He's a hobbit

I slept in a bit this morning, as one does on a Sunday, especially in school holidays. Eventually I got out of bed, showered and dressed and began yelling at the kids to do the same. I then cooked egg and bacon rolls for the hordes, poured myself a glass of orange juice and set the kettle on to boil.

I finished my food and suggested to Adam that he might like to make the tea saying "I've boiled the kettle..." Only I hadn't. Because someone had unplugged it in order to plug in the sandwich press. And the only person who uses the sandwich press of a morning is Tom when he makes himself the egg version of toad in a hole. Tom, who with every sign of ravenous hunger had just eaten his egg and bacon roll.

"Tom," I called down the hall, "did I just feed you second breakfast?"

"Well," he replied, "I did have first breakfast earlier."

Back to school

Off to High School! Today was Caitlin's first day of Year 7, nothing like 40 degree heat* to start things off with a kind of molten whimper. The Principal and the Year Advisor both devoted part of their welcoming addresses to reminding the kids to drink lots of water and not run around in the sun during recess and lunch, I don't think they'd have needed much reminding - it was a stinker of a day.

My mum came over in the morning to pick up some stuff I'd printed out for her and to see the kids off to their first day back at school. Consequently most of the photos I have are of the kids looking at Mum's camera instead of mine.

Tom seems fairly cheerful about going back to school despite being convinced that Year 4 is going to be horrible. Someone seems to have told him that he might have to do some actual work this year.

Two down, one to go - David starts Year 8 tomorrow.

*For my USian readers: 40°C = 104 Fahrenheit (aren't I kind to save you having to go do the conversion yourself?)

Thankful Thursday

I'm taking a leaf out of Ariane's book for this one (oh, and I believe there's some sort of big holiday about giving thanks happening overseas somewhere...), here's what I'm grateful for today:

Friends who respond to a very last minute invite to a candle party (like a Tupperware party only with, well, candles), and turn up at my place to provide great conversation and remind me how lucky I am to have wonderful people in my life.

Children who rise to the occasion when I really need their help and do a terrific job cleaning up and, as David did tonight, offering to cook dinner while I went to grab some groceries.

King Island cheeses.

Dried leaves in boiling water...

...an exercise in associative blogging.

Tea.

My Nanna (Dad's mum), who I remember as teaching me to drink tea - no sugar, a bit of milk, strong and hot.

Breathing in the steam from the mug, cupped in cold hands, sitting around a campfire at night. So many glorious camping holidays with my family and my mum's twin sister's family when I was a kid.

Yum cha, the brew getting stronger as the meal progresses until the pot is refilled and it goes back to hot water lightly tinged with colour and flavour.

The ritual of Grandma's teapot, readied before every meal and filled with boiling water as dessert was finished, the cosy tucked around it, and cups of tea poured when perfectly brewed.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and the cup of something that was almost but not quite entirely unlike tea which was all poor Arthur could get out of the Nutrimatic drinks dispenser.

Cold tea being used as a burns treatment in one of the Sue Barton books.

The Swallows and Amazons were always drinking tea; Lucy had tea with Tumnus the faun; Bilbo drank tea with Gandalf; the Mad Hatter had a tea party; Bunyip Bluegum, Sam Sawnoff and Bill Barnacle brewed tea in a billy to have with the puddin'; and there's nothing better than sitting down with a nice hot cup of tea and a good book.

Standing at the bus stop waiting to go to school in the morning with my cup of tea, the bus stop was right by our letterbox, when I finished my tea I'd put the empty mug in the letterbox and retrieve it when I got home in the afternoon. I once dropped and broke a favourite mug (given to me by my best friend Rowena) juggling too many belongings while trying to open the front door.

Tom reaching for my mug of hot tea from his perch on my left hip at maybe 9 or 10 months old and demanding his share of it before it got cold. Asbestos mouth that child.

Sitting on our front deck with my gardener, drinking tea and listening to tales of him growing up on a farm in South Africa and becoming a cheesemaker and eventually emigrating to Australia. He's moved up to the Central Coast now and has passed the Sydney part of his business on to his son. They're both lovely people but the son sends minions rather than coming himself (he's also living on the Central Coast) and I'm not at home as much so the tea break with the gardeners isn't happening any more.

Comfort, the cure for all ills. Peppermint tea for morning sickness (or rather morningnoonandnight sickness as it was), chamomile for sleep, English Breakfast tea for fueling up for the day, Earl Grey tea at night.

Watching Star Trek with Adam and wrangling cups of tea from each other with humerous orders "Tea, Earl Grey, hot. Make it so?"

Smoko at the shearing sheds when I went on a Scripture Union Agriculture camp during school holidays in year 7. It's called a smoko but it's really all about the mugs of tea. And the enormous trays of slab cake. I rode a pony bareback (and fell off) and drove a car across a paddock on that camp too. Then sprained my ankle so badly I couldn't walk for several days because I tried to chase sheep over rough ground wearing gum boots. My friend Rowena carried me piggy-back from the paddock back to where the camp staff were.

My kids bringing me cups of tea when they see I'm stressed or upset. On Wednesday night after Caitlin's dance concert this week I was so exhausted and strung out that when we got home I collapsed on the lounge and cried a little. Next thing I knew I had two cups of tea, both Caitlin and David had independently made one for me. I drank them both.

Drinking tea with my Mum and my brother on Saturday night. We sat at the kitchen table at my Mum's place after having left Grandma's room at the nursing home. We talked and cried a little and remembered and smiled and even laughed a little.

Tea.

Dried leaves in boiling water.

50 Things post No.18

This isn't quite a usual Friday Fragments style of post, not least because it doesn't just cover the last week - more like the last 40 years - but it's certainly fragmentary and it does include a couple of bits from the week just gone, so I'm linking up anyway. Don't forget to visit all the other fabulous fragmenters too!

Hosted by Mrs4444.

Making plans for the week ahead, anyone for craft?

Menu plan:
Monday - spag bol
Tuesday - mango chicken curry and rice
Wednesday - sushi
Thursday - homemade pizza
Friday - prosciutto wrapped pork fillet baked on red onion and apple, with mashed potato and baby spinach salad
Saturday - steak, jacket potato, corn on the cob and salad
Sunday - roast leg of lamb with baked veggies

The schedule:
Monday - at home while solar hot water is installed (unfinished due to rain), Caitlin's singing and Tom's drama lessons this arvo, Adam's mum coming for dinner.

Tuesday - 9am doctor's appt for me, squeeze in some work maybe, 2pm funeral, 6pm my singing lesson and 7:45pm a P&C meeting. Plus Adam leaving in the afternoon for a week in the UK. Err. Not sure if all this is possible.

Wednesday - 7:30am band practice for Tom, day at the office for me, Caitlin's dance concert at night.

Thursday - Nothing. And it's staying that way. (So I can clean, do grocery shopping, wash clothes...yay?)

Friday - 8am school dance practice for Caitlin, day at the office for me, nothing in the afternoon.

Saturday - outing with the kids in the morning (where/what to be determined), Caitlin's second dance concert at night.

Sunday - come hell or high water I'm making some jewellery! If anyone would like to join me for a craft afternoon you're very welcome.

Friday Fragments - chocolate strawberries edition

Hosted by Mrs4444.

I wasn't really sure I'd have much to decant after a week of daily posting for NaBloPoMo but I guess there's always a few little fragments of frivolity floating around ready to find a home in a Friday Fragments post!

On Monday we began the day with freshly baked homemade sourdough bread. Made by Adam, who got up at 6am to put the oven on, because I'm way too lazy to bake bread that has to be started something like 12 hours before you want to eat it.

He made four loaves and there are still two left in the freezer, might get one out and warm it up for breakfast tomorrow!

My order from Evans arrived this week. The two tops I bought, including the Beth Ditto heart print one, fit just fine but the Beth Ditto floral leggings are way too big. Which is a bummer because I really like them. There will be proper a Outfit of the Day post when I wear the hearts top for longer than 5 minutes and actually select a bottom half that suits it.

On Tuesday David was desperately campaigning to be allowed to buy the new game of the moment, Call of Duty Black Ops. We were stonewalling by telling him sure, he could buy it when he could pay for it. He then shifted his efforts to trying to borrow money from his siblings. Tom spotted an opportunity and made an offer to pay David to do his homework for him. Caitlin felt this was not appropriate. Hilarity ensued.

Tom was most disappointed to find his brilliant plan thwarted by his mean parents but David was happy, Caitlin agreed to lend him the money.

Here's a fun little thing that's been doing the rounds on Facebook and Twitter:

Go to Google Maps. Get Directions. Type Japan as starting point, China as ending point. Go to direction #43

And last but not least, tonight's dessert:

There is also a slab of dried cranberry and macadamia chocolate still hardening up in the fridge but it is not even slightly photogenic.

Now, off you go and check out some other fabulous Friday Fragmenter's posts!

Swimming

I can't remember learning to swim, though I do remember swimming lessons, specifically taking the life-saving course at Pymble pool in the summer holidays while my younger siblings were learning to swim and going to the school swimming scheme in primary school. I know diving clicked for me when I was 9 and we were in Tahiti on our way to the US where my dad was going for a 4 month sabbatical. There is also the family story of sibling rivalry wherein I was going without floaties for the first time at 3 years old and my sister, 21 months younger than me, decided that meant she could too and plunged straight to the bottom of the ocean pool.

I have so many cherished childhood memories of swimming. Out beyond the breakers with my uncle and cousin, body surfing and ending up with a cossie full of sand on numerous beach camping holidays. Floating on airbeds in the Kangaroo River, again with our cousin. Canoeing and swimming in Smiths Lake and swimming out to help my sister and cousin who were having steering issues with their canoe. My sister and I swimming out to the pontoon in the middle of the bay at the resort in Crete and FREAKING our parents out because it was so far off shore, I was 14 (Dad swam out to "rescue" us, we beat him back to shore by a long shot and then he got disoriented on the way back and ended up off to billy-o around the shore-line). At 15 years old, going to the YMCA in Boulder Colorado on a Friday night for a family outing at the pool, in winter, and stopping off at Baskin and Robbins on the way home. Getting up at 6am to go with my Mum to the local pool to swim 1km before breakfast on school days during my HSC year.

By the time that last one was happening I had well and truly reached the point where I felt uncomfortable in a swimming costume in public. It was an effort to go to a public pool and take my clothes off, the less time there was between removing my shirt and getting in the water the better. I was about half the weight I am now.

When I had kids I made a conscious decision that my issues with my body would not stand in the way of them having the fun of beaches and swimming pools and all the things that I loved so much when I was a kid. I made that decision long before I'd even heard of Fat Acceptance and it was hard to follow through on. For a long time I had to have at least a day's notice before a trip to the local swimming pool, I needed to psych myself up to it and wake in the morning knowing that we were going. Going on beach camping holidays was an exercise in being tense and hyper self-conscious for a whole weekend, or a whole week. Even being in my in-law's backyard pool was challenging, not that any of my in-laws have ever said a single word to me about my weight, but still.

Me, David and Caitlin in Adam's parent's pool

But I did it and I'm glad I did. For one thing I have photos like these and the memories to go with them.

Caitlin



David



Me



Me, Caitlin and Tom

I had conversations with small children at beaches who informed me, as small children will, "You're fat!" and I found that I could respond with humour and be ok.

Me, David and Caitlin (and my mum's arm)

I got to be the one teaching my kids how to watch the breaking waves and decide to either jump over or dive under. (With help from Grandma!)

Me, my Mum, David, Caitlin and Thomas

David boogie boarding

Last summer I tended to be the one behind the camera, but I was still there, at the beach and the pool, in my swimming costume and in the water.

Adam and Caitlin

Adam and the kids.

This summer I plan to make sure I'm in the photos again.

50 Things post No. 2

Sleeping - a picspam post

I was going back through all my photos on my laptop looking for images for another post that's sitting in my drafts folder and I kept coming across photos of me or one of the kids with either a child or a pet asleep on top of us.

Here they are.

Tom, post spag bol, with Samantha

Aug '05

Me with Samantha

Sept '04

Me with Tom

April '03

Ok, we might be foxing just a little bit in this one.

Me with Tom

Dec '02

Caitlin with James

not sure of the date, she'd have been 2-ish

50 Things post No 17

Wordless Wednesday

One from the wayback machine

Trying to get the perfect photo

We went to visit my Grandma weekend before last and I wanted to get a photo of her with all the kids. All I can say is I hope one of my mum's shots turned out ok (that's who they're all looking at instead of looking at my camera).


Animated gif maker

Tom on autonomy

Tom: Dad can we watch Underworld while we eat dinner?

Adam: Umm, I'm not sure...

Me: I already said no!

Adam: Well, that's a no then Tom.

Tom: Daaaad. You know, you shouldn't always let Mum control what you're doing.

Sundays in my City - A visit from Joss Whedon

Hosted by Unknown Mami

Today I took Caitlin to the Opera House to hear Joss Whedon speak about his writing and directing career - from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Dr Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog and everything in between and beyond. Joss was fascinating and brilliant and funny and wonderful and when he tackle-hugged Wil Anderson* at the end of the show I was really rather surprised Wil didn't fall over. The image of Wil with Joss Whedon's legs wrapped around his waist is one that will stay with me forever.

After the talk/interview/QandA session we retired to the bar at the back of the Concert Hall with about 100 other people for drinks, nibblies and a chance to speak to the man himself. I stood back and smiled the smile of a super proud geeky mum as Caitlin told Joss about winning first prize in the singing category at the school talent quest singing "Under Your Spell" from the Buffy musical episode, got a great big hug from Joss and then posed for this:

Ok, I'm not really showing much of the "in my City" part of the meme this week, but that is the inside of the Sydney Opera House you can see behind Caitlin and Joss there!

Don't forget to drop by Unknown Mami's place and see what's been happening in other cities round the world.

*Wil Anderson is a comedian and has been a huge fan of Joss from way back in the early days of Buffy. He was offered the job of interviewing Joss on stage at the Opera House and figured he may as well do it seeing as the seat on stage was a better one than the ticket he'd already bought for the event back in row R or something.

Monday miscellany and menu plan

Today was Wacky Hair Day at the school. A gold coin donation is collected for something or other, I forget what and the kids couldn't remember either, I guess the excitement of silly hairdo competitions and not having to wear school uniforms wipes all other considerations from mind.

We did lots of decluttering on the Sunday but somehow most of the house looks worse than when we started. I sorted through all the stationery and arts and crafts supplies and found enough lead pencils and coloured pencils to last us several years. Caitlin tested all the textas and there's enough of them to last till kingdom come too.

The top shelf of the cupboard that I'd tackled on Friday turned out to contain mostly craft stuff so I was able to clear that out completely and we're using it to store the basket of reenactment tableware.

We've made significant inroads to the mess that was left in the room destined to be Caitlin's bedroom.

I might even be able to get the vacuum cleaner in here soon!

Unfortunately some of what came out of that room ended up in my newly cleaned up lounge room but we'll get it all sorted out eventually.

My menu plan for the week is as follows:
Monday  - teriyaki pork ribs, corn on the cob and garlic brussels sprouts (and very nice they were too)
Tuesday - coq au vin with rice and green beans
Wednesday - corned beef with mashed potatoes and steamed veg
Thursday - sausages, jacket potatoes and salad
Friday - pizza (homemade if I have the energy!)
Saturday - Brendan's birthday dinner so no cooking for me. Yay!
Sunday - minestrone soup and bread

Friday Fragments

Hosted by Mrs4444.

Time for the end of week mental declutter that is Friday Fragments. Let's see what's floating about in here shall we?

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I did my 6th Kiva loan this week, which apparently makes me an average Kiva lender. Must do better. I'm going to stop buying Macca's coffee on work mornings and instead do a Kiva loan each month. There's a perfectly good coffee machine at work anyway.

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The church notice board that I was venting about on Thursday last week has gone from offensive to merely bemusing. It now reads "Without God the world is like a door off its hinges." I invite speculation as to meaning in the comments, my first thought was "can now be used as an improvised table-top?"

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There's a new Terry Pratchett book on the way, I've pre-ordered my copy of I Shall Wear Midnight and can't wait for more of Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegle.

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This week there have been only two days on which I posted Creating order from chaos pics. What a slacker! Here are today's feeble efforts.

The notice board, which wasn't really that bad (oh yes, it's been worse in the past) but things kept falling off it because there were too many sheets of paper stuck on with the one pin.

Before and After

The cupboard behind the notice board. I do not like the way the shelves in this cupboard sag. It's freaky. I keep having visions of one of the shelves giving way and all the glassware and stoneware coming crashing down through the floor into the stairwell below. Probably on top of my head.

Too many breakable things piled on top of other breakable things.

I worked my way up from the bottom shelf to the top. When I got to the top shelf I looked at it, pulled out one bag of stuff, stood there holding it for a while. Then put it back and left it for another day.

Looking much less precarious.

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My Dad

Dad took me out to lunch today. We went to a Japanese restaurant at Hornsby called Kibou which I had heard good things about and which Dad has been to often enough that he didn't have to specify which beer he wanted. It was goooooood. I'm a terrible food blogger though, I kept starting to eat before taking a photo!

Seaweed salad

Gyoza

Teriyaki chicken with salad, rice and miso

Sashimi

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I arrived home just as the kids were coming in from the bus stop and was greeted with much laughter and by this sight.

Guess we'll be needing new track pants then.

It seems they got a little over-stressed during sport. I'm so glad they have fully lined track pants and that he was able to find this highly amusing instead of totally traumatising!

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That's it from me today, I'm off to post a package containing Vegemite and Tim Tams to an unsuspecting blogger somewhere (hint, it's our lovely Friday Fragments host). Well, she knows the package is coming, but Vegemite is guaranteed to be surprising, forewarned or not! Don't forget to go visit other Fragmented Folks, head on over to Half-Past Kissin' Time to see what everyone's been up to this week.