Sleeping babes, A Good Book and A Beautiful Sunset

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Jacinta

I had one of those rare afternoons, where I found myself with a book in hand, well to be precise, a kindle book on my phone, in hand and two sleeping children.  An hour to myself, such a precious and rare event.  Tenneille fell asleep across my knees on the couch in less than 5 minutes after she snuggled up with me.  Jairah was in bed, fast asleep.  The book I am reading is written by Barbara Kingslover, it’s called The Lacuna.  I’ve only just started reading it, but like all her books, I love it so far.  She is an amazing writer.  I have read a few of her other books, like the Poison Wood bible, Prodigal Summer; Animal, Vegetable, Mineral; Small Wonder, High Tide in Tucson & The Bean Trees.  Actually, I think I have read most of her books.  A dear friend of mine put me on to Kingslover and I am so glad she did.  She makes words flow across a page with such depth, I am drawn in like a leaf to an eddy. I find it very hard to put her books down once I start reading.  Did I say I love her books, oh yeah, I did!

After the heart wrenching task of having to wake two children to go and pick up Scarlett from school, we were treated to an impromptu swim at a friend’s house.  To say the kids were excited was an understatement.  Afterwards we met up with Greg for dinner.  I left Greg with the girls and Jairah and I went home via the supermarket to get some much needed groceries.  As I drove out of the car park, I caught a glimpse of the most amazing sunset.  I had to duck down a side street in town to try and get a photo.  We don’t get to see sunsets from our house, as we face north and are surrounded by hills.  So there you have it.  A busy, but wonderful afternoon had by yours truly, Jacinta x.

Sunset over a nearby town

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Back to School

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Jacinta

Today was Scarlett’s first day back at school for 2011.  She is in grade 2 this year.  She attends a lovely Steiner/Waldorf school.  She was quite excited to be starting back.  My dad briefly dropped in to see her off to school which was pretty special, as he works interstate and often misses special occasions.  She talked the whole way home about every little detail of the day.  A swim in the paddling pool after school topped off a fun day.  I hope her enthusiasm lasts the year through.  Tomorrow Scarlett’s class gets to welcome the class 1 students to the school.  It is a beautiful ceremony where the class 2 students individually give the class 1 students a rose and lead them to their classroom.  When I watched it last year, when Scarlett was in class 1, I had tears in my eyes.  It’s these little things that make Steiner education stand out for me.

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Speaking Up For Your Children

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Jacinta

How many times have you found yourself in a situation where someone has acted inappropriately towards your children or children in your care?  What I mean by inappropriate is a adult has taken it upon themselves to threaten your child with an authority they don’t have.  Let me describe my situation.

While we were enjoying our time at the museum the other day a staff member took it upon herself to threaten Tenneille and another child in the children’s play area for not having their shoes on (I don’t think they had their shoes off for more than an minute as I had only stepped away from where they were playing and they had had their shoes on till this point).  She told them that if they didn’t put their shoes on right away then they would have to go home.  Her tone of voice was appalling and loud (yes, she was turning head from the other side of a noisy room), coupled with the fact she was standing over them with hands on her hips.  She appeared very intimidating to the children.  I stepped in and asked her not to threaten the kids and all she needed to do was ask them to please put their shoes on.  She started going on about safety amongst other things (oh yes, I got a lecture too), which I respected from a museum point of view, but reminded her that there was no need to threaten and that it wasn’t her right to say to the children they would go home if they didn’t do as she said.  I highly doubt she would have spoken to an adult in such a manner.

In the past I haven’t always said what I should have at the time, but as the years have passed on this parenting journey, I feel comfortable in what I feel is appropriate behaviour of others towards my children.  I am the voice of my children while they are young and I choose to protect them from people who are essentially bullies.  I want my children to grow up knowing that they have a voice and not be afraid to speak up for themselves when they find themselves in threatening situations.

Jacinta

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A Weekend of Fun

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Jacinta

We have had a busy, but fun weekend.  Friday was spent at the Melbourne Museum.  We decided to travel in by train which is well over an hours trip, but the kids had the best time and amused themselves well. We met up with family and spent the day wondering around the exhibits. Tenneille’s favourite thing was the dinosaurs. Scarlett, my horse crazy girl, loved the Phar Lap exhibit.  For those who are not familiar with Phar Lap, he was a very famous race horse in the 1930’s.  We spent the last hour in the children’s play area, where the kids all run about and played till their little hearts were content. I ran into one of my best friends and her kids.  Scarlett was excited as my friend’s daughter is her best friend.  They call each other soul sisters!  It was a moment of serendipity.

As we were walking back through the park to the train station, Scarlett asked me, “Mama, is the horse we saw at the museum called Long Lap?”.  I had to keep from laughing, my response was, “It’s name is Phar (far) Lap”.  I love the way kids minds work.  She was close in her guess, far/long, can mean the same thing!
The girls found an amazing old fig tree to climb in the park.  It made them forget about the fact they had been telling me repeatedly for the previous half an hour that they were s-t-a-r-v-i-n-g. I love how something as simple as climbing a tree can shift a child’s frame of mind.  We had dinner in the city and arrived home late, but happy.

Fun at the Museum

Tree of Fun

Saturday was spent at the beach while Scarlett participated in Nippers. She did really well.  Of course I hardly took any photo’s as Jairah and Tenneille kept Greg and I busy in the shallows, exploring all the bounty the sea had to offer.  The weather was perfect.  There was an amazing rainbow encircling the sun.  Of course I couldn’t look directly at the sun, so did a point and shoot with my phone camera.  It looked pretty impressive, the photo doesn’t do it justice.  Jairah fell asleep before we got back to the car.

Tenneille on the Pier

Today has been spent renovating the house and testing paint samples. We are getting close with our final colour choices.  Very exciting.
As it was so warm today, we finally set up the kids paddling pool and spent the balmy evening watching the kids splash about having the time of their lives.  The air was thick and heady with the scent of eucalyptus.  Couldn’t have wished for more.
Feeling very weary, but feel we have achieve a lot this weekend.  Hope your weekend was fun too.

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This Moment

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Jacinta

An idea via Soulemama

{this moment} – A Friday ritual.  A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Feel free to leave a link to your moment in the comments for others to see.

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One of Those Days

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Jacinta

A full on day = self-saucing chocolate pudding + cream. Of course it was washed down with a cup of tea. My soul is revived.  I know I can face tomorrow now.  I will post the recipe soon, I promise, Jx.

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Fairies in our Garden

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Jacinta

Our afternoon was spent outside planting a new passionfruit vine, weeding and building a fairy house.  Well actually, Scarlett was the fairy house builder.  I think it is the most wonderful creation.  Scarlett built the fairy house the other week when Greg was building the shed.  She puts so much time and effort into every garden she builds for her fairies.  I can see our time in fairyland with Scarlett isn’t going to last forever, so for these moments I am truly grateful and I cherish them dearly.

Her masterpiece:

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Tuna and Fresh Tomato Pasta

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Jacinta

I made this up for Greg and I the other day.  I felt it was blog worthy.

Ingredients:

Serves 2-3 people

4 cups cooked pasta
1 small tin tuna, drained (approx 90-100g, I prefer tuna in oil)
1 tomato, diced (I prefer Roma tomatoes)
1 onion, diced
1 egg
1/4 cup cream
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4-1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
parsley to garnish
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

Method:

Fry off onion and garlic in oil.  Add tuna, tomato, cream, chilli and salt.  Simmer for approximately 5 minutes on medium heat.  Stir in egg and mix quickly to evenly distribute throughout sauce.  Turn off heat.  Toss in cooked pasta and coat well with the sauce.  Serve immediately garnished with chopped parsley.

Tuna and Fresh Tomato Pasta

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My Littlest Helper

Posted on January 23, 2011 by Jacinta

Our sweet little poppet Jairah isn’t interested in toys, no, just give him something like a vacuum and he is one happy chap.  He spent about half an hour today taking it apart and putting it back together.  One of his favourite things of all is pulling out the cord and retracting it with his foot, yes, just like mama does!  That’s my boy.  Unfortunately it loses its appeal once it is actually turned on.
He is making me think I need a bit of a mind shift when it comes to my vacuum.  Maybe vacuums are fun after all!  Thanks for you enthusiasm dear Jairah.

Bottoms up

Trying to plug into the dogs chew toy, hmm.

Mine, mine, mine (yes, that is what he was saying as I was taking this picture)

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This Moment

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Jacinta

An idea via Soulemama

{this moment} – A Friday ritual.  A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Feel free to leave a link to your moment in the comments for others to see.

Posted in This Moment | Tagged , , | 16 Comments