Ch ch ch ch changes

I am sitting outside in the relative cool of the evening, playing chicken with the mosquitoes. The sky is hazy with smoke and I cannot see the hills beyond the suburbs like I usually can. I don’t know where the fire is.

It’s nice to take some time to sit alone and think. February is my favourite month and I find myself thinking of February’s past. A lot has happened during the last 12 months. It’s been quite a year.

February 2012 marked the beginning of the pregnancy which gave us Joel. He is three months old now and we are all enjoying him as babies are meant to be enjoyed – that is, he is being thoroughly lavished with attention from us. Lucky boy with lots of siblings to fuss over him.

We celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary last week in what was one of the toughest weeks of our marriage so far I reckon. I suppose it’s because our marriage might now be considered a petulant teen. Or it could just be cracks showing the strain of the extra weight of a new baby, a new country, and some stressful issues all at once.

Moving back to Australia has been a good move for our family and I don’t regret it for a moment, but at the same time I wouldn’t call it easy. Not that others don’t have it harder. But still…I took some strain this year.

Probably the hardest thing has been the kids missing their friends and lacking buddies to play with during the week. Because we home school and they don’t get a ready made bunch of friends at school, making friends is something we have to be proactive about. There are plenty of active home schooling groups here with friendly people and fun, interesting activities, but I just haven’t had the energy to consistently get involved and really get connected. This also means we haven’t had the support that I think is essential to home schooling working, especially with a large family. It does take time. I know this. And we gave it just over 6 months. We still sorely miss our NZ friends.

I kept thinking that soon I will feel better…ever moving the goal posts…”it will be easier when the baby is born”…”it will get better once we’re through the new born stage”….”I just need a good night’s sleep”…”we’re just having a rough week”.

But there were too many rough weeks in a row, and we always said that we would regularly assess what is the best educational choice for the children . I haven’t had the energy to do the home schooling thing well, and that just isn’t fair on the kids. D & I also struggled to find time to be together to talk and were taking strain. I came to the sobering and a little painful conclusion that I am burnt out. Its the kind of tired that takes more than a few good sleeps to fix.

So we decided it would be best for everyone if we enrolled the children in school. The boys started last week and Emma will start next term. I don’t know if it will be permanent. I can’t think too far ahead right now. But so far I can say that it was definitely a good decision. They are settling in really well especially considering this is their first experience of school.

Actually now with just three at home during the day I really don’t know myself.  It’s been great though and when the others come home I am excited to see them which is the kind of Mum I know is inside me but who has been missing in action for a while.

I am consciously taking time to look after myself. I feel like I need to recover and that will take time and kindness. I have started journalling my way through to the other side. I might share some of that with you as I go.

Introducing 10 tonne Betty

Yes we bought a bus. She is an old school bus converted to a motorhome and is the newest member of our family.

We are looking forward to lots of adventures. In fact they have already begun as Doug had to drive her home all the way from NSW in a record breaking heatwave without air conditioning.  About 1700kms of hard work and discomfort for both of them (and Ryan who went along for the trip), but I think they became well acquainted during that and are possibly even slowly forming a firm friendship. I love her already.

The children likewise are enjoying getting to know her.

Even Sam seems to like her even though they had a little disagreement on the first day. He fell out, the step being a little higher that he thought and his two footed jump down to the gutter went awry.

I can’t wait to hit the road.

A comment on the local bird life

Magpies:

I’m a little bit scared of them. Even though they apparently only swoop during breeding season, they have beady eyes and a menacing look about them all year round. If I encounter them while out walking, I find myself trying to stare them down. But then I’m scared they’ll peck out my eyes, so I look away. Of course then I can’t see what they are up to, so I sneak a look and then alternate between hiding and staring while upping the pace and getting past as fast as possible. I keep wondering if they can sense my fear. I think they can.

Pink Galahs:

Watching them feed when I am out walking always makes me smile and a large flock of them wheeling over head is cool enough to really make my day. I like watching them walk around. They spend a lot of time feeding on fallen seeds on the ground.

Superb Blue Wren:

There is a little family living in our backyard. They are a bit shy, but if you keep your eyes open you will sometimes see them out and about. They are really tiny little things, and look like they might break. Every time I see one and call some family member or other to come and look, they dash away. Sneaky little things.

All the pics pinched from Wikipedia Commons.

A Spider Visitor

We’ve been here over 6 months and this is the first decent spider we’ve seen. A fairly common Huntsman on Emma’s bedroom window. Harmless to humans, but hairy and fast.

My thumb for scale, and in case you mistakenly think I’m brave, the spider is on the outside trapped between the screen and the glass.

I once had one on my windscreen (on the inside) which scared the crap out of me. 

That is all. Strange blog post.

Hot

Did a bit of shopping. Gearing up for the big day, but mostly sitting around looking busy with worlds cutest 6 week old baby, and incredibly grateful for air conditioning.

How to cope with hot weather

39 degrees outside?

No problem, play in the sun, feeding hundreds and thousands to the ants.

 
Can’t find your Bob the Builder sunhat?

No problem, stick a beanie on your head.
Feeling sleepy?

Just lie down and have a nap on the floor.

The Shack

So while in the vicinity of Wallaroo, we also visited The Shack. This has belonged to my family for some years…don’t really know how many but more than 35. Over the years it has been used for countless holidays and fishing trips. It’s takes a lot of work to maintain and hasn’t been used for several years now, so we went to see what sort of condition it was in.

Here’s some pics of the day.

Lovely to see my kids playing among the same rocks I spent hours of my childhood…looking for tiny rock crabs, hiding from everyone else, and day dreaming looking out to sea.

As you can see, it’s a picture of absolute serenity, disturbed only by the near perpetual howling wind and thousands of sticky persistant flies, one of whom found itself in the right place at the right time. Probably because they are so highly skilled at always being right in front of your face.

On our way back we spotted two Sleepy Lizards (ironically both moved away before we could get the camera) and two snakes. Here’s a blurry picture of one of them. It’s not clear enough to be sure but I think it might be an Eastern Brown Snake. It was around a metre long, not very fat, and brownish greenish -ish. Or something.

This isn’t the lizard we saw on the road, this is the one of about 3 that we have seen living at our house. Here he is jammed in between the rubbish bin and the fence. It’s a Blue-tongued lizard, often called a Sleepy Lizard.

 

A few days in Wallaroo

A last minute decision to get out of the house for a few days resulted in a two night get away to Wallaroo, which is about 160km north-west-ish of Adelaide. I was born there and spent a fair chunk of my childhood there. There are a thousand memories.

We stayed in a caravan park in a cabin that we splurged on a bit, but it was worth it for the ease and comfort of a late planned trip. We were right on the beach front and not being school holidays the beach was pretty empty. We arrived Sunday afternoon and left on Tuesday, so mostly avoided the weekender visitors too, and really appreciated the space.

The weather was beautiful…sunny and warm to hot with not much wind, and the kids spent heaps of time at the beach. Here’s some of the many pictures.

This enclosure next to the main jetty is the Wallaroo Pool and is where I learned to swim as a child. It used to have a net, presumably to keep sharks out (or perhaps to keep the children in?) but now only the cable remains. The first time I ever jumped off a jetty was here, and only did it so I wouldn’t get caught in a game of ‘chasey‘ (tag) and I remember screaming to my cousin “Push me!” because I was too chicken to actually take the leap. She did it.

And looking back the other way towards the silos.

Ben jumped from the little platform by himself.

The main Wallaroo jetty with grain conveyer to the left.

We stopped at the bakery for Cornish Pasties for lunch, but despite it being the busy lunch hour, they weren’t ready yet, so we had to settle for regular ones. Sheesh…drive all the way to Wallaroo for a Cornish Pasty and they don’t have any.

This is my late Nanna’s house which we discovered is for sale again. It’s a weird feeling to look at it now that someone else owns it. The fig tree that all the grandchildren played in as children is still there in the backyard (I peeked). So familiar that I wanted to wander on in, and yet it belongs to someone else. Very strange.

There is a lot of new development on the north side of town, and as we drove out that way I was trying to show the family where my Nanna grew up. I was disorientated due to the new developments and roads and couldn’t place it. Later on our way home we spotted this brand new road by chance. My grandmother’s maiden name was Hopgood, and she grew up with her 9 siblings on a farm in this area. It’s pretty cool to see that the town planners considered the local history when naming the new roads. I’m still not sure of the exact location of the original property, but perhaps it’s right here.

Back to the beach after exploring the town with heaps of space to run free.

Good night. We also visited the family shack for a quick look which is sort of like our family’s very own Bonnie Doon. More on that, as well as some snakes tomorrow.

Mid-October Paddlings

Just a couple of pics of us last week at the beach. This was a must-get-psychotic-pregnant-woman-out-of-the-house emergency outing late in the afternoon. It was pretty warm even though it doesn’t look like it. We were not prepared with togs/bathers or towels so the kids just got their clothes wet.

Given that we are heading into a hot summer that we’re not used to, I think we’re going to see a lot more of this.

(This post is also an opportunity document for posterity and for friends far away my rather large belly at 37 weeks. It’s now a whole 5 days since these photos were taken and I am sure I’m noticeably bigger, puffier and more uncomfortable.)

To Not Forget These Days

 

Some rather average phone pics just so I don’t forget these lovely days in the sun. This was how we spent our Monday morning.

It was sunny, but with a fairly cold onshore breeze.

A lady walking her dog asked me ”Are these all your children?”

 ”Yes” I said.

She stopped, glanced around and counted them off . “One, two, three, four, and one on the way I see”.

“That’s right”

“Well you have your hands full”

It’s true, I do. But they are nice all the same.

After the beach we stopped at the shop on the way to buy some Frog Cakes. These are an iconic South Australian treat, which are in fact listed as a South Australian Heritage Icon by the National Trust. They are rather pricey at $4.30 each, but I had to introduce them to the children now that we’re living here.

A set of three frog cakes from Balfours (Photo credit: Wikipedia)