Pluses and minuses

Plus: it's the school holidays! Minus: Ewan has chicken pox! Plus: the sun is shining! Minus: we had to cancel our trip away to the snow. Plus: the place we were going to stay has given us a credit note, so we can go another time... Minus: going to be tricky to get into the office for my working week... Plus: we've been forced to stay in and slow down. Today we snipped paper (the little one) and made paper 'fortune tellers' (the big one) in the wintry sunshine all morning. And it was good.

Sparkle

Some days just sparkle, don't they? Today was one of those days. Beautiful weather always helps create a sparkly day. Add happy, well-behaved kids to the mix and I reckon you're about there! We didn't really go anywhere too far today. I was supposed to do a 5K fun run, but snot and a head cold got in the way. I didn't feel much like running... There was lovely news this week that there had been seals (!) sighted (twice) in our river. Seals! (I love seals.) And also a two-metre shark. Such good pointers to our poor, beleaguered urban river gaining a bit of its health back. After much scanning of the water we gave up on spotting seals, but we'll be keep our eyes peeled on all walks by the river from now on...!

Missing

Another long while between posts. I wish I could get to this space more often, but realistically it probably is going to continue to be neglected while work and kids and everything else keep on demanding my attention. Anyway. Flus and colds and various minor ailments aside, the usual shenanigans have been going on. Oh, and we had nits in the house. Yes, that was a delightful discovery... The heater caught fire the other night. That was good entertainment. Not. Thankfully nothing or no-one was hurt. The vacuum cleaner has also died - it's expensive enough to know better! I swear appliances go out in sympathy with each other. This week also brought about news that 1900 jobs are going to be axed at Shaun's place of work. Great. We wait... I have a ticket in next week's $30 million lottery. Because, gee, we could really use a spot of good fortune...!

An update

For DAYS now, I have been turning this house upside down. Upside down, I tell you. The item I have been searching intently for is the camera USB cable, and finding it took on an extra importance since the camera began shouting 'memory card full' every time I try to snap a pic. It is nowhere to be found. Then this morning I had a flash of brilliance: why don't I just plug the SD card into the hard drive. OH YEAH! It worked! No USB needed (at this point in time anyway). So I can now do a {long overdue} catch-up of what we have been up to in these parts: * Some school-holiday boat building and sailing. On the 'lakes' that have formed in our park. Oh dear. Yes, it's been veeeeery rainy these school holidays. Shaun had the first week off with the kids. He got all the sunshine. No fair...

* An Easter trip away. Marred somewhat (well, just a little bit) by the alarmingly expensive oil leak that the car sprang ... on the way there. Here are some of the back-seat shenanigans on the way there...

* We did go out to the waterfall nearest town. This is me and T sporting some cool eyewear...

* Being stuck in town wasn't too bad. There was a lovely 'koala walk' to do, plus a great sculpture trail and a superb levee for running and scooting along.

* As we headed {limped} back to Sydney we stopped overnight in Gloucester. Wherever we holiday, we have to have a river nearby because I LOVE seeing the kids spending an afternoon totally rapt in the simple magic of chucking rocks in a river. It is truly one of my favourite things to watch and do. So that's what we did.

* There's also been a bit of cat adoration going on. We inherited my friend's 13yo cat when she moved to Finland (as you do). At first the cat hissed at us constantly and ran away. Now she LOVES us! And the feeling is mutual. Especially for little T. She's a real cat lover now...

Double take

I read one of Deepak Chopra's books not so long ago, called Synchrodestiny. In a nutshell, it's all about seeing "the universe's meaning" in coincidences and the like. I wouldn't normally pick up a book like this, but I spied it at the library and thought I'd give it a whirl.

I reckon it's an interesting premise.

I only mention this book because last week while I was making dinner my daughter grabbed a head of broccoli and started munching away. She did it long enough for me to grab the camera and snap this shot:



The reason I ran to get the camera was that I'd taken a shot of my son sitting in the very same spot, doing this very thing at this very age...



I have to admit I was a little spooked!

OK Universe, so what does it all mean?!!...

Young at 90...

Our school turns 90 this week. And in honour of this milestone all the stage-one (little) kids had to dress up today as either a 1920s or 1890s school student. They looked fabulous! Everyone had a bit of fun raiding the local secondhand stores for olde get-up. This is how E went to school:





It was not too hard to pull this one together: cap, $1, Vinnies Summer Hill; Shirt, $3, Marrickville secondhand store; waistcoat $1, Vinnies Summer Hill; (Scout!) shorts, $2, Vinnies Summer Hill; lace-up Clarkes shoes (a most excellent find), $4, Marrickville.

Tomorrow everyone has been asked to contribute to a cake decorating display. I must admit I thought this may be a bit of an ask on top of the dress-ups ... but I gave it a go and tomorrow E will take his cake to school to put in with the others.

So here's the school emblem, ripped from the corner of our newsletter:



Here's my 'emblem' cake, rendered in licorice.



A little wonky but I must confess to being quite proud of that effort!

Two and a half

Someone has turned two and a half.

I think this particular age is a challenging one. I'm not talking so much about the crazy obsessions (lord help me if I cut her sandwich into triangles and she wanted squares) and public meltdowns, but the letting go of the 'babyness'.

Emerging from this sweet little head is such a force of personality that it knocks me off my feet sometimes.

I find (mostly) that I can't get enough of her deliciousness. But then when the 'No! Mummy do it!' gets rolled out for the 100th time in a day, well... yes, it's challenging.

But this moment in time, the sweetness, the comprehension, the blossoming... ah, I'm so privileged to be a part of it.

What a girl!