to next year. Around about 11 or 12 we’ll crack open Math-U-See and work through that, stopping at any concepts she has missed until she picks them up. I am believing she will do it more quickly than if we had started at age five and spent half an hour a day for seven years “doing maths”! (If I am proved to be wrong, I will revise this!) (Update 2005: That was what I was thinking we’d do – now I’m wondering about using a remedial college text with the children in their mid-teens if they haven’t picked up anything more formal of their own volition before then)
In the meantime we will continue with what we have come to enjoy…..
We’ll play games like Rummy, Monopoly, snakes and ladders, chess, cards, battleships, dominoes, tiddly winks etc
We’ll plant and tend a garden – when you have planted seventeen seeds in a row you are going to want to count how many of them come up!!! Isn’t that so much more motivating than circling the plants on a page in a workbook and counting them??
We’ll bake together, doubling and tripling recipes as our family gets larger!!!
We’ll divide cakes into more and more pieces for the same reason!!!! J and J just got to know halves....or thirds if Mama wanted to share, but Baby Number Seven will know eighths very early on!
We’ll build things with lego and wooden blocks
We’ll count when we climb stairs with the nearly two-year-old
We’ll keep a finance record (well, the older ones do)
We’ll continue to do puzzles (J, J and K – ages 9,8,7 – are currently working on a 1000 piece one and they’re nearly finished! The little ones do stage-appropriate ones)
We’ll play the odd computer game
We’ll even use little activity books with number games occasionally

Sometimes it can be difficult because it is hard to articulate what we are doing. There are no tests to supposedly prove learning is happening. There are no text books completed or exercises marked. Sometimes the children are slower than people think they would be at school (that’s a really hard one).
K at age six had still not learnt to count to 100. K loves sport.
One day he was bouncing a ball next to me as I hung out the washing. I started counting out loud and he took up the chant. Very soon he said to me, “Mama I can bounce more than I can count. Can you help me?” I helped him all the way to a hundred. And we did it again the next day. Within a few weeks he was counting in twos, fives and tens….past 100!!! It was a lovely example of waiting until he was ready and trusting God would bring the need into his life. Once there was purpose he picked it up very quickly – it’s not like I hadn’t counted with him before that day! I certainly had, but it had not been his time to “click”.
One common response (amongst homeschoolers, and I’m sure those who send their children to school would echo this thought) has been: “But there are some things they just have to do. They’ve got to learn discipline.” I wholeheartedly agree. My children from a very early age do chores around the house. In fact, by the time they are old enough to enter public school, they are working at least two hours a day at home. This gives them plenty of opportunities to learn discipline and to learn to do those things they don’t enjoy! We don’t have to sacrifice the love of learning to teach those things. If we end up with a child who does not enjoy learning, then maybe I will see things differently, but so far they have all been interested in life. In fact, I am looking forward to adding examples to this piece about how God has taught them as individuals those things they need to know.

Here’s the first example:
J’s Flower Presses (by the way, this is not a maths lesson in real life, but a real life situation which used some maths along the way…and many other things too)
J expressed the desire to press a ponga frond (having been pressing lavender and pansies in a tiny flower press). He mulled over ideas about how to do it for a few days and made many suggestions. Mama directed his thinking towards making a smaller one first! (a balance between squashing his idea altogether and letting him run with his creativity). She had him closely observe the little flower press to see how it was made. She then suggested he draw a life size plan – he came up with a side view and “looking down on it view”. Drawing these necessitated learning to use a ruler properly. We went to Mitre 10 to price out the project. J took his plan and showed it to the man, doing all the talking for himself and spending his own money to buy the first piece of plywood. Because the smallest sheet of ply was still actually pretty large he worked out how many flower presses he could make and decided to sell the extras. He gave instructions to the “saw man” in the workshop. He spent many afternoons sanding. Dadda taught him how to use a drill – there were lots of holes to be made. And more sanding. Then it was time to come inside – there were instructions to write, a pattern to design and cardboard circles to cut out. Each of these steps was comprised of smaller steps:
1. The instructions
Firstly J told me how to make a flower press as I transcribed his words onto paper.
These were edited with my help into a logical sequence.
We then turned each sentence into an imperative.
J typed the instructions onto the computer, and found a suitable picture.
Dadda helped him size them to print off on stickers.
J placed the stickers on the underside of each flower press.
2. The pattern
J wanted a flower picture on the top of the flower press so he copied the flower from the instruction sheet onto a wood block. He then stuck string over the lines with PVA glue. Once this had dried, he used it as a stamp.
3. The cardboard circles
Each flower press required four circles made from cardboard. After J’s search of the house for a suitable object to trace around was unsuccessful, I introduced the compass. Discussions on radius, diameter and circumference ensued (I have not seen this in any six year old maths material I have looked at, but it was relevant to our project). A valuable lesson was learnt when J rushed through cutting out one set of circles only to discover he had done a very poor job – materials, time and effort were wasted.

Time to put it all together. Four cardboard circles sandwiched between a smoothly sanded square of ply with a picture stamped on it and another one with the instructions. All held together with four bolts and wing nuts. (As he only had enough money to buy one set at first, a lot of maths was involved, working out how many bolt/nut sets he could afford as each flower press sold, working out profits…adding, multiplying, checking).
Then came pricing and advertising (in this case, word of mouth amongst friends). The price was re-evaluated when a friend said he was undercharging and insisted on paying twice his asking price! The same friend suggested spraying the wood with varnish; a suggestion J accepted.
J took a sample of the varnished product back to Mitre 10 to show the men who had served him and had seemed very interested in his little project. One of them organised for the store to order half a dozen to sell on his behalf! Orders came in from other people. Another lady offered to sell some at a craft fair…….

Example 2:
K is five and loves shapes. She was flicking through a maths dictionary we have one day and discovered a whole page of shapes she had never come across. This sparked an interest in her making her own book about shapes. It was a project we worked on for a few days.

Example 3:
At age 8 J taught himself to skip count in 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s and 10s. Why? I don’t know! He said he wanted to. Apparently he just went over the numbers in his head until he could do it.

Example 4:
It’s half past nine at night. The older three children have just stayed up to watch a rugby match against Australia on TV. The All Blacks won. 16-7. K came and told me the score – he knew our score was bigger than the Aussies! J pointed out we won by nine points. He’d done a bit of subtraction as well. It only took a few seconds to tell me, but it was maths in action. And it happens all the time.

Example 5:
K, a few months later, is still into shapes! Just the other day she made a board game where you have to move from one shape to the next until you get to the “most-sided one”.

Example 6:

(I’ve been writing examples down on a piece of paper and can’t find the paper!! EEEK There were pages of them! I’ll have to start over)

July 2005
Earlier this week I found a piece of paper, on which were some hastily drawn lines resembling graph paper. Intersecting some of these lines were big studiously-coloured-in dots, and lines joined the dots. Hmmmmm. I had just recently been thinking about the fact that my children had not yet shown any “interest” in graphs! When questioned, J10 informed me this was one of those things they sometimes put up at the end of the news. Made mental note: watch news more closely and see what she’s talking about – it’s been at least six months since I even saw the news!!!!!
Probably due to my mounting nervousness that we would *never* do graphs, I pounced on the opportunity and gave a Graphs 101 lesson on the nearest scrap of paper to hand. J9 looked up from the writing he was doing to inform us all that he had seen those things at an Entomological Society meeting last year – it showed the numbers of apple moths going higher and higher, and then after the first spray the number dropped right down to almost the bottom line and went out straight for a while after that till it tailed off to nothing. And I thought we hadn’t *done* graphs!
Never mind what we think about the apple moth spraying ;-)
By the way, J10 was at that same meeting and only vaguely recalled the graphs. She vividly remembered thinking those meetings were not inspiration enough to stay up late during the week again! Can’t say I remember much else, except that that was the night that goes down in history as THE NIGHT I STARTED READING CERVANTES’ DON QUIXOTE!!!! (we sat in the back row, I put that “interested expression” on my face with head tilted slightly up towards the power point screen and moved my eyes imperceptibly from left to right and back again!!!)
Just goes to show, when you’re actively interested, your learning is much more deep / real / lasting / perhaps even profound.

July 2005 (same week as the previous example - Saturday morning this time)

The children had built huts in the dining room and were negotiating *where* they were actually located. Antarctica won out his time. J9 got a book to find out how cold it really would be there. –88.3 degrees. “That’s almost minus a hundred degrees,” he told anyone who was listening. K8 replied, “That’s more than zero” Lots of siblings just had to inform him it was “Waaaaaay less”!
Then the conversation turned to the hottest recorded temperature: 57.7 degrees. We had talked about this a few days earlier. K8 had asked and I had said I imagined somewhere around 60 degrees. J9 was adamant he had read it was 57 point something! It was obviously satisfying to him to now know exactly point what!

August 2005
Mama said, “In two months it’s my birthday!”
J9 added, “That means T will be one and a half” He’s right – she was born when I was exactly 34 and a half – to the day!
K8 thought a bit and said, “So she’ll be 18 months old in two months – that’s in eight weeks. So she’s sixteen months old today”

At eight years of age, K may struggle to write numbers, but he can “do” maths!

15 August 2005
While everyone was at the table making their New Zealand books today, I was sitting with them making a chart for the little children. I needed a circle divided equally into five segments. Knowing that no-one would be able to answer, I casually asked, “Does anyone know where the protractor is?” A chorus of “What’s a protractor?” greeted me! Inarticulately I answered, “It’s a half a shape thingy”. Before I could correct myself and speak more specifically about semicircles, three of them had jumped up to fetch the desired object and were animatedly discussing it together.
As they worked on I thought “aloud”… “If a circle has 360 degrees and I want to divide it up into five equal parts I need to do 360 divided by 5” (as I spoke I wrote down the sum on a piece of paper and noticed Jaala looking slightly fascinated at the scratchings that followed)…. “Five goes into 36…ooh let’s see, well seven times five is 35, so put 5 here…..seven fives are 35 so I write 35 down here, 36 minus 35 is one and you bring the zero down….five goes into ten twice, so I write 2 up the top…there, 72. 72 times five is 360. So I need each segment to be 72 degrees”. As I positioned the protractor over the fairly small circle someone commented that it wouldn’t fit, and they watched with some interest to see how it could be used.
No-one picked it up to have a turn, no-one was even particularly interested in my circle, but I’ll be looking out to see if anyone starts playing with protractors or division soon!

September 2005
J9 counted 110 buds on his feijoa trees.
Of course he doesn’t need any practice in counting (he’s nine years old and a more than capable counter, understanding much larger numbers), but he certainly got practice – especially as two days ago he counted 105 of them!

October 2005
Watching tv, an advertisement for Lotto came on. The kids thought it could be worth getting a ticket “just once” to see if they might win. We talked about the probability of winning (next to non-existent!) by comparing it to a jar full of sand….if you painted one grain of sand a different colour, what would be the chances of picking out that particular grain on your first try? They realised it might be at the bottom of the jar and you wouldn’t get it. Six year old K suggested you’d have a better chance if the jar was half full – missed the point a bit, but a valid observation! She also noted that if you bought one you might want to buy more and more. Right again!
The older ones then worked out how much you would pay if you bought a $15 ticket every week….$780 a year! That’s nearly $8,000 in ten years – approaching a deposit for a house!!

By the way, no-one has shown any further interest in division or protractors…yet!

July 2006
J11 and J10 helped Grandpa count the Self Denial offering at church!

August 2006
NZ coins have just been changed and this has prompted an interest in rounding numbers….which extended to rounding temperatures aswell. In fact, temperatures have been a matter of great interest this winter – the coldest winter since before I was born. At one stage J10 even graphed the hourly temperatures for a week or so!

A few months ago, L5 came to me and asked “Mum, what’s odd?” I immediately thought “odd as in queer” – but it turned out he was embarking on a fascination with odd and even numbers! That night we sat down on the floor with some duplo and I showed him the concept of odd and even when you put things in pairs. He got it straight away – in fact, half an hour later he returned saying "22 is even eh" He still talks about odd and even most days – in fact, when he does sums he’ll say something like “6 plus 5 is odd” before he tells you it’s eleven! He often says, “I’m odd” with reference to his age.
This interest has widened T2’s and M3’s vocabulary too – although, at two and three years of age, they have no idea what they’re talking about when the mimic L5’s odd and even discussions!

Money Matters: J10 is keen on doing Su-Do-Kus and there is always one in the local paper. If you send it in you might win a prize:-) After sending a few away, I had him work out how much it would cost in a year to send one each week – including postage and envelope. He’s saving his money now!!!!

Statistical Challenge
(WHAT’S THAT ABOUT? I obviously put it in as a reminder to write about something and I don’t have a clue what it was!)

Cooking Disaster
This happened quite some time ago, but I’ve just remembered it now. It shows the importance of being able to read numbers correctly. LOL
J (9 at the time perhaps?) thought there were supposed to be 11 ½ tablespoons of yeast in the bread – imagine if he’d put that much instead of the one and a half!
He has also discovered recently why you put a pinch of chilli powder in curry and not a couple of tablespoons! (along with the other spices)

November 2006
A couple of months back I told J12 and J10 I was getting them a maths text book (they seemed “ready”). J10 threw his arms around me and said, “Oh thanks mum that will be so cool” (definitely seemed ready!)
A week into it J10 had decided he “didn’t like maths”. WHAT? The only thing he had said that about before was cleaning the toilet!!!! And he LOVES maths. Well, in real life he does anyway. They both loved the fact that through doing the mental drills they halved their time for one hundred sums in under a week. That was motivating! But as for the rest of it…even though he was getting at least 98% each day, he was not enjoying it much at all.
The difference between the two Js was remarkable – J10 would write the bare minimum each day. J12 wrote out all the answers, all her workings and the problems too. Plus she started a glossary in the back of her book of terms she wanted to remember.
I slowly reached the conclusion that while J10 is CAPABLE, he is not yet interested in utilising a workbook approach and as I believe it is more important to foster his interest in numbers, than stifle it with repetitive bookwork, we changed tack. Instead of doing pages and pages of sums and then doing a test….we did the test first and then used the book to learn what they didn’t yet know, and we skipped the rest. All this with a view to dropping it entirely for J10 if his interest level doesn’t increase – certainly what we’ve been doing up to now has served us well, and J12 went for an extra year before she started the book so it won’t hurt him to wait.

T2 (and a half) is just starting to get one-to-one correspondence beyond two items. It’s so exciting!

February 2007
We’ve started up some formal stuff after the holiday break. J12 naturally wanted to continue with the maths text - and she requested to be allowed to do every single sum on every single page so that she would be assured of learning it all properly! Request granted!
J11 was given permission to NOT use the text book, but he elected to do it anyway! He, however, wants to use it differently – he quite likes the idea of just doing the bits he doesn’t already have a handle on.
Having said that, he spent about an hour doing it today. I encouraged him not to overdo it and get sick of it, but he was keen to complete the bit he was working on.

I started using Family Math with T2, M4, L6, K8, K9 – we did two of the little activities. One was just putting blocks in circles drawn on a piece of paper: one-to-one correspondence. That was dead simple, even for T2! The other activity embraced the concept of odd and even. The older ones already knew about it, but M4 didn’t - yet he picked it up immediately. He looked so pleased with himself! I liked the fact that I was sitting down WITH them doing something. It only took less than five minutes, but it was a positive time. Although I don’t actually believe the kids need the book or special activities to learn maths, planning to use the book or some of the other manipulatives or games we have for a few minutes each day helps structure what I do together with the children.

June 2007
Ha that last entry is so funny. We did one more activity the next day and That Was It!!!!! But Grandpa has been spied studying a counting book with T3.
L6 has been very time-focussed. In fact in hospital last week he saw a clock which said 17:50. He asked how you could know the time from that and I suggested he’d need to take 12 off. I was about to give a more precise explanation and tell him all about 24 hour clocks when I noticed he had an engrossed expression on his face so I left it. Inside of two minutes he said to me, “So in three minutes it will be five to six” I didn’t bother saying any more!
Yesterday K8 brought me her first ever knitting pattern she had made up and written out. Cast on 20 stitches. Knit 40 rows. Cast off. She explained to me that when she was trying it out, she had cast on 20 stitches, knit 20 rows and cast off, but it was only half as long as it was wide. So she was really hoping if she knit 40 rows it would be square. Tonight both K8 and K9 sat clickety-clacking with needles and they churned out two squares!

RealLifeLearning

2007-06-07T09:21:00.000+12:00

School is (among other things) a series of artifical learning experiences.
Real life is full of opportunities. It took me a while to stop thinking in terms of school subjects – you see I went to school and my main understanding of education was naturally based on what I experienced there. I had to learn to *live*!
As I pursued these I ideas, I started considering the fact that my kids might NOT one day open seventeen textbooks and be "learning properly", but that one or two of them at least, may well "just" learn from life. To ease my slightly troubled heart, I thought about whether this would be possible and came up with the following representative and obviously incomplete list. Of course no-one would do all of these things in a week; there are enough ideas here to last a lifetime…..which brings me to one other point….schooling left me with the thought that you “finished” your education after you’d gone to tech or university. I’m encouraging my kids to be learners for life.

* bake for an elderly person * build a website * make a quilt * join a theatre company * write a Scripture memorisation plan and do it * repair a car * play a sport * learn sign language * embroider a tablecloth * grow plants from seed and sell them * go camping * read stories onto a CD for children * join St John’s ambulance * plan an excursion * do a word study related to a topic you are interested in * interview your grandparents and write up their biography * build a garden shed * visit an art exhibition * research world religions * join a choir * keep a finance record * design a recipe book * sew your own clothes * mow the neighbour’s lawns * make a gift for someone * run a summer camp in your back yard for the neighbourhood’s children * try your hand at sculpture * tour historical sites * reorganise the garage * pick berries * interview people involved in a job you are interested in * raise chickens * set up a filing system for your papers * build a motorbike from scraps * make a Bible story book for young children * learn to ride a horse * volunteer at a museum * write a letter to the editor * create an exercise programme and stick to it * read * train a dog * provide computer support for the elderly * attend a community meeting * scrapbook * go duck shooting * be a “mother’s helper” for a mum with young children * watch a movie and talk about it with someone * create a board game * learn to drive * go orienteering * preserve peaches * attend a seminar * join a debating club * collect supplies for a food bank * tutor a younger child * work on a farm * attend an orchestra performance * take part in a triathlon * host a formal dinner * learn to play an instrument * do the grocery shopping * visit an old folks’ home * make a powerpoint presentation of family photos * make a weather station * visit children in hospital * cook for your family for a month or at least once a week! * build a telescope * write a letter * grow your family’s vegetables * knit bootees and hats for premature babies * write articles for your local newspaper * research how much it would cost to leave home! * organise a progressive dinner * go fishing * study different kinds of music * do volunteer fire fighting * run a business * plan an overseas holiday * organise a children’s party * photograph important people in your life * phone a friend * fix a clock * observe creation *

treasure trove

2007-06-06T16:13:00.000+12:00

I just popped into the Sally Army shop and came home with my best treasure ever. The lady said "$1 each, that'll be $8 for all of those. Is that OK?" I replied, "I'll give you $10 and you keep the change"....and I still felt bad about it!

I haven't even looked closely at the portfolios yet - couldn't tell you how many pictures there are or what they are like - except for the ones in these photos! I only had to see one to know it was a bargain worth snaffling up. There are teacher's notes which may or may not be useful - but I bought them for the pictures, so I don't mind if they are not worth reading!

Looks like our "home education" will be taking a cultured path for a wee while! So while we're full of inspiration, I thought I'd spend the next few posts up on my home ed soapbox. If you're not interested, try popping back next week!

Any burning questions you want to ask?

soft answers to hard questions

2007-06-06T12:05:00.000+12:00

A friend wrote this on a message board I frequent:
Well, all of you home edding bloggers, I was trawling through all of your blogs for a really nice statement of WHY and HOW you home educate, and.... I couldn't find anything!
Maybe it is all ancient history for some of you who've been doing it for ages, but I have a few people who I know would be interested in reading a really nice description of how it works for your family.

As I'm one of the home-ed-ing-blogging set, I thought I should reply. However, I'm busy busy busy right now, so I'm doing a wee bit of a cop-out and doing a cut-and-paste of something I wrote four years and two babies ago! Feel free to ask more questions once you've digested this lot. But be warned: you might be scared off the topic forever;-)

I wrote this as part of a "course" designed by Barbara Shelton to help you rethink education. She provided some of the questions and I added others I have come across regularly. The short answers are for when someone stops you, typically in the grocery store, to ask about homeschooling and they just want a quick answer (if any!!) They were supposed to be limited to 50 words so shouldn't take you too long to flick through! But of course you are not a captive audience like you would be at the supermarket, so feel free to log off - I'll never know;-)
The long answers, which come afterwards, are for serious questioners, and you'll need a strong coffee or something to get to the end of them.

THE SHORT ANSWERS
~ the grocery store version ~

Why do you homeschool?
Lots of reasons really. We want a Christian education for our kids. We believe the best education happens at home and we think it’s the best place to learn relationship skills. Plus we get to be with our kids – and we like them, so that’s a bonus!
(OK so I’ve never actually said that – I tend to say, “We find it’s the best way to achieve our family goals – our kids learn so much from just living.”)

How long does it take?
We spend a couple of hours reading aloud each day, a bit of time at the table and the rest of the day is learning all sorts of other things – home management skills, gardening, nature walks, art and music, carpentry, sewing, whatever they’re interested in. They’re learning all the time.

What stuff do you use?
Well it’s important to realise that school creates artificial learning experiences. We’ve found we don’t need to make up learning opportunities – the children learn so much from living real life. We read aloud heaps with them and then use their individual interests to develop the tools of learning (things like reading, writing, reasoning, habits etc).

What does the government require?
By law we are required to teach “at least as regularly and as well” as a public school. Of course we desire so much more than that. You get an exemption certificate and ERO visits to see what you’re up to.

Are you a teacher? Are you qualified to do that?
Yes I am, but you know what? That was one of my biggest hindrances in homeschooling. Being organised helps me run a busy household, but learning how to learn from real life itself was a slow process because of all my teachery ways.

What about socialization?
My social skills far outweigh any five-year-olds!! When you are in a social environment you are always learning some kind of social skills – school isn’t the only place, and if anything, sometimes it can be negative socialisation that occurs there.
We’ve got six children, numerous neighbours, a Grandpa living nearby, church involvement….we have lots of good socialisation.

You get together with other homeschoolers for sports and stuff, aye?
Yes there are groups, but we don’t actually belong to one. We do things with other families and have lots of people in our home, but on the whole we try not to go out too much so the children have time to explore and think and develop interests.

Aren’t you over-protecting your children?
I don’t think there is any such thing as over-protection for little kids. They don’t need to know about all the evil in the world – they need to start by learning what is true and good and noble so they have a firm foundation on which to base all their decisions and thoughts.

How will your children ever be able to deal with the real world?
That’s one of the great things about homeschooling – they are actually able to learn in the real world. For example, J had a little business selling flower presses by the time he was seven and had joined the Entomological Society and was revelling in their activities. J has been fortunate to have become friends with a little girl who has cancer and has been able to be with her in hospital for whole days at a time. They get to fold newsletters for a Missions Organisation sometimes doing real work with a bunch of other adults. And they ride their bikes around the section with the neighbourhood kids. They are really in the real world already.
(117 words – this one can’t be answered in under 50 words as Barbara suggests the grocery store versions should be!!!)

Don’t the public schools need Christian kids in them?
Certainly, they need Christians. But I think they need Christian adults, who can fight the battle that rages in those places; people who are trained to use spiritual weapons, not wee children who are tossed about by every wind of doctrine and who are not yet standing strong in their faith.

How will they get into university?
Well, our eldest is only eight, so that won’t be too much of a worry for some time yet! She may not even want to go to university. If she wants to pursue another course of study we’ll encourage her in that. If she prefers university, we will find out what is required and work with her towards that as the time approaches.
(63 words – this is not usually a quick question anyway)

I could never do that!
It’s right for our family, but it’s certainly not for everyone. It’s a whole lifestyle and not everyone lives the same way. Having said that, I am not a patient person and this is a vehicle God is using to teach me! It’s not always easy, but it’s satisfying.

You’ve got your hands full, haven’t you?
Sure do. It’s a good thing I enjoy it eh!
(has anyone got a better answer to this obvious statement, which always seems to expect a reply???)

THE LONG ANSWERS
~ the over a cup of coffee version ~

Why do you homeschool?
We started off homeschooling for one reason and have ended up doing it for other reasons. Initially we wanted a Christian education for our kids – and we still do of course. There were two options – Christian school or homeschooling. To put J into a Christian school at five would have meant me going back to work to be able to afford it – putting four babies in preschool so one could go to school did not seem a sensible option to us, especially as we were committed to the early years being at home. So that left homeschooling.
Since then we have read a lot about homeschooling and educated ourselves. We have had our own assumptions about education challenged as we have read people suggesting that sitting in school does not necessarily equal education and that a rich lifestyle at home can provide many learning opportunities.
It has been a journey to go from doing school at home to letting our children learn from real life – funny really, considering it’s the real world we want our kids to be prepared for!
Some of the things our children have had the opportunity to be involved with that they possibly wouldn’t have if they had been in school include:
* J prepared a power point slide show of a missionary couple to be used at church when she was 8
* J made flower presses and sold them (even Mitre 10 bought some) when he was 7 – good business skills
*getting to know a girl with cancer and even being able to accompany her to some of her treatments during “school hours”
* helping a Missions organization fold their pamphlets and stuff envelopes
* doing the grocery shopping
* helping with bottling fruit in summer
* making meals for sick people and accompanying Mama as she delivers them
* J is learning to sew with another little girl – a lovely crafty lady with no girls of her own is relishing the opportunity to teach them
* making “props” for the pastor to use at church on Sunday morning
* keeping their own garden and helping out with the family garden
Our children have opportunities to relate with people of many ages. J, in particular, shows initiative in this area. He has been known to ring the library to find out if they have any books on his latest area of interest. He was into kiwi at one stage and got out the phone book to get the number for the Information Centre up in the bush, and when they were no help he rang the zoo! Another time he read in a field guide of an entomologist who lives in Auckland so he wrote him a lovely letter and got a personal reply from him and has subsequently become the youngest ever member of the Auckland Entomological Society. When we go to monthly meetings at the Department of Hort Research at 7:30 on a Thursday evening I consider his education to be taking place (And mine is too, even if I don’t share his enthusiasm for bugs!)
I am thankful for their interaction with older people, because on the whole (there are exceptions of course!) adults have better social skills than children and so my kids get to participate in good socialisation rather than negative. And there is certainly plenty of opportunity at home with five siblings for each one to learn how to interact with peers.
Because our kids have enquiring minds and are prepared to politely ask questions, they have got to do all sorts of things like “drive” the cable car in Wellington, try foreign foods without buying them, sit in the cockpit of an aeroplane, and use medical equipment.
Now we homeschool, because our children can learn in the real world; school is an artificial world.
Our other main reason is relationships. Life, we have come to believe, is more about relationships than preparation for a job, education and academic success, and this can be taught so much more readily at home with a few siblings than with a whole bunch of kids in one class. Do teachers really have time to work with 30 children’s attitudes of the heart? Do they (often, not always) leave kids to sort out their own problems because they believe this is the best way or because it is the easiest? When our peer group was leaving their two-year-olds to sort out their scraps we were interfering and being labelled as meddlers. We now have seven/eight year olds who have positive strategies for solving relational problems and don’t have to resort to emotional blackmail, name-calling and physical violence. We don’t have a I’m-bigger-than-you-hierarchy in the family. They know about turning the other cheek, forgiveness, heaping blessings on the enemy and showing love.
We are not the model family always doing everything right, but I am sure you can see why this is an important motivation in keeping our kids at home.

How long does it take?
It depends what you count as “school”. We like to see education as preparing children for all of life, so we see everything they do as part of their education. When they are learning to clean the toilet they are learning home management skills, which will definitely help them in that so-called real world! Ditto when they are helping out in the garden (plus they’re doing horticulture and probably maths then too). I allow extra time to cook, because I want the children to be involved.
We have reached the philosophical conclusion that in the early years an informal approach is more appropriate to children’s development than a formal academic approach. For that reason, we don’t spend heaps of time sitting at desks – yet.
As far as table time goes, we "do some most days". They keep recipe books, memory verse books, creation journals, reading logs, lists of things they’ve made or special ideas they’ve had, questions they want answered and they make little books about things that interest them. We use their individual interests to teach them the tools of learning so that when they are a bit older and ready for formal academics they will be ready to learn anything. (And what are the tools of learning? Influenced by Charlotte Mason and Clay and Sally Clarkson, we have decided they include 1) developing good habits such as attention/concentration, excellence, orderliness/neatness, truthfulness, self-control, diligence/redeeming the time, love, obedience, 2) developing good appetites for literature, art, music and video, 3) curiosity, 4) creativity, 5) language skills, 6) reason, and 7) wisdom).
I read to them for a couple of hours a day (literature, science, history, geography, biographies, picture books).
Apart from Sofa Science in the winter (reading those interesting books about science), they do lots of hands-on collecting and identifying. J knows more than I do about insects, they’ve played round with making a weather station, they’ve watched the clouds, we’re starting to identify birds and plants, they’ve grown sunflowers and J kept a journal of their progress, we’ve done a wee bit of stargazing, there are all sorts of rocks and shells and birds nests and seaweed and crystals on the science shelf. It’s all very informal but there is no doubt learning is taking place.
After six months of reading about Ancient Egypt my kids know more than I did when I left university! I’m really not worried that their education is lacking.
Plus we do other things that probably don’t happen in school too, which really add richness to their lives. We observe the paintings of some great Masters. So our kids are good friends with Monet, Rembrandt, Degas, Van Gogh, Rockwell, Renoir, Rousseau and Breugel, and can pick one of their paintings a mile off. We do the same with composers, although we started later with that and muddled round with a few other things first. Now they know lots of brass band marches, bagpipe music and Beethoven. And they absolutely LOVE Vivaldi and The Carnival of the Animals.
Many of these things just happen. We talk about the picture we are studying over the dinner table, music is playing at lunchtime, we recite memory verses after breakfast, we learn a new hymn and sing it as we go about our chores – they are as much a habit as brushing our teeth. We have found ourselves growing into what we like to call a lifestyle of learning.

We are hoping (according to the literature we have read and believed) that as our children approach 10, 11, 12 they will be ready for formal academic studies and because they will not be burnt out and possibly even bored, they will approach grammar and mathematics, formal science and debating with eagerness (and if not, they’ll just have to do it anyway!!) Time will tell.

What does the government require?
By law we are required to teach “at least as regularly and as well” as a public school. To be pedantic that means we only have to do as well as the worst child in the worst school – but what parent wants that for their child? Of course we desire more, and because it is a huge commitment I suspect there would be precious few people who would homeschool if they really didn’t care.
Naturally that does theoretically mean that it is possible a few children might be at risk, but that is the price of freedom. Should we legislate and take away freedom from the majority just because of the “bad” minority? No, we need to preserve freedom at all costs. Plus, we must ask what makes us assume the government is going to do a better job than a parent. Where does that thinking come from? An ever-lengthening history of socialism, which holds the State as the answer to all man’s woes. We only need to look at the horrific job being done by some schools to see that government schooling is not the cure-all answer we might expect it to be. My oh my, it would be interesting if the law was changed so that school children who didn’t perform as well as homeschoolers were sent home!!!
When the Education Review Office rep came to visit us he pointed out that very few families are actually doing a bad job, and even when they are, they give them a few hints and visit again in six months. It is advantageous to the education department and the NZ taxpayer for us to succeed!
It’s interesting to look at the research too. One study in the States showed that ALL the homeschooled children tested scored higher than the 80th percentile. Other studies show similar results academically and also in social skills. The only area the average homeschooled child does more poorly than their peers, is in gross motor skills. But for kids with a bent for sport, they often excel, perhaps because of having more time to devote to pursuing their interest.

Are you a teacher? Are you qualified to do that?
Although I am, it has been one of my biggest hindrances in homeschooling. When you are learning at home you have the luxury of learning from real life, but I was so busy creating artificial learning experiences like in the classroom that we were missing what was really happening in our little world! I have had to relearn what education is all about. It’s not about test scores and remembering information. It’s not even about which books you’ve read or how many stories you’ve written. Education is….NEED TO FINISH THIS blah blah blah (hmmmm never did get round to that!)

What about socialization?
This seems to be the biggie question. We are brought up to believe that we need to go to school to be socialised. And true, school does produce socialisation – but not necessarily positive socialisation. But what is socialisation? It is learning to get along with other people, to relate to them in appropriate and meaningful ways. I can actually teach my children these things better than their five-year-old peers!! And it’s not just up to me – they learn to interact with the lady in the post office, the librarian, the Sunday School teacher, the children in the Sunday School class when they are actually allowed to talk together, the lady who teaches sewing, the neighbourhood children, their father, their siblings, their extended family, their friends, the missionaries they write to, the butcher, the baker and they would chat with the candlestick maker if they knew one! There are lots of social environments apart from school – in fact, school is probably the most artificial social environment constructed (apart from prison!!)

You get together with other homeschoolers for sports and stuff, aye?
Yes, there are groups, but we don’t actually belong to one. We do things with other families and have lots of people in our home, but on the whole we try not to go out too much so the children (and us too) have time to explore and think and develop interests. We find one of the things we value about homeschooling was the decision we made to slow down and make time for people in our lives. To make time for thinking and reading and learning and enjoying and being. We have loved learning how to grow vegetables and bottle fruit and draw and play the piano and fellowship with others. We think seriously about what we go to outside the home, because it is all too easy to get busy doing doing doing. We love concerts and exhibitions and walks in the bush, but we try not to get too busy with them.

Aren’t you over-protecting your children?
When you have a little seedling you can put it out in the field and abandon it to the frosts and winds and slugs and rabbits and other predators. Or you can put it in a hothouse while its roots grow down and its stem strengthens. Then it can be planted outside and grow to maturity, producing a crop of twenty, fifty or a hundred times. What is likely to happen to the first seedling? What fruit will it bear if it is strangled by weeds or fails to take root?
As a society we let our children grow up too fast, and we are suffering the consequences of this. Children need time to be children, and we do have to protect them from the corruption in the world to allow them this privilege. There will be plenty of time for them to come in contact with drugs and swearing and fashion and consumerism and greed and pop music!
Another argument is that if you expose them to these things, then you will probably be keeping them from other things such as classical music, biographies of scientists, the power of prayer, a simple lifestyle - because there’s not time to do both!

How will your children ever be able to deal with the real world?
This one was already answered in 117 words above!! There’s not much more to say.

Don’t the public schools need Christian kids in them?
Let me answer that with a question. If we believe children are the ones to be the salt and light in the schools, why are we not sending our kids to the local Hare Krishna school or the Buddhist temple up the road?
Because that would be a spiritual battle they are unprepared for. And state schools are no different. They do not have God as their starting point. Humanistic materialism is the god being worshipped there and we need to realise that it is in opposition to what we are wanting to teach our kids. School is not neutral – it is the place philosophies are played out and the war is waged for our children’s minds. For that reason, we need adult Christians there – people who are trained to do battle and can stand against the enemy.
(There is so much you could say about this topic to someone who really wants to know - but mostly they don't!)

How will they get into university?
We haven’t looked into the New Zealand situation yet, but we have read some anecdotal stuff from the States. There at least, it certainly appears there is more than one way to get into university. We will consider this more closely when our kids get a bit older – they’re all still at preschool or primary school so far!
The other thing, is that there is more than one way to get an education. University isn’t the only way. Of course, if you want to become a doctor, you will have to go to Med School, but certainly if one of the kids has that bent it will be evident before the day they turn eighteen and we can work towards it.
It’s also important to remember that we don’t expect our kids to have “done their education” by the time they are eighteen. We hope they will be in process at that stage and be continuing as learners for life. This is quite a different way of looking at education.
We have the luxury of being creative with what they learn and how they learn it. As fifteen year olds they might be working alongside a local beekeeper two days a week or giving tuition to younger students in the evenings or organising a homeschool kids PE programme or choreographing a musical production or writing children’s book reviews for publication or volunteering with St Johns…all as part of their education.

I could never do that!
Do you think you should be? It’s right for us, but is it what God is asking of you?
If it is then we could talk some more, if it’s not then don’t feel condemned by our decision! Not everyone is called to live the same lifestyle as us. What’s important is that each family does what God has called it to. God’s call on our family is to be different, to be a large healthy family preparing the children to serve Him in their own unique ways. And God is using the vehicle of homeschooling to teach me about patience and gentleness and love and trust and faithfulness! It’s not always easy, but I know it’s where we’re supposed to be.

As I re-read through this I realised some things have changed...some things could be updated (for example, as the kids hit 10,11,12 they DID start and ARE STARTING doing more "formal" stuff)....some things have become more *us*....some we have moved away from.....but I don't have time right now to expound any further...and none of it looks *heretical* to me so I'll leave it for now;-)

Blogging from the hospital bed

2007-06-02T15:14:00.000+12:00

Well, it turns out that paranoid mother was quite right to be concerned about that nasty wasp sting. L6 and I have just had three nights free accomodation at Starship Children's Hospital. It seemed silly to be admitted for a wee sting, but on the other hand, his arm was red and swollen right up to the armpit! So he did need a good dose of ABs.

Within half an hour of arriving, we had filled out forms, had initial observations done and been whisked away to the weelchair storage room to isolate us from everyone else who had not been in contact with measles last week. This room was to be home until 10pm! For five hours we read poorly-written stories, devised games with the ubiquitous-cut-in-half-out-of-date-calendars (two months kept us going for two hours!), we counted ceiling tiles, hopped across the room, played "I Spy" and even fell asleep (only to be woken for x-rays)
Let me tell you about that "I Spy" game. It was "something beginning with F". After exhausting all the obvious possiblities (and there aren't too many in a windowless carpetted room full of wheelchairs and one curtain) and ascertaining there were no hidden fish or foxes in the room, L6 furnished me with a clue. "It's in your mouth". Well I don't have freckles on my tongue and I wasn't gnawing on my fingers, so I had to give in. "FROAT!" How could I have missed it?
We went back to drawing circles around the odd numbers on the calendar and squares around the evens.
An hour after being seen by a pedeatrician, L6 wanted to know why the doctor was going to "whack" his infection and would it hurt? He also needed assuring about the other doc who had promised to "knock it on the head"!! Poor boy! As if they were not concerns enough, the nurse who handed him 5ml of Pamol and an iceblock at "bedtime" (7pm)told him that was dinner. To a grumbly tummy, it was a good start, but it did not count as dinner, especially being seven hours since lunch! As it turned out, she was right! By the time we got up to his room, bed was beckoning stronger than his stomach. And he smiled as he told me I could do the 40 Hour Famine if they didn't bring me breakfast!

In the morning we were given a couple of hours to wander down to the domain with a bag of crusts. Did you know sparrows can fly through the air to catch crumbs in mid-flight? Did you know pigeons are really slow at getting anything? But they hum. Not like the seagulls - they squawk at whatever gets near the bread! And the ducks we were trying to feed? Well, they weren't much quicker than the pigeons. Watching these birds reminded L6 of the pukekos we watched one day - they take a piece of bread and then pass it on to another bird in the group after they've had a mouthful. We call them sharing birds.
When the bread ran out we walked up to the museum and walked through the revolving doors just for the fun of it. We wandered back to the Wintergarden and perched on the edge of the ponds watching the fish for ages. Mrs E broke the spell with news that she was bringing her four cherubs in to visit so we raced back to our isolation room. (Thanks for the puzzle - L6 ended up doing it more times than I could count! And thanks for the food too - I'll do the 40 Hour Famine some other time!)

That afternoon we were moved to another ward. And somwhere in the middle of the move, unbeknown to me until we were discharged and I read the discharge papers, our "contact with measles" turned into "contact with chicken pox" and we were no longer in isolation. We got to share a room with a boy who had a lovely large family who stayed until 10:30 at night! With that many people in the room, you'd have thought they wouldn't have needed extra media, but we were treated to both Samoan radio and TVNZ simultaneously. I had my first exposure to Australian soaps, The Simpsons and...yes....even Gray's Anatomy (sorry, all my dear friends who love it - what's the deal? what's so good about it? Maybe you need to watch it more than once!) Anyway, once the whanau disappeared, we tried to grab some shut-eye. Difficult between the two-hourly wakings for goodness-only-knows-what-needs-to-be-done-in-the-middle-of-the-night-in-hospital, emergency helicopter landings right outside and the snortings of the poor lad who couldn't breathe - as we tried to go to sleep, I kept holding my breath, waiting for him to take one of his own!

In the morning L6 discovered there is such a thing as "morning television".
Morning tv is much worse than after hours tv! Believe me!
We learnt that ricies are good for you and will keep you full of energy all day long.
We learnt that if you help someone you will get a McDonalds Happy Meal.
We learnt that if you're a girl you can have your own electronic diary that your little sister can't get into. Lovely eh!
To top it all off, I actually tuned into the lyrics on one of the kids' shows....it was all over before I could grab a pencil to record faithfully....but it went something like this:
decide what's right for you
you do what you want to - it's so much fun
march to the beat of your own drum

I was glad we were to be going home later that day!

We were literally walking off the ward having been discharged, with Dadda waiting downstairs for us, when L6 said "It's getting itchy again" Sure enough, the hand was reddening and swelling again. We were not allowed to leave. Another lure and more antibiotics were on the cards....and another blood test too.....I had read the discharge papers and pointed out the little problems with it seeing as we were being readmitted - L6 was a boy and not a girl, and he had been exposed to measles, not chicken pox. The staff went into overdrive with the Measles Information and we were back in isolation again, they were busy ringing infectious diseases personnel, taking blood and calling the lab for results. They were happy for us to go out for a walk while they tried to get to the bottom of the mis-communication. We wandered down to Queen Street and caught a bus just because we could!
By the time we got back we had a new room mate who had a sausage stuck in his man-made oesphagus, which relies on gravity to get his food down! The things you learn! Someone asked me if we were schooling while we were there......I asked he how we could possibly not learn. She still wanted to know if we were "really schooling" and I realised again how much learning is just part of life for us now.

what was it again? something beginning with f!!!!!!

postscript: discharged this morning......five more days of oral antibiotics to go......when they've finished the sling can come off......as for me, I've never done so much knitting in three days in my whole life!!!!!

Whip Up Competition

2007-05-30T12:53:00.000+12:00

There's a little story behind this little piece.
I cut out hundreds and hundreds of two-inch squares to go around my first big real quilt.......it was only AFTER I had sewed them together that I realized I had multiplied the length by two instead of dividing it by two!!!! If I recall, it was late at night!
Anyway, that left me with HEAPS of little squares to use up!
I had always wanted to make prairie points, so figured this would be a good time to learn! So. I. Did.

doctor! doctor!

2007-05-30T12:03:00.000+12:00

Yesterday L6 was racing a car around the dining room table when he put his hand down on a wasp. Said wasp expressed its disapproval by stinging that left hand of our left-handed boy!
Medical assisstance was rendered and L6 returned happily to play.
A new day dawned this morning and with it came a red and swollen hand. Attached to the end of the hand was a sad boy with puffy eyes swelling out of a pale face. Breakfast was served with a good dose of antihistamine. But a couple of hours later the redness was spreading, the fingers had swollen so much he could hardly bend them, he was sporting a fever and was now even sadder, not to mention paler. So we toddled off to the doctor.
Add to the antihistamine some antibiotics and pamol. And sleeping beauty took himself off to bed before noon!

That, however, is not the full story.
While waiting at the doctors, K9 looked miserable. It turned out he had tripped over my shoes last night on his way to bed and hit his head on the corner of the wall. He went to sleep with a mild headache and woke with a really good one this morning. By the time we left the doctor's surgery, he was apparently feeling pretty grotty, but didn't say alot about it until he howled half a minute up the road. I really could not decipher what it was all about and he went silent, so I figured it couldn't have been too important. Only a matter of seconds later, he howled again and over the din came the other yells "He's throwing up everywhere" And. He. Was.

sigh

we now have one very clean car sitting on the driveway with all doors open to air it out!
we have over half the family in bed and it's not even half past twelve!
i'm being an out-of-character-slightly-paranoid-mother looking for symptoms of memory-loss from one of the boys and wheeziness from the other!

Postscript......there were at least three other Trippings Over Mother's Shoes in the night and NO-ONE thought to move them!!!!!

role reversal

2007-05-29T15:12:00.000+12:00

Usually it's Mama Bear who comes up with wild ideas in this household. But last night it was Father Bear's turn. A colleague at work had just told him about a 2 acre farmlet with old villa for sale right next to his 10 acres. And that reminded us of some more sections on the market at the end of that road (we have a feeling that villa just might be out of our price bracket!). We ended up talking about selling this place, buying a section and building a garage (with composting toilet) on it to live in until we go away, and then coming back to build ourselves a nice small house and have the chooks and milk goat and big vege plot etc etc.

He hadn't even seen my blog yesterday!!!!! Funny really.

a teeny tiny house

2007-05-28T14:20:00.000+12:00

Last week I got a pile of books out of the library....mostly New Zealand architecture and a couple of small house books. One really caught my imagination and I leafed through it a number of times, even pausing to actually read it!
Incidentally, I have enjoyed looking at Tumbleweed Houses occasionally in recent weeks. Less recently, I had pored through The Not so Big House and its companion Creating The Not So Big House at Borders one Day Out On My Own.
It's an idea I've been fascinated with and certainly feel drawn to.

We're not about to sell up and start building again (well we might if we weren't about to head overseas, but building and travelling don't go well together...although I did suggest to Father Bear that we renovate a castle in Poland - scroll down and look at those photos!!!!!! Grandpa pointed out the "own water supply" is through the roof!).....as I say, we're not about to build, but all the same, I did something crazy (something else, that is).

On Sundays I try to do something different to the rest of the week to be rejuvenated. So yesterday I sat down with a piece of paper and pencil and tried to design a small house for the ten of us. To cut a two hour story short....I came up with a design that would house 14 people (no, we're not having triplets!!!!) in less than 140 square metres with a 12.5m x 6.5m footprint. There was even a laundry chute, a 3.5 metre long table and an office for Father Bear to work from home. The only problem was that half of our books would not fit....but it would be easy-peasy to add a *library* in the attic.

I think I'd like to build it...and get Ross Chapin Architects to design a character-filled exterior like this one.

ONE DAY

GardenMania

2007-05-27T09:04:00.000+12:00

As well as weeding the front and side gardens yesterday, we moved the main vege patch.
If you're really interested you can see pictures and read the story here. It took All Day, so there's really nothing else to write about!

Friday Favourites #6

2007-05-25T15:07:00.000+12:00

piles of stuff *to go*

empty spaces where stuff *was*

lack of clutter

I am freeing us from the grips of STUFF

another hour and the room will be minimalist again

favourite

Friday

really round the world

2007-05-24T20:13:00.000+12:00

I haven't had a moment today to do a blog entry.....and this evening I'm beavering away making our website....I'm getting the hang of it almost enough to enjoy the process......so for now I'll leave you with an interview I have just done for Rolf Pott's travel website, Vagabonding. While I'm at it, I could recommend his book by the same name - I read it a couple of weeks ago committed the almost-unforgiveable sin ~ underlining lots of it! You can purchase it from GoodBooks for only two thirds of the cost that it is at other stores....and their profits go to Oxfam. WIN-WIN-WIN

Now before you go and read the interivew (if you want to!), I can update the plans...we have a more definite time frame than when I did the interview....we won't be leaving here till August. January will see us no further away than camping at the beach up north. And, SADLY, it looks like Africa is off the itinerary for the moment too. We have done some pricing and it's looking too much.
That's all part of the process.....dream some dreams and see what you can do!

knitting round the world

2007-05-23T12:10:00.000+12:00

the needles are continuing to click.......hats hats and more hats.....

these are a bit on the big side....because....it really doesn't get cold enough here for hats so these are for when we see winter in China and hopefully Mongolia and Europe...and that's 18 months away.....they should fit perfectly then!

simply windswept

2007-05-21T14:10:00.000+12:00

there's nothing like a morning on a windblown beach

* rest * exercise * family * creation *
* lions hiding in the bush * worship *

what's with that guy popping over the hill just as the camera on remote timer clicks??? sigh

they grew with you

2007-05-19T09:30:00.001+12:00

In the "olden days" when everyone sewed their own clothes and darned holes in socks because it was a lot less work than knitting new ones.....mothers made clothes that would fit their babies for longer than 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months....you get the idea.

And I did it for ER(1).

Not because I tried to, but because I was a novice knitter and wasn't the best guestimator when it came to newborn sizes! Although, she had a few woollies that were true newborn size and only fit a short while (like this licorice allsort soaker)

these three pieces were worn from her very first week....right through to now:

OK, so they're rolled up twice and keep her ribs warm - but that's not a bad thing!

...and they're a perfect fit now!

baggy then...

and baggy now!

from longies...

to shorties!

from little feet.....

....to toddler feet.

And just for the record, she has NEVER worn a disposable nappy. NOT EVEN ONE.

We've been camping and tramping and travelling and visiting friends and shopping and to parks and playgrounds and museums and all sorts of places.....we just take our cloth.

It's one of those issues that seems INTRICATE to my generation, but is really quite SIMPLE.

Our grandmothers didn't have the choice to use throw-away nappies, so they just held their babes out over pots and washed their cloth squares. It needn't be any different today - except that we have become accustomed to the convenience of throwing things away. While it may be convenient in the short term, it's not a simple solution in the longterm. We clog up landfill and leave chemicals to leach out into the surrounding soils.......but you've all heard me say it before!!!

with mittens to match

2007-05-19T09:24:00.000+12:00

the mittens were so much fun to make in the end (even though I had to redo the second one completely because I picked up the wrong size needles!)

two down.....eighteen to go!!!!!!!!!!

it was a happy birthday

2007-05-19T08:38:00.000+12:00

the cake:

every single one of the children has used that candle for their first birthday...only now there's no wick - so ER blew out the match;-)

the totally homemade present:>

OK so the hair is really wild....but it's beautifully soft....merino wool, each piece individually attached....and Karen, thanks for the wool for the bodies - it's extra-special making something with wool a friend has lovingly dyed

some of the cards:

you really have to click on that photo to see the cute little button standing with her head between her knees!

and there's always a birthday balloon:

what do dictators do?

2007-05-19T08:36:00.000+12:00

What a week in NZ politics.

As parents, we lost the right to correct our children with force. Oh, we can stop them from harming another individual or themselves, but we're not allowed to *correct* them any more - unless we want a criminal record. Of course if we can prove our actions to be "inconseqential", then we'll be acquitted. But where's the sense in that? I am only going to force my children to do things that ARE of some consequence. I believe strongly in training children out of times of conflict. For us, that means being proactive about what we do with our kids....we want to encourage our kids to do what is right - not just to "stop doing what's wrong". We can no longer lawfully train our children to do anything they don't want to.
On more than one occasion I have got hot under the collar about the media portraying this as a "smacking debate".......there was always far more than smacking at stake. It was about who makes the decisions in families, who is in control of the children, who sets the parameters. It is now clear; the government has wrenched that control from us - against the wishes of 83% of the nation. Is this anything less than tyrannical? How long will it be before we are forbidden to homeschool our kids? How long will it be before "the state education programme" is compulsory from birth? Let's face it - they want testing at birth, 5 years, preteen, and school-leaving age....and they're not talking just academic testing - they have been clear about the fact that it includes social testing. It is not inconceivable to think that my kids would be taken from me when they say that they have been taught there is one God, you should work if you want to eat, cows are not sacred and it is immodest to wear midriff-baring-low-cut slinky tops.
How many child murders will this new piece of legislation prevent? Please don't expect me to believe the government is actually trying to stop abuse with this law. We all know that those who beat their children do not care about any law. They were already criminals....now we join them too.

And it doesn't stop there. We had the Finance Minister telling us how to spend our money too. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against saving for retirement, I'm certainly not against people taking responsibility for themselves....but I get antsy when the government wants to go into partnership with me and my money. They take enough as it is! I feel for people who want to pay off their mortgages before starting a separate retirement fund - let's face it, you pay more interest on a mortgage than you get interest off money in the bank so it makes fiscal sense to get rid of your debt ASAP. Yet Dr Cullen calls this "short-sightedness". What am I missing?

Then to add insult to injury, I came across this. http://www.christiannation.org.nz/
Never mind what you think about Brian Tamaki......

A friend who has left these shores summed it up sadly, but truly:
I have to say that I am currently so disgusted with the state of NZ that I am without hesitation prepared to become an Australian Citizen. In many ways it isn't better here, perhaps even worse. Nominalism, hedonism and humanism are the norm, however the place does not seem to be ruled by the lunatic fringe and they still call stupid "stupid". My first instincts are to be romantic about my NZ identity, the land, the sea, and being part of the pacific region. However the truth is that holidays at Tawharanui do not make up for spiritual imprisonment.

It's Saturday

2007-05-19T08:28:00.000+12:00

We were supposed to be at a church family camp this weekend. But unfortunately Father Bear realised the conference he was helping to run fell on the same weekend, so we are home......and he's at work.

The children are doing chores....with the promise that when they've finished, they're free for the day to do *A*N*Y*T*H*I*N*G*

And I'm going to have a post-a-rama!!!!

No need to cook today because Father Bear said he'd take the rest of us Bears to a restaurant for dinner to make up for missing out on camp. YAY. So I've got time up my sleeve. It feels like a holiday!

one year

2007-05-18T12:11:00.000+12:00

there's something about a baby turning ONE....you are our eighth bubba to make that transition...and it's no less special, just because it's been done before.

how can you not marvel at the change from this:

to this:

ER - you are such a joy to us. We all love you. Your sparkly eyes, your cheeky grin, your serious contemplations, your contentedness, your slobbery kisses.

Your older brothers and sisters like to snuggle with you, play peek-a-boo, read stories, take you for rides in the trolley, encourage you to *talk* and teach you new tricks.
I like to watch you learn.....I'm keeping a record of your language development (something that I haven't done for any of the others, but I'm doing it specially for you). At the moment you can sign "more" when you think you're starving and you say eye-eye (goodbye) and ah-yo (hello). Mostly you're quiet, but when you pick up a book you chatter at it. You've just learnt to climb the stairs and to stand up by yourself. You love to go to bed at night (and during the day, for that matter!). You drink raw goat's milk and eat whatever we're eating (though no lollies till you're two - dem's da rules round here!). You clap when you hear fast music and sometimes when we're revising memory verses. You watch and engage.

You love to be held.

Darling, this is one of my favourite photos. My hand will be there for you to hold as long as you need to. Even when you are big enough to let go, our hearts will be connected.

a HAT

2007-05-17T14:06:00.000+12:00

it looks so simple....but don't be fooled.
I called this blog intricate simplicity for a reason;-)

It was meant to be a simple K1P1 rib hat. And it was simple....until I came to do the decreases at the top.
I didn't have a pattern, but didn't think it could be that hard.
THINK AGAIN!

The kids groaned as they saw me undo round after round after round.....nice to feel their empathy!

But triumph came on the second try. I wanted a nice round top....and a nice round top is what I got.

Now I just need to finish the mittens. They'll be my first ever and I'm looking forward to doing them. I have my usual *what if it doesn't work* angst....but by now I know you can just undo it and start again!

(and if you're wondering why I started the mittens and didn't finish them.....I only had a little of that variegated wool left and I knew I wanted the mitten cuffs and part of the hat made out of it....so I did the cuffs and then just used up the rest on the hat....why didn't I finish the mittens before starting the hat? Coz I knew I could make a hat, but the mittens were scaring me! I need to work on the little hand-warmers when the little hands that will wear them are in bed....may 7pm come quickly!)

a personal question

2007-05-15T14:24:00.000+12:00

Someone asked me last week which eco-friendly product I use for washing my hair.

And the answer is........

baking soda.

Yep, plain ol' BS. I keep a container of it in the shower. Useful, coz we clean the shower with it too. For cleaning surfaces, we dab a little on a damp cloth and scrub away - shower, bath, handbasin, toilet, laundry tub, kitchen bench. (Really stubborn curry stains on the bench might need a little white vinegar, but other than that, BS does the trick).
For hair washing, I wet my hair and then pour over a spoonful of BS dissolved in some warm shower water. Scrub, rinse and I'm done! Some people like to add a wash of apple cider vinegar - I experimented with this for a while (no, it doesn't smell!!!), but it left my hair really fly-away, so now I just stick to the BS. Works a treat. In fact, a month or so ago Father Bear ran his hand through my hair and said "Your hair's so smooth" - it had been a long time since he'd said that! I'd been baking-soda-ing for about three months at that point - and he didn't know;-)

But that's not all.....
when we (with alarming regularity) leave our dinner in a blackened glob on the bottom of our pots, we pour in some water, a teaspoon of BS and boil for five minutes. The black-whatever-it-is just peels off. It's true!

We tried it in the dishwasher. But the results couldn't be raved over. Within a few washes the glasses were cloudy-looking and stuff stuck to the plates. We are currently using a mixture of half BS and half *real* dishwasher powder. That seems to be working OK.

The washing machine was more successful. Clothes got clean. And didn't end up with that perfumey-stink that is left behind after using washing powder. I realise some people LIKE that smell - I don't, it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end - and my son's too. We don't even like approaching THAT aisle in the supermarket - and now we don't have to!!! Not even to buy a nice bright-coloured plastic container of super-cleaner-with-added-baking-soda! We just use the real thing!

Just in case you have an ant problem, baking soda makes a pretty good deterrent. We had armies of ants at our house, until I sprinkled BS ALL around the outside of the house. They haven't been back in four years....which actually makes me think they just moved on elsewhere....but BS can take the credit all the same!

That's still not all though. Baking soda can be used in the kitchen! My favourite would be watching it raise my sourdough bread.

still wild.....

2007-05-14T12:00:00.000+12:00

that paper pile....hmmm I spent Monday evening on it.....now it's in four piles! I really must get on to it. There were just far more interesting things to do last week!

like.....

READING....I read some fascinating travel books and kept up with reading my friends' blogs (but refrained from writing anything) and read answers to my questions on one of the two forums I frequent. Picked through a parenting book for the first time in a long time!

GARDENING....we did a complete vege garden overhaul - pulled out everything that was spent, turned the soil, dug in some compost and planted out the seedlings that we'd grown. The children then asked to make dinner with some of the bounty - only the sausage wasn't from the garden! There were capsicums stuffed with sweetcorn and carrot, boiled potatoes smothered in butter, cabbage-carrot-n-corn-stirfry. Mmmmmm.

Now we're down to a couple of cabbages and pumpkins, a pile of enormous swedes and a washing basket full of chillies!

KNITTING....two little vests and a hat and the beginnings of a hat and mittens to match the second vest. We had to go and get some contrasting wool today so I can finish them.

TALKING....I was interviewed about being a mum at Carey College - who knows what future pastors thought of that!.....I spent two evenings home with Father Bear dreaming and leafing through books and putting ideas down on paper and talking.....JUST. THE. BEST......We spent Tuesday and Friday evenings with good friends....Saturday had friends over for lunch and Saturday night went to another family for dinner, where we ate the hugest pizzas we've ever seen!Sunday visited more friends.

DESIGNING.....a website...you see, we are almost definitely leaving these shores and heading into the big wide world and we decided a website was a twenty-first-century traveller's necessity....I played mostly unsuccessfully with dreamweaver, but managed to use plain-ol-boring-but did-the-basics-OK-Home Publisher

ENJOYING....for Mothers Day I had bacon and eggs in bed with seven chapters of a book about a Kiwi family living in France - shared snuggles in bed with T3 while the food was being cooked.....I received two very special picture frames, one complete and one needing some pictures to be inserted.

taming a monster

2007-05-07T14:50:00.000+12:00

I'm not going to blog this week. In fact I'm not even going to turn the computer on!
Why? I'm going to attack THE PAPER PILE.
I manage to keep our place mostly tidy. Of course there are always weeds that *could* come out of the garden and a layer of dust *shouldn't* be left to settle....but all in all, given that there are so many bods around here, we don't do too badly.
Except for the paper pile. I've never been good at throwing away pieces of paper with important little snippets of anything on them. I have collected. They have accumulated. And it's time for me to GET RUTHLESS. I can't quite bring myself to just dump the whole lot at the curbside for our recycled-paper-man to take away....but I will start sorting.....

See you next week....but only if I've become master....

of clothes and comfort

2007-05-05T12:42:00.000+12:00

I've been enjoying reading Kelsey's blog * Where Am I Wearing? * over the past couple of weeks. He's an American travelling the globe in a quest to find out about the places where his clothes are made. This post in particular was a goodie. What you buy and who you buy it from and how much you pay is certainly not simple.

But the more I find out about fair trade, the more I realise it can make a difference.

That's one of the reasons I have started making our clothes. Especially if I can refashion something found at a thrift store or use second-hand material. Sometimes things are perfect just the way they are in the store - like T3's gorgeous little crocheted-with-lots-of-love-I'm-sure vest.

When I am making things myself, I am much more aware of the amount of effort that goes into them and I am more likely to choose fewer items that work well together than fall into the trap of buying lots of things because they are cheap.

Then.....because I am buying less, and if possible getting it second-hand, I have more money to be able to go to Trade Aid and other such stores and make purchases based on justice rather than the dollar - the K-Mart equivalent may be cheaper, but it is less likely to be ethical.

And doesn't she look just as happy as if she was wearing a brand new exclusive designer piece?

And it's not just me on this soapbox! Father Bear brought home some Oxfam and Trade Aid Literature yesterday. Here are some quotes:

* Half the world's population (2.8 billion) live on less than US$2 a day. 1.1 billion live on less than US$1 a day.

* Poor countries account for 0.4% of global trade. Their share has halved since 1980.

* If Africa, East Asia, South Asia and Latin America each increased their share of world exports by just 1%, the gains could lift 128 million people out of poverty.

* If these regions increased their share of world exports by 5%, they would generate US$350 billion - seven times as much as they receive in aid.

Something's not quite right. Are we in the developed world willing to forgo some comforts to see justice come to the rest of the world?

Friday Favourites #5

2007-05-04T14:08:00.000+12:00

I love fresh veges.

Right now my garden is at that in between stage - we still have a few cabbages and carrots and the chillies have not turned red but are nose-running-hot all the same and the rhubarb is due for a serious chopping.....but there's not the variety of a month ago.

But even a little bit of green is good for the soul and these herb pots on the deck made me smile today.

Is Reuters Right?

2007-05-03T11:49:00.000+12:00

Thursday May 3, 06:50 AM
Stay-at-home mother's work valued

NEW YORK (Reuters) -

If the typical stay-at-home mother in the United States were paid for her work as housekeeper, cook and psychologist among other roles, she would would earn $138,095 (69,000 pounds) a year, according to research released on Wednesday.

The 10 jobs listed as comprising a mother's work were housekeeper, cook, day care centre teacher, laundry machine operator, van driver, facilities manager, janitor, computer operator, chief executive officer and psychologist, it said.

The typical mother puts in a 92-hour work week, it said, working 40 hours at base pay and 52 hours overtime.

Yep - I think I do all that! And I knit too!!!!
What would I get for that?
(and they forgot to mention judge and diplomat with special responsibilty for peace talks)

But it's not all about the money is it? I guess it's just that money is the currency that drives our culture. Wouldn't it be interesting to *value* people's lives according to a different set of criteria - perhaps creativity or learning or satisfaction or service??

surfie chick

2007-05-02T09:19:00.000+12:00

surfie chick....that's so not me.

Beaches would be good if it weren't for the sand and the salt!

surfie chick....that's beach babe Kate

And now that the SUNNY BAY where she lives is more windy than sunny, she needs a new beach fashion accessory (as if her GORGEOUS hair isn't enough )...a chunky hat.

It might be more chunky that she expected, but if you want chocolate and pink, you gotta take what the shop has! Hope you don't mind the pink on top Katie - I ran out of brown and don't have the car to go buy you another brown ball! However, if you really don't like it, I'm happy to redo that little bit - wouldn't take long. In fact the whole hat didn't take long. YAY for chunky wool!

You know what I like about this hat?
It represents friendship and fair trade!
You see, Kate is making me a necklace.
There'll be no conflict diamonds in it (there'll be no diamonds at all - heehee).
There'll be no unjustly-mined-gold (in fact, no gold at all either).

I will have a special piece

made with love

by a dear friend,

who sparkles in my life.

Thanks Kate - it was a great idea!

so let's just call this a craft blog

2007-05-01T12:35:00.000+12:00

never mind provocative statements or musings about life or records of adventures....this blog is turning into a *what's-on-my-needles* piece!!

so here we go again......

hat for K9 to put away in her backpack for when we go travelling....maybe I'll blog about that later.....

...or how about now?

it's hardly a secret any more......Leighton Smith read out my email on NewstalkZB this morning......hey I could post it here...then you'd know I do things other than knit;-)

This was prompted by a series of sob stories in the media at large about how noone can afford houses today...Leighton happened to be discussing it so I had my say:

Dear Leighton,

Do NOT let anyone tell you it is impossible to buy a first home.
My husband and I returned from 2 1/2 years in Eastern Europe 14 years ago and had $30 to our name. We worked our butts off, lived in a tiny flat, ate simply, saved every penny and managed to finish our degrees and get postgrad diplomas within two years with NO debt. We continued saving and when we had a deposit, worked out we could afford a $100,000 house so we went to the real estate agent and asked what they had. They just laughed at us! So we bought a section and built a house. Cost us $96,000.
We sold that house and built another, swapped that one and then built one more. In less than a decade we were mortgage-free in a house worth at least three times as much as our first one is *now*. And don't think it's because we were double-income-no-kids. My husband is in education (ie hardly high paying) and I have been home with the children - over the past twelve years we have had eight of them. Yes that's right. Eight kids, single income, no mortgage.
And my hubby got his masters while working aswell - you do what is important to you.

What are we up to now? Looking at taking the kids to see the *real* needs in the world - China, Mongolia, Tanzania, Great Britian (OK that bit's a holiday!) and then settling to work again in Poland or volunteer at an orphanage in Romania - these are our current dreams we are working towards.

And *that* is why we need woolly hats!!

warms both heart and body

2007-04-30T14:27:00.000+12:00

I've been knitting up winter woolies for ER (11 mo).

These pants which you may have seen before to go over her cloth nappies now have a poncho and hat to match. I made up the poncho pattern as I went along and so it's not perfect - if I did it again (which I probably won't, because it was dead boring knitting round and round and round in circles), I would increase more slowly to give the shoulders some shaping rather than just being *boofy*. But it looks fine on and will fit her for years to come!!!!

I had a tiny bit of the wool left over so paired it with some velour-y feeling synthetic to make a cute wee hat which fits a newborn-sized-doll right through to MissT3.
YAY for s--t--r--e--t--c--h--y 2x2 rib.

Anybody want it?

These pants are my most favourite ever! Picking up a gazillion stitches to make the ruffles was absolutely not my favourite, but the end result was worth it. And she'll be able to wear them all winter as long pants and then next summer as capris. The hat above matches these pants too.

They make me think of portabellopixie on needles!

Some of this knitting has been done in public - at the playground, with friends, at a cafe, at the library. I love the sociability that knitting in public entails - invariably someone comes over and comments. They reminisce about how they used to knit for their children, they might sadly inform me these same kids don't want knitted items for the grandchildren, they extol the virtues of making things with your own hands, they tell me about how they would unravel sweaters after they'd been worn by all the family and then make something new, they tell me about knitting socks for the servicemen, they confide they would NEVER have the patience to knit anything, they share their frustrations at trying to learn and never mastering the art, they explain to me that it's really too expensive to knit. I don't put a price on it. Yes, it might cost as much or only a little less than a sweater from a shop, but there's something special about making something yourself. Plus there's the advantage of knowing that no slave labour was used in its manufacture. And I've never had anyone stop to chat with me and share their stories when I've been shopping in a mall the way they do when they plonk down on the park bench beside me!

Friday Favourites #4

2007-04-27T14:14:00.000+12:00

simplyBLUE

My knitting bag.

Knit in the round with a complete hank of Utiku Oceans and an extra ball of navy.

Felted (actually, overfelted - my plan was to leave it tall enough to fit my knitting patterns in, but that wool shrinks FAST - and I'm not making another one!)

Embroidered.

Embellished with buttons and bell.

Handles made from bright wooden beads I painted and then threaded onto an old coathanger. These are twisted onto spare knitting needles. Father Bear has promised to help me attach them so they don't look "huckery".

Pockets galore to hold measuring tape, ancient tin box of tiny stitch markers and darning needles, handmade-by-Sharon-zipped-bag with gifted big stitch markers, scissors, pens, notebooks, patterns and in the bottom an old wooden box of my grandfather's to hold my circulars.

Bags of blue hold individual projects so they don't get tangled.....you can't work on one ting at a time now you know! There needs to be an easy project for tkaing to chat with people, a tricky one that needs full concentration and another just for fun!

ANZAC Day

2007-04-25T20:28:00.000+12:00

PHOTOS ADDED BELOW

Today's post should really be a thoughtful number about freedom and history and the red poppy we received in exchange for a donation! Or at least a foodie post with an Anzac Bikkie recipe.

But that will have to wait till next year.

Coz today Dadda was home (yay for public holidays) and watched the kiddos for a good part of the day while I got through the whole mending pile and finished knitting a cute wee hat. On my next DAY OUT in a couple of weeks I'll drag the sewing machine to father-in-law's place and sew the four pairs of trousers, three sweatshirts and one vest that I still need to do. If by some miracle I get them done before then, I don't know what I'll do on *my day* ;-)

This past summer the kids have all shot up, but not out so their clothes from last winter were plenty wide enough - just too short.

Not any more. One of J11's sweatshirts was put to good use patching and lengthening jeans lengthening a couple of sweatshirts aswell. Dadda's not too sure about the look, but M4 loves them!

J11's *new* old shirt:

K8 grew taller and skinnier too - a pinafore Grandma bought her will be able to do another winter with its extra layer on the bottom.

We had fun "beebeemod-ing" it too, though in a much more restrained way than beebeemod does her bright funky designs.
K8 chose the beads (I wanted to use some that matched!!).

The inspiration came from the buttons on the back:

And once all the kids' gear was done I did a little shortening of some trousers for me. Only I couldn't stop at just taking them up. I had portabellopixie visions in my head and decided they're not just good for toddlers! I was also thinking about something I read on Nikki's blog last week...she said, "Wow, to actually be myself and not feel afraid, or hesitant, or weird, or whatever. It's not even about *not caring* what others think, but just having a knowing that I am OK as I am."
For me and this pair of pants it translated to: it's not that I don't care what others think (coz deep down we all want to be liked if we're really honest), but that *I* like them, so I can wear them whether they are "fashionable" or not (they're not *insert big wide grin* ).
And I don't need to worry that everyone will think I'm having a mid-life crisis just coz I wear something that they haven't seen before *insert even bigger grin*

how organised is this?

2007-04-23T12:55:00.000+12:00

All my RL friends will be rolling their eyes and saying "That is so Rach"....but I'm going to put it on here anyway! Even though I have always bought whatever clothing we need a year ahead in the end-of-season sales, I've never been quite *this* organised before;-)

A few weeks ago I had sorted the winter clothes, but somehow between then and yesterday, all the trousers had disappeared so I had the kids drag everything into the lounge, I got out my faithful spreadsheet and filled in the gaps....this served two purposes.
1) it made sure nothing was hiding anywhere
2) it meant my list of things "to make" diminished rapidly, because I changed the spreadsheet from "four complete sets of clothes for each person" to "let's see if the list I've written for travelling is going to work" (ie considerably fewer items for each person).

I was on a roll and dragged the kids back inside to bring down all the summer clothes aswell and I sorted through them for NEXT summer. Clothes that are still in acceptable condition were noted on the spreadsheet and immediately packed into this box, not to be touched before the sun warms up again. (The pile beside the box is stuff to be refashioned - all op-shop finds coz I haven't gone near any Brand New Shops this year - those things are highlighted in blue on the spreadsheet - LOL, go on, you know you want to). The frayed-stained-don't-wear-this-out-where-anyone-will-see-you clothes have been kept out, along with one nice set Just In Case it warms up again before winter sets in.

All I have to do come springtime is buy two shirts for J11 and sandals for most.

intricate simplicity

(but right now I'd better get sewing those blue-highlighted winter items....especially as the ones with a box drawn around them I have to sew from scratch!)

Ready to Risk

2007-04-22T14:33:00.000+12:00

I've been mulling over these two quotes this past week:

“In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.” ~ Robert Heinlein (1907-1988)

“Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don’t. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.” ~ Philip Adams

Then I went to church this morning and the pastor spoke about how our culture is so conditioned against taking risks, how we value and esteem "sensible" decisions and security.
(he talked about other things too, but this bit stood out for me!)
I was challenged at the thought that we might be persuaded to take risks for ourselves, but certainly not for others, especially if we stand to gain *nothing*. Isn't this true?

This sermon came on the heels of a couple of exciting risky emails.....one from Poland, one from Mongolia.
Don't expect too many *sensible* posts from now on!!!!!!

"Yesterday...."

2007-04-21T11:46:00.000+12:00

"all my troubles seemed so far away"

Can you believe it? Me quoting lyrics of a song???????!!!!

Yesterday was one of those perfect days.
The four big kids went fishing before the little ones were even up.
That left the 2, 4 and 6 year olds thinking they were the big kids.
They made breakfast and the did the dishes afterwards.
(all this instead of the usual skiving off and getting into trouble before breakfast even starts!!)
T2 (oops she's T3 now isn't she) came to me out at the clotheshorse and said "Please may I help you hang up the washing". L6 and M4 put away everything that was out that shouldn't have been. The sun was shining so we settled down on the driveway when ER(11mo) went for a nap. The kids played beautifully together in the sandpit - I was nearby and ready to help them out when they needed it, but they didn't need me for that. They spoke to each other nicely, they helped each other, they cooperated. It was just like the old days!
M4 showered me with hugs throughout the morning.
When ER got up I put my knitting needles down and we read some stories together - still outside in the sun. L6 and M4 made lunch for the little girls and themselves and we had a picnic on the drive. After lunch and another play the three smallest ones went up for bed. By the time I had put ER down, the other two had put themselves into their beds and were asleep. Honestly. It was a dream. A friend came over and we chatted while I knit and she used my sewing machine. Still the kids slept on. In the end I had to wake them up!
We headed back outside - when you get such a beautiful day at this point of the year, it pays to make the most of it, because the rain might arrive tomorrow. More play, a few puzzles, more knitting for me. Then we brought the washing in and were preparing dinner when Dadda arrived home with the big kids. There were fish stories to be shared and clean-up to at least be commenced before friends turned up for dinner. Thanks for the chocolate brownie Jess - it was scrummo!
We had a wonderful evening - after an adults-only dinner the boys did the dishes and watched rugby or cricket or something (heehee, who knows?). Jess and I chatted and dreamed and compared latest projects and played with fabric and wool and even got the knitting needles and crochet hooks out.
PERFECT.

Friday Favourites #4

2007-04-20T09:52:00.000+12:00

My favourite four-year-old ;-)

It's coming up two years since you got sick. You were down for months, with fevers and headaches lack of appetite and taking yourself to bed for hours every day. Eventually it turned out you had had glandular fever (even though the first doctor we had seen had said that was not possible). But even when you were supposedly over that you still kept getting those fevers up to 41 degrees and dreadful lethargy for two or three days every two or three weeks. You contracted every little bug that was going round - when the other kids vomitted for 24 hours, you went on for five days. You got all mannner of rashes and spots and lumps and stomach hardness and enlarged lymph nodes and various swellings. You had blood tests and scans and more blood tests and more scans. We discovered you've got one oversized kidney - bonus! A stange growth appeared on your cheek and grew and grew - because of everything else going on, the doc wanted it removed. It turned out to be fine.

Then this summer you went for longer and longer stretches without any fevers or sickness at all.

A month or so ago you changed overnight.

You woke up *silly* one morning.

There was a new crazy boy running round the house. You were full of fun and laughter. It was so dramatic a change that people commented on it! I thought perhaps you were now just *well*, driving on all six cylinders. Then you got sick again this week. But it hasn't knocked you like in the past. And apart from a runny nose, you're fine already. This is more like a *normal* childhood ailment.

We thank God for your good health and your crazy nature. We love you.

This is not about charity, it's about justice

2007-04-19T09:11:00.000+12:00

Here's part of Bono's award-acceptance speech (which award? I'm not sure! But it's a great sermon!)

True religion will not let us fall asleep in the comfort of our freedom. Love thy neighbour is not a piece of advice - it’s a command. And that means….that in the global village we’re gonna have to start loving a whole lot more people…..Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die.

So that bit wasn't the sermon, that was just Bono getting warmed up. Then he (in his own words) "climbs into the pulpit for just one moment":

God has a special place for the poor. The poor are where God lives. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is where the opportunity is lost and lives are shattered. God is with the mother who has infected her child with a virus that will take both their lives. God is under the rubble in the cries we hear during war time. God, my friends, is with the poor. And God is with us if we are with them. This is not a burden, this is an adventure and don’t let anyone tell you it cannot be done. We can be the generation that ends extreme poverty.

I keep wondering about this, wondering what the answers are. It's constantly mulling around in the back of my mind. But my actions betray a stronger interest in what to feed myself today or what to clothe my children with this winter.

my fridge door is white

2007-04-18T13:31:00.000+12:00

There is nothing on my fridge door. No kids' paintings, no notices, no rosters, no real estate agent's advertising, no pizza vouchers, no magnets, nothing!

I like things to be simple and the clutter of layer upon layer of precious papers on a fridge door is something that I haven't learnt to live with!!!! I know for some people it's their favourite filing system. Others love fondly reminiscing through the treasures. For me, it just messes my mind!

So I have a noticeboard in the hallway decorated with Scriptures, which I'm hiding in my heart as they get covered on the board! It has a calendar where all appointments are supposed to be written. Mostly this stops us double-booking! It has a colourful chore chart, which gets looked at every day, even if it's not followed to the letter. There's another "occasional chore chart", which is a really good idea and would make my house run smoothly if I actually did it, but the reality is I do those things when the whim strikes me (which is not often). There's a long skinny piece of paper headed up "The Children's Day". It's nice to know that's there in case we ever run out of ideas of things to do one day. It hasn't happened yet! We always run out of day before we've used up our thoughts.
There's a lovely picture of a run-down dilapidated old farmhouse that my cheeky father-in-law put up there for me to dream about.....he thought it was more realistic than the castle in Poland I was looking at!!!!!
There are some cards with my friends' names on them made by one of the girls as a reminder to pray for each other.
There's a Korean doll......reminds me of all my friends around the world, not just the Korean one who gave it to me.
There's a scrap of paper with a name and phone number......when I get round to writing it in my address book I'll be able to throw the paper away. But it's nice to look at that Polish handwriting and remember the day I bumped into the Polish family who had only just arrived in NZ!
There are vouchers from Father Bear for a one hour massage and a day out by myself and a dinner with him that I really must use soon before they expire!
There's a collection of photo pages....sometimes when one of the children ahs a birthday I make the time to print out some photos from the previous year (or even longer). L6 has been up there in pride of place since October and we've had four more birthdays since then! Might be time to do another one. ER is nearly ONE!
And there's lavender from the garden. I love the smell of lavender. Isn't it supposed to be calming? ;-)

my favourite blonde

2007-04-17T13:27:00.000+12:00

This is an old paperweight, which was originally holding a pad of notepaper and a pen. The paper is gone, the ink ran out writing love notes and shopping lists. But SMILEY-GIRL remains. Now she hugs the clock beside my bed so that each morning I am greeted by a broad smile. She makes me thankful for my serious eldest daughter who lovingly painstakingly handstitched her and stuffed her with rocks gathered from the garden....for me....years ago. She'll still be sitting by my bedside when I'm an old lady.

what are the odds?

2007-04-16T13:12:00.000+12:00

My very dear Father Bear made me smile yesterday when he said, “I’ve thought of something for you to blog”.

So to show my appreciation at his interest in my random postings, I’ll nab his idea.

It was prompted by listening to a guy share the story of his life. He was born in Iran into a Muslim family with a totally non-religious father and a doubly-religious mother. Throughout his whole life there were *miraculous* incidents that worked together to draw him to a knowledge of God, from his desire as a young lad to “meet God”, which his mother successfully scared him away from for many years, to his intense desire to learn English (which later enabled him to read the English Scriptures and Koran he was given) to unusual wake-up calls and being rescued from deportation and and and. His story was a long and interesting list of miracles of the grace of God.

Father Bear commented that our kids won’t have a story like that.
And he observed that we perhaps underestimate
the grace of God in their lives
that they have been born into a family
that loves, serves and honours God,
and saturates their lives with a *God-awareness*

“What are the odds,”
Father Bear questioned,
“of being born into a God-fearing family?”

Not that great actually.

quotable quote

2007-04-15T19:19:00.000+12:00

I have thought lots over the years about community, living authentic intentional community. I have even tried to practice this with varying degrees of success. I think I may have come across the reason for the "less rather than more" success. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who we have just been reading about with the children, had this to say:

"He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final break-through to fellowship does not occur, because, through they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, the sinners. The pious fellowship permits noone to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners.....so we remain alone with our sin....The fact is that we are sinners!.....

In confession the break-through to community takes place. Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him......In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person."

As a family we are fairly good at sharing our stuff with others and serving others, helping out when the need arises (though of course there's always more you could do). We don't guard much time at all for *just us*. BUT that's only a small part of community. To be really close to someone there needs to be a transparent humility. And I'm not good at that. But while the thought scares me, it also fills me with hope and anticipation and potential expectancy.

it's rained every day since then.....

2007-04-14T14:22:00.000+12:00

Last Friday afternoon we went down to the waterfront to see a boat that's used for eye and dental surgery in various poor nations that was moored there.......dreaming about going aboard the Mercy Ship in Africa (we've since been turned down - too many kiddos!!!!)

It was such a different world. The waterfront I mean, not Africa. I am not for a moment saying that the people we saw didn't love their babies, but it all looked quite FAKE. The babies looked like fashion accessories. Highly-made-up mothers in label clothing teetering on label stillettos next to partners in more label clothing pushing buggies (that cost more than our van) containing babies covered in yet more labels.....

My baby was attached to me with a long piece of muslin from Spotlight.

I had blue croc-wannabees on my feet ($10 from the Warehouse).

We were accompanied by too many kids to be able to stop at one of the teeny tiny cafe tables for a coffee (not that I drink it anyway!!!).

who are you?

2007-04-13T14:46:00.000+12:00

I have been thinking recently about how I am so different to many of my friends. For a long time I think I tried to be like all of them, but then the realization slowly dawned that I need to be me.

I don't need to be foodie-Kate. I can't think of Kate without thinking of the kitchen....from hot sticky buns when I first knew her to more recent rich chocolate doofas that I couldn't pronounce even before I'd forgotten what she called them! Kate loves you by filling your tummy with delectable yummies and filling your mind with probing conversation at the same time. And thankfully she loves me enough to drop by and be satisfied with plain ol' homemade baked beans not sporting any fancy ingredients from my kitchen.

I don't need to be jumping-mad-Michelle. She jumped off a bridge only attached to a little piece of elastic. I would NEVER do that!

I don't need to be tri-athlete everybody. It seems all my friends are busy having babies (even twins) and then doing triathlons six months later or at least taking part in FUN RUNS (now there's an oxymoron!!!!!)

I don't need to be mall-trawl-mother. My mum likes to wander round malls and chat to people. I can't stand being in those big pumped-air piped-music windowless enclosed spaces that feed discontent and generally sell products that exploit at least someone in their manufacture.

I don't need to be a people-person-jess-people-person! So this one could be Kate too! These girls like to have people around all the time, every day. It energises them.....in my head I understand this, but I just can't see how it can be possible - heehee.

I don't need to be like Sharon who likes knitted tea cosies and floral teacups (for the record, she's my age, not old enough to be my Nana!).

We are all different and yet we all connect. We all have a part to play, we can learn from each other (thanks Kate for turning me into a Washing Queen), we each have a work to do to serving God and others around us.

the 39-piece wardrobe

2007-04-12T21:25:00.000+12:00

I read somewhere recently (can't remember where sorry) about someone who limited their entire wardrobe to 100 pieces. I've also been reading about the 100-mile wardrobe where you try to buy all your clothes from places within 100 miles of where you live (just like the 100-mile food thing)....and while I'm not quite ready to make that jump, I warm to the concept (in fact I like the idea of MAKING *all* my own stuff, but I'm not quite there yet either).
We are thinking of travelling a bit round the world in the next few years. And that means taking only what can fit in a backpack. Having already travelled with Far Too Much Stuff and barely been able to stagger through London from one lamp post to the next, we will take far less next time. If we were only going for a few months, we'd stick with a couple of pairs of pants, three tshirts and a sweatshirt each......but I'm hoping we'll be gone for much longer than that and so we will take more. But when I itemised everything I thought we'd need, I was surprised to find it only came to 39 pieces.

01. skirt
02. skirt
03. trousers
04. trousers
05. jeans (heavy and slowdrying, but I love them!)
06. short-sleeved buttoned shirt
07. short-sleeved buttoned shirt
08. short-sleeved t-shirt
09. short-sleeved t-shirt
10. long-sleeved buttoned shirt
11. long-sleeved t-shirt
12. long-sleeved t-shirt
13. fleece vest
14. handknit woollen cardigan
15. fleece jacket
16. rain jacket
17. undies
18. undies
19. undies
20. undies
21. undies
22. undies
23. bra
24. bra
25. bra
26. handknit socks
27. handknit socks
28. handknit socks
29. ankle length sports socks
30.thermal skivvy
31. thermal skivvy
32. thermal long johns
33. handknit winter hat
34. handknit mittens
35. sunhat
36. togs
37. crocs
38. sandals
39. leather hiking boots

Today I packed it all into my pack and discovered it only weighed 12kg (including sleeping bag, towel etc). I could carry that on the road....especially as I would actually be wearing some of the clothes!
This is very encouraging because I have been wondering how we would manage the little kids' gear....now I know I can fit two little kids' clothes in my pack (they'll carry their own sleeping bag, toiletries and eating utensils) and I'll have both hands free.

So the next step was to work out if what I have chosen is a sustainable mix. So I went through my wardrobe and set aside the items I want to take away and then just worked with what was left and tried to pare it down to the above list to use this winter. I had to make some substitutions (I have lots of skirts and only one pair of trousers), but I've essentially ended up with what's on that list....minus the thermals and hat coz it doesn't get cold enough here...plus a denim jacket, corduroy jacket and full length woolen coat, any of which can take the place of the as-yet-unbought-goretex jacket while we're still here. I don't have my hiking boots yet, but I've got a pair of brown suede boots....as well as my pink No Sweat hi-tops, a pair of fancy sandals I only ever wear to weddings, running shoes, "nice shoes" and a pair of slippers, none of which would come on the road. Falling into this category are also PJs and a dressing gown! Even still, my item count remains below 50. (I am guilty of holding on to a little pile of "just in case" things until I'm convinced that what I have is plenty).

As an aside, I find it intriguing that I should consider having 50 items of clothing to be "limited". To many people in the world it would be an inconceivable extravagance to have so many things. I am reminded of Jesus telling us to give away our second coat if we've got two......my extra gear is off to the op shop....and hopefully the just-in-case items will make their way there too soon.

lurking round da world

2007-04-11T22:42:00.000+12:00

That little map in my sidebar shows at least a few people all over the globe are popping on here every so often.....would you like to "de-lurk" and introduce yourselves? I'd love to know who you are!

Who are you?
Where do you live?
How did you find me?
What is one thing even your close friends don't know about you?

normalLIFE

2007-04-10T11:07:00.000+12:00

Following is a snippet (OK, so a fairly long snippet!!) of a piece I wrote over five years ago. What had started out as a response to the statement "Having experiences needs to be balanced with caring for the poor", turned into a treatise on travel, education, life purpose and the welfare state!!!!! I'll spare you the bulk of it

What is wrong with deciding you want to be inspired by people in the past and study their paintings ~ and so spend money going to art galleries on a Sunday afternoon?
What is wrong with wanting to learn about the origins of food (its life prior to arriving in a supermarket) ~ and so spending a year living with a farming/self-sufficient family?
What is wrong with taking a dead-end survival job (teaching English for no apparent purpose, for example – 24 hours a week) and thereby giving yourself, and your family, the opportunity to live in Mongolia or Madagascar?
What is wrong with understanding you connect with God when out of the city ~ and so take a hike through the bush on a Sunday morning?
Is there anything wrong (and this is not rhetorical) with doing something for a year and then doing something else? Should everyone have a longterm life mission that they relentlessly work towards?
Would it be wrong/bad/unwise to go and spend a year or just six months working in an orphanage simply *loving* children, if you didn’t intend to stay for the longterm? Is it better not to go at all?
Should we only spend what we absolutely *need* to survive and give all the rest away? We could look at “causes” to give to as a family, using the experience to teach the children. Could we decide to do that for a year, even if only to intentionally over a slightly prolonged period challenge our ideas of what is necessary and to make a conscious effort to consider the poor and our response to them (instead of just feeling a bit guilty every so often that we have so much and not actually doing a lot about that)???
Should we go and live in an apartment in New York or London and spend our days visiting science centres and museums and art galleries and old buildings and… “drink from a fire-hydrant of mind-blowing experiences” only available in the city? (quote John Anderson from unconventionalideas.com)
What about living with a nomadic tribe in a yurt for a year?

These things are all “education” in the broad sense of the word. Are they valid ways of learning? Or would flitting from one experience to another just produce shallow adults who cannot be faithfully committed to anything for any length of time, who have no roots and bail out when the going gets tough?
I tend to think not – not if we work hard together wherever we are, not if the children see parents committed to each other and them in spite of inevitable difficulties, not if their roots and identity are firmly planted in Christ, not if we all seek to serve whoever we come in contact with along the journey. No it needn’t be a selfish existence, even if it is very different to the “norm”.

Who said we have to be NORMAL?????????

Isn’t it a good idea to let children see different ways of doing things, different ways of living, different people who need God? Living in a time when travel is so fast and relatively cheap, is it not just living in the times to make use of such opportunities? Maybe the children will be inspired to set up a sustainable community when they get older, maybe they will make lots of money and have seen lots of projects/people to give it to, maybe they will design a system for purifying water that does not cost a lot to make or run, maybe they will adopt an orphan, maybe they will dream dreams and make visions a reality because of some of the experiences they have had as children.

Sure, you don’t *need* to travel to discover these experiences…you could simply turn on the computer and have the world at your fingertips. But reading internet articles, watching reality tv (not that there is much *real* about that!!!!), and dare I say it, even reading books is in part simply living vicariously.

What does it mean to really LIVE?

Idyllic setting, wonderful friends

2007-04-09T20:58:00.000+12:00

Yesterday was Easter Sunday....and Annual Chocolate Easter Egg Hunt aside, it is always a day that calls for thankfulness as we remember the awesome gift lavished on us by our Creator and Sustainer.....*life* to be lived forever in the presence of God Himself.

And yesterday we were extra-aware of the blessings God bestows on us, even though we actually deserve nothing. We went out to Karekare, one of the rugged west coast black sand beaches and climbed a big cliff (well, it wasn't exactly Everest, but the first hour was straight up up up and the half hour return trip was an effort in bringing your upper torso down at the same rate as your feet!) J12 thought my toes were going to pop through my sandals as I scrambled down down down!

The view from the top was spectacular. We could hear the waterfall away in the distance on one side and the roar of the ocean rolling in on the other.

When we got back to the bottom we thanked God for giving us such a beautiful place to live and for the picture-perfect sunny autumn day.

If you want to know more about this adventure and see more pictures, there's a full account on the kids' blog.

Then we zoomed over to the Angove Seniors' new place for a delicious lunch, inspiring conversation and generally relaxing afternoon - thanks guys - we love you! Your hospitality, your interest in our family and your authentic openness constantly bless us.

I don't step on the scales....

2007-04-05T13:53:00.000+12:00

at least I didn't used to! Now I step on every single Sunday morning before breakfast and wearing no clothes at all! I even got my hair cut short - heehee.
I wrote a wee while ago that I needed to start exercising again and that I needed to lose more weight.....it's going not too badly. OK, so last week was a shocker on the exercise front - I only got out twice, but up till then I'd been managing four or more "proper walks" each week.
The weight is dropping off (YAY YAY YAY). So far I've lost 16kg, and still have another 8kg to go. If I make it back to that weight, I'll probably be tempted to drop the final TWO and be what I was pre-babies-post-living-on-cabbages-in-Eastern-Europe-for-two-years-stick-thin. But that just might not be feasible!
I used to say "I don't worry about my weight, I just go by how my clothes fit". And that was all very well when I was not seriously overweight. But when you jump three dress sizes you find comfort in watching the kilos disappear!
I used to be 56kg (yeah yeah, I'm tall and that was pretty skinny, but it's just what I was)
At Christmas I was 82kg. I celebrated when I went below 80;-) Next celebration was 75...then 72 ("I've lost 10kg now!")....then "I've made it to 70, I'm halfway there"....then (and it was only one week and one kilo later - heehee) "Now I weigh what I weighed when I was nine months pregnant with number two"...then I lost another three and made it to 66 where I am today. 65 will be cause for another celebration because that sounds like a milestone....by 62 I've noticed in the past people start saying "You're looking good"...when I get to 60 I'll be almost there....58 is the goal.
I've been very disciplined with my eating and want to keep the momentum of exercise going. It's still at the stage of Going To Bed Too Late and having a Mental Struggle each morning that I wake early enough to get up and walk! Need to establish the habit so I don't have to fight with myself in the morning!

(By the way, this is not so much about *what I look like* as wanting to be a good steward of my body....when I breastfeed I put on weight even though everyone says breastfeeding makes you lose weight! I weighed more when ER was 6 weeks old than the day before she was born! Now that she's not feeding I feel I have a responsibility to get back into shape and be physically fit. And I feel so much better for it.)

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Friday Favourites #6

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Friday Favourites #4

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a HAT