After the rain...

There comes the sun...

7 Quick Takes

1. Spring has sprung!

Finally the spring holidays have arrived and we're even having decent weather! We have spent a lot of time out in the garden of course, planning patios and garden beds and just enjoying the arrival of colour once more. This is one of my favourite things about living in Canberra, and also one of my least favourite - the very distinct change in seasons!

2. Wounds are healing.

The big bloody gash on Tess's head has scarred over nicely and it is mostly hidden by her hair which is a good thing.
I'm still contributing to my physio's down payment on an apartment by going there every week. Work on back and shoulder is slow. The tailbone recover is also slow go but there is definite improvement there (after six months!)

3. Birthdays abound.

We celebrated Tess's second birthday today at the park by the lake. Good friends and grandparents made an appearance which made it an extra special day. We love that girl!! Although she doesn't always make it easy, I'm sure there must have been at least ten tantrums today. terrible twos! eh?? 
Heading to Wollongong on Saturday to catch up with the family for more birthday fun.

4. Puzzle.

Now that I finally have my study back (two big kids are sharing a room again) I've been looking at
my patiently waiting pile of puzzles and feeling the urge. Today after the party I cracked this one out, having fun with it!


5. Science at home.

We've all been enjoying my role as a science teacher at school this yea. The kids love the experiments I've been bringing home like the Surface tension experiment, the fossil making, and the crystal stars. These last two are planned for these holidays. Hopefully I'll get some hood pictures :)

6. Preschool at home.

Gabby and I have started a little preschool program at home. She's not terribly keen on it but I'm following Susan Wise Bauer's advice that given a choice most children wouldn't actually choose to sit down and learn but if you can coax them into it a little bit each day, the learning will come. Am loving her book 'The Well Trained Mind.'
 Basic alphabet and sound recognition is our first step but she's also keen to try writing. Her favourite activity is an alphabet app on the iPad, but I try and encourage more hands on stuff at this stage.

7. Orpheus gets a facelift.

This should come as no surprise; this book has had more face lifts than Joan Rivers, but I'm really happy with the way it is going at the moment. I think I may even do a 7 quick takes next week just on Orpheus so that I have in writing what I'm planning and why I like this version so much. Just in case I forget again :)

catching up

The year has taken off again, and after having just celebrated the Captain's 40th birthday - happy birthday my love, I I love you more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow - I thought I had better recap and catch up.
Here's where we have been in pictures




 Fossicking and digging at a friend's birthday party.

The Captain's famous churros con chocolate!!

And mama's bread :)



Pretty toes!



And now we welcome a few old friends back to the garden, and count down the days til spring (28!)

return of the mac

It's been a long time since I posted on here, almost a year. I'm not sure what kept me away but after browsing through some old posts it was the great collection of memories that I have here that has brought me back.

The year has been a busy one. First year of kindergarten has finished, leaving us with a very curious and fun boy who has learnt how to read and is currently devouring such books as The Cat in the Hat and the Tashi series. It's amazing and the Captain and I look at each other as we spy on him in bed at night with his torch and his book and we just smile. A love for books is inherent in both of us and it is definitely something we love to see passed on to our kids.

Our boy also gave us quite a scare toward the end of last year when he slipped off the monkey bars and broke his arm. Although both his ulna and radius were broken the healing was relatively quick and the cast was off in five weeks -  just in time for Christmas!!

The girls have had a fun year at home playing together, and with the coming of October we said goodbye to our baby and hello to our one year old. Although we can only just call her toddler now as she's just starting pull herself up and 'toddle' around the furniture. She's going through a bit of cranky and clingy stage, but she seems to get like this when she's undergoing big developmental changes. She's incredibly expressive and often has us all in stitches with her facial expressions and antics. Definitely an entertainer!

Gaby is looking forward to starting at play school one day a week this year. With that and swimming and playgroup she will certainly be busy! She has been such a mum's helper this year, helping me with cooking, cleaning, looking after the baby and just generally being by my side most of the time. That said, she has also been enjoying some really great independent role play games, mums and dads being a favourite :)

I returned to work late last year and after a lovely six week holiday the Captain and I will both be heading back to work next week. I'm working in a lovely ESL faculty for two days a week and I'm really looking forward to it.

We have suffered through a real heat wave this summer yet we've managed to get out and do some great things.
Highlights include: the Sydney aqaurium, watching the New Year's Eve fireworks from Pa and Julie's balcony, swimming at the pool, at the river and splashing in the sprinkler in the backyard. Our grass is well and truly dead but the Captain has lovingly tended to the vegie garden and we're now enjoying lettuce and tomatoes. The grapes and apples are covered to stop the birds from eating them and the corn has shot right up!! Lemon, orange and grapefruit trees are all heavy with fruit. There is something really satisfying about growing your own fruit and vegies :)

As mentioned Gaby and I have been having fun in the kitchen, Irish Barm Brack in the bread maker is a weekly staply, delicious with butter for breakfast.

We also made this creation for Tess's first birthday, which unfortunately caused her to break out :(

And this delicious carrot cake for her Baptism.

 Last winter we even got up the mountain to see some snow. We also saw this specatcular cutie!!!

 

 A baby hadrosauraus from Katie and The Dinosaurs made an appearance for Book Week. I couldn't believe how easy it was to make this costume! And without the tail (which is simply pinned on) the jacket is still being worn!!

A visit from the fire brigage at playgroup saw this little cutie climb into a fire engine for the first time. She was quite apprehensive about is and when I learnt that she was worried that they were going to drive off with her I could understand why!!

In October we lost my grandfather, a wonderful man who lived to the ripe age of 86. It was a hard loss for all of us, and the kids especially had a hard time understanding it. My mum and my gran seem to be doing well now, despite their loss. Christmas was a tough time without him and his ubiquitous cap, but we felt his spirit there with us.

A very busy year with ups and downs and I'm not really sure what this year is going to bring, especially as I face some of my own health challenges but my spirits are high and I realise how lucky and blessed I am to have this life.

I guess that's worth recording after all :)

looking back

January is all about looking forward, making plans and resolutions and pondering things to come. I like to use it as a time to look back as well.

2012 was quite a year for us.

We started renovations on our house, painting the kitchen, rumpus room, lounge room and bedrooms.

The layout doesn't actually look like this anymore, but the paint is the same :)

We combined the kids into one room and eventually we got them settled into bunk beds. 

We rode bikes and scooters, and eventually said goodbye to training wheels.

We watched mum's tummy grow :)

We started preschool and made new friends.

We saw dinosaurs, frogs, butterflies, ducks, lizards, pigs, goats, rabbits, and more.

We made racing track cakes and dozens of cupcakes :)


We potted round the garden and were rewarded with dozens of flowers

We went to galleries, museums, parks, rivers and beaches.

We welcomed our newest member into the family, our baby girl in October.

All round a very good year :)

What were your 2012 highlights?

january's wicked ways

Happy new year all! I'm a bit slow in the new year uptake but I think that's part of the beauty of January :) We've had a lovely time over the holidays, catching up with family in Wollongong, visiting the beach and generally just indulging and being indulged :)

January is a bit of a wily enigma around these parts. Sometimes she's cool and drizzly and others you are sitting on high 30 degrees temps for weeks in a row. At the moment, we're sailing (like bugs through mud) through the later. It has been a hot and dry start to the year. There were a couple of days where we got evening thunder storms but, sadly, even they seem to have fizzled under this oppressive heat and beat it too. Not that I'm complaining too much - one of the best parts of surviving a long, cold (snowless) Canberra winter is looking forward to the scorcher summers. It's like the summers of my childhood, long, dry and sweltering. Ahh, sweet, hot nostalgia.

Unfortunately January is carrying the rather unflattering tags of 'extreme' and 'catastrophic' at the moment, especially in regards to bush fires. It's a wicked, wicked time and I hope you are all safe. People and animals alike :)

But January is pretty special for other reasons too. You know, that whole resolutions thing. It's that time of year when you think, this is something I want to do, something I need to do and now is the perfect time to do it. It is a wonderful time to be mindful, as in thinking of the now, planning ahead is important yes, but so is taking the time to be mindful of today, of right now, this minute. If life is getting too busy for you, then make a plan to slow down. If the kids' schedules are making you feel like you're more of a taxi driver than an engaged mum (or dad) with the time to sit and connect with your kids then be mindful of what this is doing to you and your kids and make the plan to cut back.

My resolutions have been quite simple this year. If you guessed finishing Orpheus as being one of them, you would be right :) I've nearly finished planning the trilogy - did I tell you that the one book is now branching out into a trilogy?? that one book that I've been writing for five years and still haven't finished?? What can I say, I like a challenge ;) - and once all the links, kinks and twists have been worked out I can finish planning the first book and get down to more writing. Which I'm very excited about. I've got a notebook which I've covered with pretty scrapping paper, because I believe if you're going to have goals and dreams you may aswell write them down in something pretty, something that you want to look at everyday, something that inspires you. So my goals are written down in there, plus it's big enough to hold notes and plans for the stories.

Another big plan is to finish decorating my study. I mentioned that the process had begun but only in the last week or two since the festive season have the paint brushes come out and the real work begun. And seeing as it's so hot outside this is a perfect indoor activity. Except for the bored kids. And the baby needing feeding and attention. And the fact that anytime after 3pm the study is like a sauna, going face to face, toe to toe, mano a mano, with the full force of the setting sun - one of the joys of a westerly-faced house! But at least the room looks pretty now as it goes to battle - like a golden fleece (dreamy cream of be exact) blazing proudly.  The painting is nearly done and I'll post pics of the final room when it's done. Cannot wait!! Am getting mighty sick of internet-ing on the dining table.

Speaking of golden fleeces, in other areas of my life I've decided to join up with Edie's classical book club at lifeingrace and although I'm a bit behind I've got my copies of the Odyssey and the Aeneid on hand ready to help me through these hot, lazy days. I've also downloaded some free podcasts from iTunes from BBC 4 on the topics. As Orpheus is set in the Renaissance, a time when the classics were being revived I consider this book club a pleasure rather than a chore. She has also read Antigone by Sophocles, a text I read in high school, and Plato's Republic, a book that I'm familiar with seeing as it was a part of a college philosophy course I taught a couple of years ago. So I'm really excited about exercising my brain in this way again and already am really enjoying the Odyssey. If you're thinking about giving yourself a classical training, or going back to read all those books you didn't get round to in high school consider  joining a book club, Edie's or another, or maybe even set one up for yourself. There's nothing better for your brain, your imagination, your mental acuity, your intelligence, your understanding of the world, your conversation skills and your sanity than reading a good book. Any book will do, doesn't have to be classical.

As I mentioned earlier, January inspires being mindful. This year my eldest child, my only son, is starting kindergarten. This really hit home when yesterday we went to the shops and bought black leather lace up shoes, and realised that he doesn't know how to lace up shoes :) With this monumental event taking place in our house, I am aware of the effects it will have on all of us. My two year old daughter will be losing her best friend, her everyday play mate and will be gaining a lot more one on one time with her mother. I will be having my two girls (one two years nine months, the other three months) at home and am interested to see how our days run on this - will there be less trains and cars, more dolls and babies? Or will my daughter continue to play with those things she plays with her brother, in a way to still connect with him even when he's not here? I'm not sure, but I'm looking forward to finding out. I'm also sad and in a mild disbelief that my baby is going to be gone five days a week. It's a big jump from the the two days a week preschool that he did last year. A huge jump. And I suppose I'm also mindful that with him starting school our house and routine need to be simple and calm so as not to overwhelm him too much. Last year I read Kim John Payne's Simplicity Parenting and it resounded so deeply within me. It is everything I attempt to do as a parent and stay at home mum. This January I've been thinking a lot about the simple life (not to be confused with easy) and am planning a post about it soon.

January has unearthed another wonderful find for me. An Australian blog called Che and Fidel.
Jodi is a mother of two and despite having wonderful giveaways she also documents the slow and simple (not easy :) life her family has in the north east of Australia. A lovely blog that I am happy to find as so many of the blogs I read are Ameriacn. I love to be able to connect with other Australian bloggers. She is also working on something called the 52 Project. It's a portrait a week of any subject of your choosing and if you're into photography then this is definitely a fun, simple and worthwhile project to link up with. I'm not doing it, simply because I don't post pictures of my kids on my blog and can't think of anything else I'd like to photograph for a year but my good friend Sophia is and I'm looking forward to following her and others through their creative process.



 
 Wow this post is starting to border on essay proportions so I'm going to leave it there. What are you planning for or mindful of this January?

If the bush fires are on your doorstep I hope you take care.

Happy 2013 friends!! 

pine, presents, piano and panettone

It's that time of year again (my goodness, where did 2012 go???) when our kitchen smells like delicious buttery, sweet Italian bread - store bought of course, I still haven't attempted to make it! And the lounge room is, for the first time, gracing us with the gorgeous fragrance of a fresh pine tree. This year folks we headed bush and cut down our own tree for the very first time!

 I stood on the sidelines, admiring the view, choosing then changing my mind over the perfect tree, snapping pics.

The kids gave up on us and went exploring. The baby slept on unawares in the car (before you call DOCS all the doors were open and I was standing right next to it :)

Finally, The Captain, saw in hand, attacked the perfect tree and we brought it home.

We made popcorn, put on Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas and decorated our beautiful tree.

And after two weeks, it's still looking green and great! I love it!!!

Then yesterday this arrived:

This is The Captain's piano which has been crashing his parents house for the last however many years. His parents are good friends with Marcela Fiorillo and at a lunch recently I spoke with her about my son taking piano lessons with her. Jumping on the band wagon, my mother-in-law had the piano sent over to our house. You can tell from the following (very candid!!) shot that it's a bit of a squish in our living room now. I see an exciting furniture redecoration happening in the not too distant future - stay tuned!!

I've also undertaken a new project - the study. I've taken my before pics, started painting furniture and can't wait for the holidays so that I can really get it going. Again, stay tuned!! The Captain, loving and accommodating as he is, has laid down the law though and told me that me and my paint brush are not allowed to touch the piano! Fair enough, I say.

The kids are getting up at the rather disturbing hour of five o'clock in the morning to check on the presents under the tree, even though I have assured them that none of them are theirs. I am hoping that after Christmas they will go back to being a bit respectful of their tired, exhausted parents!!

We had my son's Christmas pageant last night, our first concert as a parent not a teacher :) His preschool class sang the Wombat Wobble and it was delightful. Once he got his fingers out of his mouth, stopped looking at his best mate next to him, and began to do the actions. But who cares right? Getting up there is a pretty big thing and the crowd was quite large so I'm super proud of him anyway! The first of many such fun nights I'm sure.

Well, I think I'm all up to date now. Now I need to go have a shower and get ready to do an early morning shop for last minute Christmas pressies.

How about you?
What's been happening?
All your shopping done?
Any last minute tips to survive the silly season?

i heart italy...and del Piero

It's no secret that I love all things Italian.

I've been to Italy twice in my life. The second time, when I was 24 I spent almost two months there living with an Italian man (in a homestay arrangement :) named Francisco and the other girls that boarded there, and I studied the language. That was at the end of my teacher training degree where I was qualified as a secondary Italian/History teacher.

I've spent only the one year teaching Italian, which is a bit sad but I still think in it a lot, especially when I'm writing.

My books (the many that I am writing :) are set in Italy or have Italian characters.

I've blogged about Venice and the women of the Renaissance. Even the Black Death in Italy has had a shoe-in at KV Writes.

And those of you who pop by regularly know that Orpheus is set during the Italian Renaissance. In all of its many guises, Orpheus has always been set in Italy, both present and past.

via

My sister-in-law comes from an Italian background and her parents are amongst some of the sweetest people I know. (Prayers for Marie, Paula :)

This is my favourite book in the kitchen. We eat pasta in our house at least once or twice a week.

Yep, you could say that Italy has a pretty special place in my heart.

When I was 18 and studying the HSC I began to be mildly interested (okay I was obsessed, as in wake up at 530 in the morning to watch the games obsessed) in Serie A Italian Football. For some bizarre reason. Perhaps it was this:

via

No, no I remember now. It was because of this:

via

As an 18 year old I thought Alessandro Del Piero, a striker for the Turin football club Juventus and also on the Italian national team, Gli Azzurri during the World Cup of 1998, was just about the best thing ever.

In 2004 when I was living in Padova I asked the boys at the local bar who made my morning coffee how I would go about going to see a Juve game, because of course, I had to see Del Piero play. They told me it was hard to get tickets. And expensive. Too expensive for a student living on less than $20 a day. And so my dream of seeing him play was crushed. Actually the real dream was that he would see me in the stands and have to marry me there and then :)

But then I grew up and on. Started teaching Spanish, and then Italian, and then ESL. Got married and had some kids, none of whom were named after this luscious Italian God. And I suppose I forgot about him.

Until recently.

Because Alessandro Del Piero has landed on our sunny shores. Having signed with Sydney club Sydney FC earlier this year, he has already played three games.


Three games here. In Australia. Less than three hours away from me. Breathing the same air and looking up at the same southern sky.

So I'm already planning a family weekend trip to Sydney. What is a good age for children to start watching live football games? One month? Two? Does it even really matter?

A little slice of Italy on our doorstep. Yes please!!!

And I'll have a side of gelato with that thanks :)

summer viewing

When it comes to watching movies I'm a true creature of habit. I would much rather watch a movie I've already seen a hundred times then venture out into new cinematic viewing. This habit often brings despair to The Captain ("what? not this one again??!!) but what can I say? When I find a good thing I stick to it.

So, just because the weather is warming up I've decided to compile a list of my favourite summer movies, that is the movies I like to watch in summer :)

In no particular order, here are my favourite summer movies.

1. Mamma Mia!
Nothing kicks off summer like a dance around a Greek island with Abba!! I can't watch this movie in winter because it makes me too depressed, being cold and stuck indoors, so I savour it in the warmer months.

2. My Life in Ruins
Sticking with the Greek theme I love this movie. It makes me want to go to Greece and do a tour of all the wonderful sites there. Watched this one the other night :) And I might add, Poupi is pretty darn hot!!

3. Bread and Tulips (Pan e Tulipani)
It's just a hop, skip and a jump over to Italy from Greece for this movie. Now that I think about it, I didn't realise that so many of my summer movies had a European setting :) I love the crazy antics of the Italian housewife in this movie who, after being left behind by her family on a holiday, decides to live it up by herself in Venice. Love it!! I've only ever been in Venice in winter, but I have to say it looks pretty special in summer too! Andiamo!

4. Priceless (Hors de Prix)
Over to France now, the French Riviera to be exact with the gorgeous Audrey Tautou and an equally charming Gad Elmaleh. Audrey is great as a gold-digger who unknowingly falls for a lowly hotel bartender. The beautiful scenery and the rich and famous set of this famous French city is great. I could totally see myself there...except for the rather obvious lack of tan...and money...and having three small children with me...hmmm, perhaps not...but I can always dream. And watch Priceless!!

5. Dirty Dancing
Did someone say rich and famous set? Where else would the rich go in the 1950s for their summer holidays than Max Kellerman's resort? This is a classic and to be honest I could watch it any time of year. Filled with classic lines ("nobody puts Baby in the corner;" "Go back to your playpen Baby;" "He wouldn't know a new idea if it hit him in the pachanga!" Sorry I'll stop now...) and the always gorgeous Patrick Swayze who plays bad-boy with a soft heart, Johnny Castle who can resist??

6. The Last Song
Now, I debated putting this on, because it's a little bit daggy but I'm trying to be honest here (without honesty folks where are we? hmm??). So, although it's not a classic, nor is it European something about Miley and that cute Hemsworth boy (Liam? Chris?) won me over. Great coming of age film set in a Southern American town during the summer.

I couldn't cut it down to 5 and I couldn't reach 10 either. So 6 it is :)

What about you? Got any great summer movies I should check out? Especially if I've already seen them before. Because if I haven't, then well, I may not watch them...

her tree

Friday was my last day of work. The people I work with areso sweet and kind; they gave me a very generous gift card and a beautiful bunch of flowers which are now spread around the house! - I'm not a fan of one big bunch - I prefer to pull them apart and spread the love around!!

Glorious.

Beautiful to wake up to. 


It is a terrific group of people that I work with and in a way it was a bittersweet moment of departure. Many of them are moving on to other schools (not so much a by-product of mobility in ACT schools, as the direct purpose!!) and won't be either in my program next year or even at the school :( So it was a rather sad day knowing that I wouldn't see them there again when I return from maternity leave late next year. I wish them all the very best, wherever they end up. I know I've said it before, but our 'alternative' program is not an easy one. The kids can be hard, as most teenagers can be :)

Their issues, however, go deeper and sometimes more painfully than your average year 10 student. And it takes a pretty special teacher to be able to cope with these issues, as they continually permeate their way into your lessons, your understanding of the student, their behaviour, their outcomes and their attitudes. In a nutshell, it can be pretty full on.

Little did I realise that I was one of those 'special teachers.' My students bought me a tree as their farewell present. A beautiful crabapple. So, on the weekend we planted it. Everyone got involved. (Even me - the foreman!!)

A very muddy hole was dug, which the kids thought was just about the best thing ever!! (Sadly no photos of those - poor foreman skills I know!) There was mud everywhere!! But little hands got in there with plastic shovels and did their bit. As all of our garden beds are pretty much full (thanks to a rather rigorous autumn/winter planting program!!) this baby got pride of place on the lawn. In front of the daggy privacy screen :)

I think of it as her tree, my baby's tree and it really is a pleasant thought. I only wish we had owned our house when the other two were born so that we could have planted something for them. It will be for me, a loving reminder of those students at school.That even when you think you aren't making a difference, when their constant complaining, arguing and whinging is driving you crazy, when they don't work, when they won't work, when they refuse to engage in anything, even then you are still making a difference and who knows, maybe something is even getting through. Some little message of hope. Something that makes them stop and say, hey how can we honour her leaving us and this precious time in her life?

Teenagers - you never know what they're thinking!! One boy, a particularly troubled boy who struggled with suicidal tendencies even wrote on the card that he thought my classes "were the best." Talk about a good recommendation!! I feel sad leaving them before the school year is over, but at the same time I don't think I have the emotional strength to carry them through (and some days that is really what it feels like!!) anymore. Now is the time to focus on her. And I'll alwaly have her tree to remind me of them and the impact we had on each other's lives.

I guess that's why we become teachers :)

dash

The other day I came across theses photo of Dash on my computer.

I thought I would share them with you all. It gives you a rare glimpse into the life and mind of this unique, intelligent, misunderstood creature.

 The pics are about seven years old now, and sadly, she has lost some of this curious spark. Having kids around has made her wary and sleepy. Don't know why!!

But she still keeps us entertained :)

And in case you're concerned, yes we do give her fresh water!!