Nicholas - chickenpox

We haven't been out much lately, here's the reason why:

Even so, he's trying to put on a happy face:

Dear little man, he's had the spots in all kinds of uncomfortable places. He even had six in one of his ears.
I think we're almost in the clear and can join the world again. I did take Summer and AJ to their classes on Monday, but kept Nicholas in the car by going for a drive or reading or playing.

At home, we've been baking and playing lots of Uno and Set and other card games and board games. We're going to work on making our own board games today. And we've been watching the vege seeds sprout and watching shows about gardening and other fun shows as well.

Halloween is coming and I am not ready at all. I heard that one of the big grocery stores is selling American pumpkins - for carving - for $20! Nah, I don't think so. If Nicholas is better then, we're going to go out for the whole day somewhere fun. The kids want to go trick or treating, but they just don't do that here. Marketing money hungry folk are trying to encourage more of an event around Halloween, but I just don't see it happening. Summer and AJ have been watching some kids Halloween movies on tv and are looking forward to the start of 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' later this week. It's a Doctor Who spin-off and we all enjoy the Doctor.

Still no sign of chickenpox on Summer. Perhaps the mild dose she had when she was 2 was enough. Sure hope so.

I am so flippin' clever!

I'm still chuffed with myself for figuring out the bike trailer gizmo!
Instead of the backpack on the trailer today, I put on a 44L plastic box. In that I put some water bottles, fruit, towels, sand toys, a book for me to read (didn't happen, but a nice thought), and some other miscellaneous bits and bobs. And off we went to the creek!

Along the way I noticed quite a few people looking at my trailer and making positive comments. Damn I'm amazing is what I thought! Once again, my little trailer did a great job! We stayed at the creek for over 2 hours before packing everything back into the box, loading it on the trailer and cycling home. The boys had a bath to get the sand off them then ran naked around the backyard laughing at the sheer pleasure of just Being!

We were going to go to a drumming circle tonight but the kids look a little wiped out, and Nicholas is still asleep. We'll see.

...
Got an invite to join Facebook today. When I followed the link, I noticed quite a few gals on there that we used to hang out with so I joined up. So does anyone know...is there a "Facebook for Dummies"? My golly it seems like such a busy place and kind of invasive - all your little messages back and forth to others show on your "wall". I was thinking it was going to be more like a blog place, but nope. From what I've seen so far, it's just a few sentences (if that) between the user and their friends, which all of their other friends are able to see as well. Besides messages, it also has other activity such as "Annette went to scratch her bum" or some silly things. Sure seems to have a lot of people on it, maybe that's why so many blogs are slow these days? I don't know about it, but I've only had less than an hour on it. I can hardly keep up with email let alone playing games sending things back and forth on facebook. I watch it for a few days and see how I feel about it then.

kids etc

Like a lot of folk, we are trying to conserve resources wherever possible. We've kept up with the habit we developed while living in the camper of having a small tub of water available in our kitchen for rinsing sticky hands, wetting a cloth to wipe down a bench or whatever else. It sure saves turning the tap on and off many times. That water is then scattered onto the lawn or the garden.
Taking that a step further, we've decided to do the same with the bath water - the kids and sometimes Cary &/or I, usually use the same water. We then use a large cup or jug and pour the water from the bath into a watering can and take it outside. We got the blue bucket above to put in the shower to catch extra water that also gets put outside. Nicholas decided it would be fun to have a bath in it after having a shower.

In another area of conservation, I've been looking for a bike trailer for my push bike to make it easier to go to the beach / library / shops and cut down our fuel consumption. I wasn't totally happy with the prices I've seen, though there are some ok deals here on ebay. I wanted to make something and knew I could figure something out. I found a golf buggy at a garage sale for $3 after some negotiation. I used some zip ties to attach it to the rack that Nicholas' seat sits on and also wound a small combination lock around the handle of the buggy and the rack on my bike for extra security. A few bungy cords to attach our bag of stuff and we were ready for a trial run to the playground 1.5km away. The verdict - excellent!

The photo above of my 'patent-pending el cheapo bike trailer' was taken outside of our new place. Shoosh - sorry I haven't put more photos of our place on here Hon, I keep forgetting. But you can look through the front window, out the back window and see the clothes flapping on the line! (if you click on the actual photo, it should come up a lot larger) What you can't see are the passionfruits, the mulberrys, the herbs, the stray zucchini plant suddenly arising from our resting compost heap, the tomatos and the pretty flowers that smell soooo good. Must remember to get more pics for you!

My budding photographer, AJ, took this photo of Nicholas at the playground. It's especially for y'all in the northern hemisphere as we are in the land 'down under'! (oh dear..I think I need some adult conversation soon or my brain is going to turn gooey).

Cary LOVES lights - police lights, flashers, railway lights etc etc. I reluctantly went to a car boot sale two days before Cary went back to the USA. He insisted that I get out for a while and he'd stay home with AJ and his chickenpox. Wandering around the sale, I saw this traffic light. When I asked how much it was and was told $2!!!!!!!!!! , I casually said that I would buy it. One very happy hubby when I got home. The lady that had owned it had it at her home daycare. She said it had worked but due to some regulation, they had to disconnect the electrical which Cary said he can easily reconnect.

And finally, just because I probably haven't put a pic of AJ in recently (and I know I haven't of Summer either), here he is, chickenpox and all:

Actually, his chickenpox don't look bad - they weren't bad. I put chickweed gel on them the first day and that helped a lot. I think he's a pretty fast healer too.

leaving and a lesson...

We dropped Cary at the airport yesterday morning. (It's only 4 months since we picked him up from there!) We had a flat tyre on the way to the airport which Cary fixed. I guess it's a good thing it wasn't on the way home so I didn't have to deal with it. I was not in a hurry to get home. So we stopped at a playground - AJ's chickenpox are all crusted over now so he's no longer contagious - then to the fruit store where we stocked up on fruit and greens. When we did get home, I didn't want to be here. We've really simplified our living, especially after living in a caravan for a year. But it still felt like too much stuff around me. I wished we didn't have any of it and I could go back to being a free spirit and be on that plane with my man.

When Cary was away while we were in the caravan park, we had lots of neighbours, always someone to talk to and who I knew were looking out for us. Being in a house I feel kind of isolated. I miss the social interaction. Having the space inside to spread out is nice, and extra shelter from the rain and cold. If we had a larger trailer, we would still be "on the road". I guess it's a trade-off either way.

Had an interesting experience the day before he left. Cary was showing me how to run the old John Deere lawnmower he recently picked up from a garage sale for $5. I'd never seen a mower like it but he said it would have been used on a golf course or bowling green. I was trying to pull the cord to start it and after a few tries, the muscle in my right forearm felt like it was on fire as though it was going in two different directions at once. I immediately knew there was a lesson there for me. I thought about Cary leaving and how I take things he does - like mowing the lawn - for granted. And knowing he'll be next to me when I wake up in the morning. But he's not going to be there, for at least a month, and I'll miss him. I know that he knows that I adore him but I feel I could show that even more deeply by appreciating him even more. And I can feel that love for him more deeply by feeling gratitude.... I'm taking that lesson with me in my relationship with my kids and other people in my life. Including myself. I take my own body for granted which was shown to me by a very tender forearm that night and the next morning.

chickenpox

AJ has the chickenpox at the moment. He had a slight fever Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon we noticed some spots. Friday all day he just looked miserable and the itching bothered him as he tried to sleep that night. I put chickweed gel on the spots (approx 100 of them) when they were bothering him and that has helped a lot. He started looking a lot brighter Saturday afternoon and slept much better that night. Today is Sunday and he's bouncing all around the place. We did go for a bike ride to get him out of the house but we didn't stop at the playground or anywhere as he's still contagious. The other things we're doing for the 'pox are seeing that he drinks lots of water and he was also taking a daily bath with baking soda in it.

Summer had a very mild dose when she was 2 so I'm waiting to see if that was enough for her to build immunity to it. I'm also waiting to see if Nicholas gets it. It can take 10 - 21 days to show up so we'll see.

Cary's leaving on Tuesday morning to go back to the USA for about a month. I'm going to miss him a lot. I know he has to go though. While he's away, the kids and I are going to focus on some self-sufficiency projects like establishing a vege garden, making a solar oven, looking at our cupboards and shopping list to see what we can make ourselves, eg peanut butter and costing that out. I'm keeping my eye open for strawberries on sale and might even attempt to make jam this year.

Gotta go and get some extra hugs from my man before he goes :-(

Misc. ramblings

I feel like I should blog, but I'm not really into it. I just haven't felt the need for writing lately.

About 5 weeks ago I started exercising regularly again. I noticed that my right ankle and knee started to ache soon after. When I was just standing and preparing food in the kitchen, I would notice them and it encouraged me to notice my posture. I realised that I always leaned to my right side, maybe after almost 11 years of holding little people on my left hip. But it felt like there was another reason....it's like I was side-stepping my own life. So I've been very aware of how I hold myself most of the time and have decided to be up-front and in charge of my life - standing on my own two feet! It really has made a difference and I feel that doing that, combined with exercising and eating 95-100% fresh fruits and veges, has helped me to feel much more in balance and in charge of my life. It's very empowering and I feel wonderful!

My sister and her family were visiting our area this past weekend. So much fun! One of the highlights was Saturday morning when I rode my bike to their apartment which was right near the creek and my sister and I went for a long kayak on the creek. There were some really peaceful spots and it was so lovely to spend some time with just us. Something very rare.

Nicholas seems to be getting taller. When I pick him up these days, his legs feel longer. He loves to talk to people of all ages. He has a special interest in babies and is very gentle with them. He has said several times lately "Mum, I want a baby". good luck with that kid. No more babies here.

I could say something about the state of the financial world at the moment...but I'm not going to do that. I found myself getting very angry a while back, followed by sadness about the way the world is run but then the passion started rising again and I decided to head it in a positive direction rather than getting into talking about the things I can't fix and talking in a negative way about the people in power etc. I decided to focus on the things I CAN work on (starting with me), and the causes I can contribute to in a positive way. I am fueled with positive passion!!

I could just ramble on but it's really windy outside and it's already knocked out the 'net connection about 5 times while I've been writing this. so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead and see if this will post.

So yuba dubba dubba...that's all folks!