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.

Two weeks later

And here we are two weeks later and it feels like he’s always been with us.

 

We really hit the ground running, with an eventful week leading up to the birth, and there’s still a lot happening. The due date came and went…I spent some of the day out with Sam trying to distract myself from the fact that I was still pregnant.

 The Friday was Emma’s birthday and we spent the day at the pools with cousins and Uncle, and finished off with cheesecake. The following day she was treated to see the Russian ballet perform Swan Lake and went to that with her Aunty and cousin. I wished I could have joined them, but as it turns out I went into labour late that night so rather glad I didn’t. Especially since it was in Tanunda, about an hour or more drive away.

So this brings us to the early hours of Sunday morning. In labour –  contractions are sore enough not to sleep anymore, but not so bad I couldn’t take bad self portraits.

At 6am he was born with my family there and my excellent Gaskin-esque midwife offering support from the sidelines.(Ina May Gaskin is a new hero of mine – I will be telling every pregnant woman I know to read/watch as much of her material as possible) Doug delivered him straight into my arms and all was well. I have difficulty already remembering the pain, except that I do know that it was really really painful. For those interested in such things, like Ryan (my third born), he was a star gazer, meaning that although he was head down, he was facing the front which is the opposite to the ideal. In my experience it’s a more painful second stage, and the pain feels more scary or out of control and I’m really grateful for the encouragement and support of Doug and the midwives.

About an hour later and we were tucked up in bed where the two of us stayed for the rest of the day and most of the next two.

Two days later Ben’s birthday. He spent the day sliding down hills on ice blocks with the home schooling crowd, had Hungry Jacks for lunch and again, finished off with cheesecake at home. He had a party on Sunday at ten pin bowling.

Sunday night heralded the start of a gastro that swept through most of our family. Fortunately Joel and I escaped and didn’t get sick. but everyone else had their turn over a period of 48 hours, one night we had two boys taking turns vomiting through the night interspersed only by a baby waking for feeds. Wow, that was a fun way to spend the wee hours.

It left as quickly as it started though and by Tuesday we were all back on track, just in time for Doug to start work – an orientation day. My first day with all 5 children by myself, and by then we were all suffering a severe case of cabin fever. For me it was 9 days straight inside the house. So we headed out to the playground, Joel’s first outing at the park. It was a really hot day, the older kids played under the sprinklers at the playground and begged to swim at the beach, but I wasn’t quite ready to deal with 4 wet kids and a car full of sand.

Since then we’ve been busy with ballet rehearsals for Emma’s end of year show, and some children have been getting messy with food.

And what else?  Making the most of every moment and trying to savour these newborn things that don’t last very long at all – like fuzzy hair and brand new feet that have never been used.

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.)

Conversation with Kids

A collection of  comments made by Ryan over the past few weeks in our house.

Over afternoon tea with Great Uncle Geoff:

Ryan: “I think the English (Breakfast) Tea is for when you are drinking it, it makes you speak English.“

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When discussing plans for the day. It wasn’t Tuesday as far as I can remember:

Ryan: “I know why they call it Tuesday….I think it is because you get to choose what you do on ‘Choose-day’”

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Ryan excitedly: “Mum! I know why you don’t have nuts! It’s because when the baby comes out, if you had a nut bag, one nut would go like this… “  he gestured far left with one hand, “and one nut would go like this…”  gesturing far right with his other hand, “and it would REALLY, REALLY hurt. That’s why you don’t have nuts”.

I would like to point out that as far as I can remember, we have never referred to that particular part of the anatomy as a “nut bag“.

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)

 

 

 

Kuitpo Forest

Yesterday a group of home schoolers met up at the Chookarloo Campground within Kuitpo forest, which is a plantation forest in the Mt Lofty ranges about a half hour drive from Adelaide.

“Established in 1898, Kuitpo was the first of a number of forest plantations in the Mt Lofty ranges to ensure a sustainable timber resource for South Australia.

Today, Kuitpo covers and area of some 3,600 hectares, of which 60% is softwood plantation.Kuitpo’s plantations yield some 25,000 cubic metres of timber each year, valued in excess of $1.5 million.

Kuitpo is modelled as a community forest, managed for sustainable commercial forestry, while providing for the conservation of native flora and fauna and community use for recreation.” 

~ Forestry SA pamphlet

There are great places to camp, so we hope to head back that way when we’re ready to travel.

We had a campfire and some of the families cooked lunch in the coals. We discovered that throwing dry eucalypts leaves on the fire was quite spectacular which lead to us chatting about  wind, heat, fire safety and bush fires.

Of course we toasted marshmallows, set a few on fire and got pretty smoky and sticky.

Certain children (all four of mine and 2 others) had fun making a mud slide into the little creek. We’d come prepared with a change of clothes, which was a good thing because they were needed. It was lovely to spend some time chatting and playing and we’re gradually making new friends, which is something that isn’t always easy and does take some time.

I always say that the dirtiest child is usually the one who had the most fun. This time the fun factor was rather high. Everyone needed a shower when we got home and we were all nicely tired and ready to sleep at bedtime.

Science Alive

Yesterday we all went off to the Adelaide Showgrounds for Science Alive Show 2012, part of National Science Week. It was our first ever science show and what fun it was. We were there for more than 4 hours and still didn’t really finish exploring everything there was to see.  The range of displays was broad, with plenty of fun for kids and adults alike.

Our kids had their faces painted, then had lots of fun exploring the displays.

We got up and personal with some reptiles.

Here is Ben holding a Black Headed Python found in Northern Australia. Today we did a bit of googling about them and enjoyed this page with photos and video.

Ben and Ryan enjoyed this simple activity. The yellow buckets were spring loaded like a pump and had a hole at the end. The folks from the University of Adelaide filled them with (presumably) dry ice and the kids then got to shoot the gas rings into the air.

There is so much more…Ben explored some astronomy, D had a look at the electric car, and a big as telescope. All the kids watched a chemistry show, and the older kids tried to figure out why it didn’t hurt to sit on a chair seat of nails. Ryan discovered a solar powered toy train, and Emma submitted some invention ideas. All the kids LOVED the tasting kinds of exhibits and they are desperate to try make some Sherbert, which they saw demonstrated.

We went along just for the fun of it, and to expose the kids to some sciencey fun. I really think it’s important to keep the fun in learning. I remember school excursions when I was a child and I’ve seen the same thing recently….kids on a fun outing to the zoo or the museum eager to dash around and discover things, but being tied down to trailing around as a mob with piece of paper in hand to answer required questions. It killed it for me, and I generally found such excursions tiresome and frustrating. We did just dash from one exhibit to another, at one stage we’d completely lost all three of the older ones as they all became so excited to see the things they wanted to see. Apart from the anxiety it caused me to track them down and make sure they were all safe, it really was fun for them to explore at their own pace the very things they were interested in. They didn’t write a single thing down, but everyone learned stuff and discovered a little bit about how cool science really is.

See more of this weeks Unschool Monday posts here.

Volcano conversations and some art

Here are some of the things we’ve been up to today.

I pulled out some watercolours, white and black paper, and coloured chalk and this is what resulted:

Emma made this volcano, and Ben must have thought it was a good idea because it inspired his efforts too. I don’t know if they were thinking about volcanoes because of hearing about Mt Tongariro‘s recent eruption, the first in over 100 years. There are some great images here: Tongariro’s Eruption. We had a chat about volcanoes and their hazards such as lava and ash.

This is Ryan’s picture of lava.

And little Sam had a go as well.

The chalk drawings on black paper was fun too.

The Beach and the Long Way Home

So we’ve been in Australia nearly a month now. I am full of good intentions, and had hoped to blog a little more, but this is going to have to do for now.

We are in our house which is bigger than the one we’ve left behind. It’s nice to have some extra space and we’re enjoying settling in and buying the stuff we need bit by bit. We didn’t bring any appliances or furniture with us, so there’s been a lot to get sorted with the 6 of us. We are doing some serious bargain hunting and it’s been such fun shopping second-hand. Also heaps of stuff has been given to us, we’re so grateful and it’s made such a difference.

Today though we just needed to get out and enjoy the sun. It’s been cloudy and showery all week and the extended family have all been sick as well as our Samuel who has a nasty cold and most likely an ear infection. So we jumped in the car with no particular destination in mind and ended up at Moana Beach. All of these photos taken by the hubby.

The kids threw stones together

while poor sick little Sam clutched his medicine and wouldn’t let go.

Later we wandered up to a little playground and the kids pretended these were horses and I was the crazy commentator. Ryan loved it so much and said later that ‘winning the races’ was his favourite part of the day.

This involved a fair amount of leaping off if you felt like you were getting behind.

Token pic as evidence I was actually there. I kept busy by carrying the coffee. While growing a baby.

We bought hot chips for lunch and shared a few with this beady-eyed character.

We took the long way home via McLaren Vale although we didn’t stop to taste wines. We passed through Kangarilla, and Clarendon and stopped to buy flowers from the side of the road. Apart from the usual sheep and cows, we also saw donkeys, alpacas, a flock of cockatoos, several camels, and a dead kangaroo. Despite our best efforts craning our necks up gum trees we didn’t see a single koala. Ryan has made me promise to show him ‘all the animals except snakes’. I told him I’d do my best. The dead kangaroo didn’t count.

Celebration Trees

What better way to celebrate our children’s New Zealand beginnings than to plant trees? I’ve said before than there is always something special about the place you were born. I wanted a special way to honour that, and create something lasting for the children to remember and hopefully visit again one day.

I came across Cue Haven on the internet, and after making contact, arranged a day to go up and plant some trees for the kids. What a fantastic day! Tom and Mahrukh are warm and hospitable people, and have such a great plan for their piece of land. You can read more about their project at their website. Basically they are restoring their land which has been used for grazing for over 100 years, back to native bush as it would have looked prior to being cleared for farming.

The boys each planted a Totora and Emma planted a Puriri.

Here are some pictures of our day.