fiveandtwo

The Young And Firm

It seemed like the fastest week ever, and it was great! I felt that our family was enjoying each other's company. Parents, teenagers and small fry. Lots of joking around, hanging out at the beach,  watching Christmas gift DVDs - even a hilarious trip to the supermarket. I loved it. Gives me strength for the hard yards.

Ahh, the Beauty of Youth. Firm and slender. Is it weird to admire your children's bodies? I did, you know, admire other fine specimens as they strolled past. Actually, the beach is a place to see people of all ages, shapes, sizes and ethnicity. Glorious humankind.

Each afternoon we were visited by a group of these beautiful birds.

Crimson (blue-cheeked) Rosellas. Twice a lorikeet turned up but was chased away. On Christmas Day we were treated to a group of kangaroos lounging on the grass across the road. Clare spent an afternoon at the beach trying to catch small fish with her bare hands.

A beautiful place. In retrospect I think a week away as a family, has helped strengthen the unit. Restorative (thank goodness).

Flowers To Thank You

You're a tremendous bunch. Tremendous. I have felt so supported by your comments after my post about family illness and Leah's escapade. Thank you so very much.

Right now I should be dissecting a ham. Some to take away with us and some to leave at home. A dear friend has generously given us the use of their holiday unit at Cunjurong Point (near Ulladulla) for a week over Christmas. We're off tomorrow.

Being a list maker par excellence, I'm reasonably organised (except for the ham). First there's the menu for the entire week. There's only a bread-and-milk shop at Cunjurong Point (but I'm a weekly menu-maker as well). Then I have a list of things to pre-make (so I can have something resembling a holiday too). There's a list of other food items to take and, finally, a list of implements to take. This list includes things like decent knives, the camera with its battery charger, the large pasta pot, sunscreen, Father Christmas's offerings (shh)...I think I might be a tad anal.

Clare and Ally unpacked the clothes bag I'd done. Heh, apparently  I'd put in too many ugly clothes. Serves me right for trying to slip in some lovely handmade items. We've reached a compromise, however.

Cunjurong Point is a lovely spot. Quiet, with a great beach. Giles and Leah aren't too pleased about the lack of shops. They'll survive - I am looking forward to a lack of shops! Shops are insane at this time of year.

The dog, cats and chooks will be in the care of the lovely Jeannette of Pampered Paws and Whiskers.She feeds all of them and ensures they have fresh water, walks the dog, brings in the mail, puts out, and brings in, the rubbish bin. If you want she'll water your pot plants as well. Jeannette is pleasantly down to earth, and doesn't mind a bit of a yack. The whole deal is rather cheaper than kennels and cattery, and doesn't place extra tasks on rellies at this time of year.

This flower is rather special - the first from my oak-leaf hydrangea. I've had this plant for several years. This is its fourth abode, why I didn't plant it where other hydrangeas were thriving I don't know, but last year I did when I was re-establishing this garden bed after renovations. I had taken cuttings of most of the plants before the work started, so was able to re-plant with the lovelies that were thriving beforehand. It has grown now as if nothing ever happened, and hydrangeas like this South-facing, quite shaded position - of course.

Wishing all you blogland/internet lovelies a terrific Christmas. XXXXXX

A Number Of Things All In One Post

Where to begin. With The House of Disease, I think. Our usually quite resilient immune systems have developed cracks, crevasses  more like it. First the hacking cough, then the evil gastroenteritis. Poor little Ally had a spell in hospital having some IV rehydration. Vomiting, diarrhoea and a constantly sore throat (even with paracetamol) made it an uphill battle to get her to drink, or even suck ice. Friday morning saw her alarmingly flat. It's quite impossible to get a same-day (or even same-week) GP appointment in this town, so I went to sit and wait, hoping to catch one of them as they came off their hospital rounds. Strike. Off to A&E for IV insertion prior to admission. Admitted to Children's Ward at around 3.00pm - the saga began at 8.30am!

Not one to waste all that waiting time sitting around twiddling my thumbs, I read The Trout Opera by Matthew Condon (recommended), and started Barbara Kingsolver's book of essays, Small Wonder (lovely, insightful, thought provoking). If I could knit with any competence that would've had a look-in too. Ally just wanted to lie down. Poor little chick.

(Giles with dreadlocks, Linsey, Ally and Suska-the-dog)

The difference even a couple of hours of IV fluids made was...well, miraculous. By the next morning she was pretty much her usual cheeky self. I'm grateful to live in this country, to have access to modern health care, to have it low cost (the GP fee is claimed at Medicare), all that was required was hours of waiting (gainfully used). And Ally is well again. It's so important to maintain accessible, low cost health care for all. Free for those on a low income. Same with education. And...now I'll climb down off my soapbox.

Prior to The House of Disease there was The Wayward Daughter. Leah is grounded for the entire holidays. Having a couple of friends sleep over turned into sneaking out when the house was asleep. At 1.30am a phone call from the police to collect the trio. Picked up by the patrol car making a racket and in possession of several Vodka Cruisers. Leah is not quite thirteen. I don't like to swear, but shit. Shit. So, grounded, has to pay a $55 under age drinking fine = no pocket money for quite a few weeks = not being able to buy phone credit = out of contact with buddies = torture for a (not quite) teen.

Actually, she appears to be mortified and embarassed by the results of the escapade (rather than proud). I take this to be a good sign. Ah, she's such a sweetie. May she navigate this adolescent stuff with skill and emerge intact. This stuff, it's me, back in those years. I will fight for (with) her to emerge with a strong sense of self ( because I didn't).

I'll probably edit this post soon. It doesn't need to stand for eternity. I just wanted you to know that I'm no perfect parent.

Several years ago women at my Steiner Playgoup, and later, Kinder, were convinced I was some sort of super-parent. No assurances that I was fine as long as I took my medication had any weight. They only saw that I had five kids, did this, did that and so on. I think they didn't believe I was on Zoloft. I just couldn't shake the super-perfect-parent label.

I think this label is starting to creep in to the impression people have of my blog. Nooo-oo. Hence this divulgence of family shit.  It's all here, but I just don't post about it. Mostly I just want to post about nice things, and keep the other stuff out of the picture. It occupies my daily life, and I don't want my blog to be a constant reflection of the daily stuff. I can't write about it eloquently like many of my favourite blogs (see sidebar).

Ok, scale down. I got a "Sewing Susan" needlebook from a garage sale on Saturday. I'm attracted to these because my name (formally) is Susan - and I sew!

This is the third I've bought. They're all different.

But similar. Lovely.

Mangoes and Christmas Trees

We've been gorging ourselves on these!

Two dollars for four at one of our local fruiterers.

On Thursday I bought ten, on Friday I bought fifteen, today I bought twenty eight.

For a long time I didn't like mangoes. We had five mango trees in our yard when I was gowing up, we'd get heartily sick of them.

It was one of my chores to pick up the fallen mangoes and limes when I was a kid. These mangoes come from the town of my birth - Katherine, NT.

Of course I love mangoes now. And look at that unholy mess in the background. Numerous works-in-progress.

The Christmas tree is up, festooned with our motley assortment of decorations. I really enjoy the ritual of tree-decorating. Many of the decorations have their own story. There's the knitted ones made by my Aunty Helen, she died earlier this year. The "vintage" ones I found in a plastic bag in the shed of the first house we rented in this town - sparkly birds, cute plastic elves and the like. Wooden decorations my brother bought for us at the Vienna Toy Fair years ago. And of course the very special ones the kids have made over the years.

At night we put the twinkling lights on and it's just magic.

I've also been writing the Family Round-Up letter to go in the Christmas cards. I have to use the calendar to prompt me. So much happens in a single year! The letter goes to people I usually only keep in contact with at this time of year.

Garlic

I thought these were self-sown leeks. When they died down but didn't flower I investigated. Must've been a reject garlic clove from the chook run stuff put on the vegie garden, not quite composted.

Inordinately pleased about this find!

OK, I've seen the buy/make handmade for Christmas pledge on quite a few blogs lately.

I think this is terrific.

I usually try for the same thing. My downfall is what the older teens want - MP3s, mobile phones, tickets to The Big Day Out, surfboards. It's much easier to do handmade with little kids. Electronics are beyond my capabilities! Heck, it'd be more economical if I could make phones, MP3s and so forth! I wanted to take the handmade pledge, but knew it wasn't going to apply.

Leah already has (last month) her Christmas present - a mobile phone. For Leah and Giles it's a very important mode of communicating with their peers. Linsey has part-time work so buys her own phone credit. Giles and Leah buy their own credit, but it's usually me who does the purchasing (with their pocket money).

I want to make them gifts, but I also want to give them the things they desire. They do not desire my handmade gifts.

So...I can't take the pledge. I realy admire you people who've done it. Good on you.