too much drama

Yesterday I popped into a friend's house after school to practise a short drama for church on Sunday.  It was all going swimmingly - we learnt our lines, we had a cup of tea and a nice chat, and I started saying things like 'I must  go now and start rustling up some dinner' (side note - have recently discovered Jamie Oliver - only about 15 years later than everyone else - but I am very much enjoying cooking my way through 15 minute meals.  Not that I would say I was a cook by any stretch.  But I am competitive and I like seeing how close I can get to doing the meal in 15 minutes.  Last night's took 25 minutes - but I had not defrosted the meat and had to wait until the microwave did it's work).

Anyway, just as I was about to leave I noticed Scooter (who I had brought around to play with their dog) was sporting a brown ruff instead of a white one.  And there was a malodorous miasma wafting from her direction. I put her into the car - but then realised there was no way we could possibly drive home and breathe the same air that she was inhabiting.  We searched around for the cause of the stink.

The dog had tipped over a container of Charlie Carp (liquid dead fish) and rubbed herself all in it. 

Ugh.

Usually Charlie Carp is diluted a capful to twenty litres.  Our dog had about 250 ml adorning her neck.  She smelt like she had been dragged up from the dead fish sewer.

We decided to bath her - a wet dog in the car is slightly better than a very stinky one.  While we were bathing her the girls were waiting for me on the grass out of the front of my friend's house.  Where Gab got two stings by ferocious greenants.

So I had a wet still smelly dog, a crying child, and hungry bellies.

We quickly made our exit, wafting Charlie Carp down the streets of Brisbane as we drove home.

It was a little too much drama for one afternoon.

I thought I smelt lovely with dead fish around my neck.  The perfume of the cods.

how I got my girls to make their own lunches for school

It has been school time for the last couple of weeks again.  Back into the rhythm of dropping and picking and organising.  It gives the days a bit of structure after the long summer break.

A couple of years ago I found that the lunches I was sending into school were coming home again pretty much untouched.  I had a mandarin that went to school and back seven times (I knew because I marked it with a pen.  I'm cunning like that).  I decided that if they made their own lunch they were more likely to eat it.  And I didn't have to make it.  Which gave me more time to sleep. Win win. 

So I set up a chart (with picture symbols!) with options of what they had to put in their lunchbox and they had to choose at least one thing from each column.  I have set it out below for your education.  In case you have children who you need to make lunch for.  Thank you.  The columns were:

Breads and cereals
- sandwich
- wrap
- corn puffs
- dry breakfast cereal eg fruity bites
- vita wheats
- rice crackers
- corn thins

Fruit and vegetables
- apple
- banana
- stone fruit
- carrot sticks
- celery sticks
- fruit tub
- mandarin
- grapes
- watermelon
- whatevs in season

Dairy
- cheese slice
- yoghurt tub
- cream cheese dip
- cheese stick

Protein
- boiled egg
- piece of cold meat eg ham, chicken
- leftover rissole

Something else
- muesli bar
- leftover birthday cake
- hot cross bun
- popcorn
- sunflower seeds

 It worked surprisingly well.  They got used to putting a variety of things in their lunchbox for balance of colours, flavours and nutrition.  And we have been cracking down on them making it the night before so there is no angst in the morning over there being NOTHING TO EAT.

Of course we have days where there is a carrot stick and two old crackers left in the cupboard.  But mostly they have a fairly good lunch.  The lest favourite choice is sandwich - which I can understand.  A sandwich from a lunchbox from your bag that has been sitting on the bag rack in the sun for hours is not delicious.  Not at all.  I also make them put it all in little containers so we have no plastic wrap in the lunch box.

So there you have it.  A boring blog post about lunch.  I can hear you thinking - 'she hasn't blogged for ages and the best she can do is talk about lunchboxes!'.  Well.  There is other stuff happening in our lives at the moment, but tonight I am thankful they have made their own lunch for the first two weeks of school.  And I am thankful for the small things.

Here is a lovely picture of Gab that Annika took.

Good school lunches to you.

quick trip to Toowoomba

Last Thursday and Friday the girls and I made a quick trip to Toowoomba.  I wanted to visit some friends who I had always talked about visiting, but never zoomed up the Warrego to do.  So I made it happen!

We had lunch with the lovely Kate, who I know from a long time ago.  Let's just say 'before children'.  When I was younger.  And I think I persuaded her to go into speech pathology as a career - pretty sure it has worked out for her.  Anyway, she has never sent me an angry letter about it.  It was so nice to catch up and see her beautiful children.  Her little ones made me a tiny bit clucky...move on.

We then visited with Yasmin and her girls, where we had arranged to go on a horse ride together.  Sounds charming and country, doesn't it?  We all piled into her car (after petrol stops and toilet stops and afternoon tea stops and dropping off my car stops) and set off - Yas was driving and I was navigating.

She did an excellent job of driving.  My navigating however, led us up the bush track.  Yas had never down 4WDing before.  She learnt quickly, as the paths we were following were more like little cow tracks through paddocks with puddles and potholes. I don't know if it was the combination of our personalities, but we decided to push on through the paddocks until we got to our destination, rather than going back and trying another road.  We both got a terrible case of the giggles, and the children put blind faith in their mothers that they would get to their destination.  Although Gabby did say 'Are we lost?'.  Not really, we are exactly where the blue dot on the ipad says we are.  We just didn't go directly.  And then we drove down a road called Bum Bum Road. 

Gigglefest from everyone in the car.

Here is the route we took in red.

 The route we SHOULD have taken was in blue.

We were a bit late for the horseriding. 

I loved getting on a horse again.  I have always loved riding a horse and take every opportunity to do so.  It was a lovely time wandering through the bush on horses at sunset.  My horse was also quite nice, actually responded to my instructions and gave me a good trot/canter.

 Thanks Yas for our horseriding 4WD adventure.  Bum Bum Road - hee hee hee.

Our next stop on Visiting All The People I Know In Toowoomba was with my lovely friend Deanne, who is travelling with me overseas in March.  We planned what we are talking about in our speech therapy conference in the villages, and chatted travel plans.  Very exciting! I have a whole two pages of notes to turn into a few hours of presentation...hmmm.

Then Deanne asked if we wanted to go to her mum's house and see a baby Clydsedale.   OF COURSE we would. It's not every day you see that!

Awwww.  Hi Baby!

Little fluffy tail!

Awwww.

Those baby legs are long.

Picking cherry tomatoes.  Yummy.

 Our trip to Toowoomba was heaps of fun - thanks to everyone who we visited!

Ice skating

So the logical thing in hot hot Brisbane at the moment is to take the girls ice skating. Which is what I did today, along with another four kids I was babysitting for the day. We had to find jumpers and beanies and imagine wearing them as we packed in the heat of our house.

We had a lovely time. I had to sit by the side of the rink and drink hot chocolate. I sacrifice as a mother sometimes. The girls played red rover and limbo on the ice, and they squealed when the disco ball came on.

But there was one thing that marred our trip.

The ice bogan.

The twenty year old guy in a cut off flannel with his own skates who zoomed around the ice and did donuts and handbrake turns in front of beginner four year olds. The testosterone loaded ice hog who won all the red rover games and made small people cry. The attention seeking ice hockey wanna be who used beginner skaters as witches hats for complicated backwards high speed weaving.

The mother tiger in me started to flex it's claws and twitch it's tail. This guy was rattling my cage. I stood at the edge of the rink. Then another bystander said, "that guy is ***** rude". I nodded and agreed.

Take THAT ice bogan.

Then he fell over in a big stack and left the ice. And my girls kept skating in the reverse direction.

The girls had a lovely time at ice skating thanks to my vigilance. No ice bogans get to my kids. Not on my watch.

my trip

Time to update you all on my big trip that is coming up in about seven weeks!  I am pretty excited and nervous at the same time.  I am writing lists and checking them more than twice.

I am off to Central Asia and Asia for three and a half weeks.

Why?
I have been asked by my friend, an OT who lives there, to come and do some training in alternative communication and feeding/swallowing with parents and carers of children with cerebral palsy and Down Syndrome.  I am going to do a mini-conference for a week, then visit some smaller villages, and then go back to the capitol to see some more kids.

My heart has often wanted to go back after we lived there for 6 months in 1999.  And I feel that what I can support people with is very similar to my work here in Brisbane, that is, professional speech pathology support and training for teachers and parents.  So my time will be spent constructively.

I am planning a to take a lot of resources electronically, including some  picture making software and a laptop to make symbols for the kids to communicate with.  I am yet to purchase this....!  I don't know what kind of kids and parents will turn up, so I will prepare much and be ready to use a bit of it.  I also need to be flexible with time frames and interpreting.

I have done some research on language development in other languages.  From my reading it appears that the development of communication before and up to single words is similar for most languages.  When children start combining words the grammar and articulation differences start kicking in.  So if the children I meet are early communicators I should be fine.  I think my other-language speaking will be similar to their language development stage!

How am I getting there?
I am going in pretty much a straight line from Sydney to Central Asia, all with one airline.  On the way back I am popping in to see the Terracotta warriors in Xian and my friend in Wuhan.  On both the way in and the way out I am staying a night in Urumqi - way out west in China.

Travelling companions?
 My mother-in-law, a physio, and one of my best friends from uni, another speechie, are coming with me.  I asked them and they said yes.  I feel the responsibility of hoping it all turns out ok!  I am looking forward to travelling with them and sharing the adventure.

Will it be cold?
Yes.  About -10 to 5 degrees.  I am planning to wear ski pants and a ski jacket the whole time.  If I can fit into my ski pants....Christmas kilos are preventing this happening at the moment.  My friend Juliet has knitted me an awesome beanie.  I will wow the locals with my stylin.

I am hoping to update on the blog while I am there - I will see how the connection is.

For the moment I am planning, thinking, trying to fit into ski pants, and pulling together resources and training I want to do.  The girls need to start school and I will start work next week. 

I will miss the girls and Chris terribly while I am away, but I feel this is a great opportunity to use skills in an overseas context.  And inflict my terrible Russian on unsuspecting children.

the grass is always greener

I was given some turf for Christmas - a big THANK YOU to Gen and Al.

It transformed this space...

Oh thanks Matt,Gen, Tony and Al for digging up the yard for me!  We (I use 'we' loosely here) dug the ground up about ten centimetres with the mattock, then wet it with the sprinkler, then made it level (ish) then slapped the turf on top then left the sprinkler on it.  Muddy and wet.  Scooter loved it.

My newly turfed garden.

Complete with stepping stones.

And I am pleased to say due to great preparation none of the turf has died since being laid four weeks ago.  In fact it needs a second mow.

The grass is definitely greener.

new things

Christmas time is a time for new things.

  New presents.

New ball skills.

New water fights.

New jokes.  Actually not really new jokes.  Those jokes in the bon bons have been around since the manger was full and the wise men were following the bright light.

New baby cousins.  Awwww.  I got to have cuddles.  He was prised out of my arms to be fed.

New ham bones for Christmas lunch.

Naps on Christmas afternoon.

New hair for growing up girls.

New games for us all to play together.  I am raising my children to be FIERCE board game players.  Although they will possibly whip my butt soon.  Actually now.

We got a new games called DIXIT from the Healy Christmas - I thoroughly recommend it - thanks Al! 

Lots of 'new' at Christmas.  And we remember anew a child entering the world to save it.