autumn in Brisbane

I know autumn isn't a big deal in the northern hemisphere, or even down in Melbourne and Canberra where the weather is colder but in tropical Brisbane we have very few "proper" autumn trees that change colour and lose their leaves. So I really look forward to seeing the odd tree blazing with colour. The back entrance to E's school has a lovely avenue of deciduous trees so we've been really enjoying the colours, especially against the bright blue sky.

Today is the second day of the two week school holidays for June/July. It's just lovely not to have to get up and think about school lunches and ironing uniforms and jumping in the car to drive to school. G has a cold so we are having a nice, lazy time just hanging out at home and pottering around. E has a friend here to play today so I have three little girls munching their lunch while I grab five minutes to blog.

Too overwhelmed to blog much

WARNING - THIS POST IS BASICALLY ME COMPLAINING ABOUT MY LIFE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Sometimes, I honestly do find life overwhelming. Well....actually...only since becoming a mother. I feel quite often that I just can't get my head around all the things I have to do/take care of/be responsible for. At the moment, this includes

- family of two adults and two children
- dog who is failing dog obedience and scratching the wood off our front door as he wants to be in the house with us all the time
- house which never seems clean or tidy and is perpetually full of dust, dirt and dog hair although we sweep it every day or so.
- car which keeps filling up with tiny dead leaves, dog hair, empty McDonalds chip packets
- mother who nags me about when am I going to wean Greta (the answer is when I find a quicker, easier way to get her to sleep at night).
- Part time job which is currently undergoing a restructure and for which I am constantly arriving late and leaving early due to juggling children who are either sick or crying as they don't want to be left at daycare/before school care for two days a week
-bills/paperwork/tax to do
- etc etc etc

Trying to juggle all this stuff means that things that should be pleasurable (like scrapbooking, blogging, etc) either feel like just another thing on my "to do" list or a guilty pleasure because I should really be tidying the house, playing with my children or vaccuuming the car or something I am just too exhausted to be even contemplating.

Hence, I'm not blogging much these days, but I am still checking in with your blogs as they brighten my day.

I did have a rare and fantastic day off this week. I paid an extra $50 to G's lovely Family Day Care carer and drove home giddy with the thought of some 4 and a half hours all to myself. I honestly almost cried with anticipation. Of course, I tried to fit too much in (pick up dinner from the shops, go to video shop to get "Twilight" DVD, go to Scrapbooking shop to browse without having to say "DON'T TOUCH THE PAPER!" to my children, do a page of scrapbooking to finish off Emma's album from 2007 etc. As one of my girlfriends said "If you were nearly crying with happiness at having a few hours off, it was worth $50".

I have been reading Erkhart Tolle's books lately, and just love his philosophy of living life one moment at a time and letting go of all the bullshit that goes round and round in our heads - worrying about the future and holding on to old stories/hurts/stuff. I have been trying to do it and when I do...it is a revelation. Life becomes an adventure instead of an endurance race. So...I'm sort of letting go of trying to keep up with blogging and just doing what feels like a good thing as each moment comes along whether it is playing lego with the girls or getting on top of the ironing (not that I have done that yet - LOL).

Of course, life is still full of lovely moments - autumn leaves and rainy days and homemade chicken soup. I met the mother of one of E's favourite boy buddies in her class last week. I do love him for the times he gives E a cuddle when she doesn't want to be left at Before School Care on a Friday morning.

I hope to be more positive about life next time I blog! Time to do the after school pick up (in the rain...I really need some gumboots so I can stop getting my socks wet and start splashing in the puddles with the girls)

This and that....

Just a few photos in this post to illustrates some of the little happy details of my life over the last few days.....the sunlight on a vase of autumn leaves .....my little girl in her beanie because of the cold snap we are having.....the impromptu tea party my big girl organised for me this afternoon as a surprise (complete with three tablecloths of varying sizes, a sprig of geraniums in a vase and tea, soy milk and sugar served up in our wedding teapot, sugar bowl and milk jug. Also.....the dog looking cute with his paws and head over the baby gate which keeps in his 'room' at night

My work world

I spend so much time on this blog blathering about my day to day life mothering at home, that I thought I'd take my camera to work and take some pictures of my work life in the city. I love setting off two days a week on the train for the city. I like the walk to the train...I like reading on the train.....I like eating whatever I like from the city shops for morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.....and I like being paid to research and write history. So it's all good. So as long as the girls are happy where they are, I am happy to toddle off to the coalmine, so to speak. So....here's some photos.

Here is the public square outside my building. The coloured boxes are part of the same building and house the library etc. There are often interesting things going on here (more interesting than a skateboarder, that is) like demonstrations, marches, entertainment from various cultures etc.

This is my favourite sculpture in the city. It's in Anzac Square which was constructed after World War I to commemorate those who died in the war. Sadly, the number of memorials has grown to include the Second World War, Vietnam War etc. The above sculpture honours the work done by Australian Army Nurses - a topic close to my heart as it was the subject of my history thesis.

The view through the window of my favourite florist shop always brightens my day.

One of the heritage listed buildings in Queen Street - the main street of the city - now closed to traffic which is great. I wish they would exclude cars from the entire inner city and make people walk, cycle or catch trains and buses.

The view from our office - overlooking the square you saw earlier. The building with the arches was the government Treasury Building built in the 1880s. It was converted to a casino a decade or two ago, causing considerable grief to many of the people who work in the heritage field here.

I took this photo while walking across the Brisbane River to do some research at the State Library. The green trees and ferris wheel are part of South Bank, a great public parkland with an artificial beach where you can swim. Sounds tacky but it's actually a lovely place to hang out, especially with kids. There's also lagoons/streams with boulders etc where kids can swim and paddle and lots of playgrounds and expensive cafes. It was the site of World Expo in 1988 and was later redeveloped as "the people's place". It is next door to the Performing Arts Centre and also has the Conservatorium of Music in the grounds. All very cultural.....

This is my squeaky new work building again with a glimpse of the funky art outside - made from colanders, I believe.

Well.....that's it. A brief tour of my working day. Today, however, is a home day and it's after 7.30pm and a six year old girl is waiting for Mummy to come and lie with her in bed for a cuddle.

See you soon.

I

A lovely blog/online shop to check out

Hello to my faithful three bloggy friends

Don't have time/energy for a proper post tonight but wanted to share the link to this lovely blog. Alarna Zinn is a designer from Queenslander who does beautiful greeting cards etc who was featured in Qweekend magazine today. Her blog is beautiful to look at if you want to check it out.

So here it is..... So good to see someone with a commitment to good old fashioned beautiful cards to send in the mail or pop in a present....

Mothers' Day

I had a lovely Mothers' Day this year. The fun started the Friday before the big day. The grade one children at school put on Mothers' Day breakfast in the morning and waited on all the mums which was lovely. They gave us menus and brought us our selection and all had such happy, shiny, proud little faces that I almost cried. We have a hilarious deputy principal who made a speech, concluding with "Happy Mothers' Day to all the mothers. May you get the power tools you so richly deserve". Here's a photo of E and me before we left home for the breakfast. I took an hour and a half off work as I really didn't want to miss this.

On the actual Sunday of Mothers' Day, my mother likes to have her two daughters (but no grandchildren!) go to breakfast with her and my Dad in a swanky city hotel at 7am - yes.... a bit of an effort. However, breakfast in the hotel got cancelled this year in favour of a family picnic in the local park in the afternoon. Much more my style. That then got cancelled as well as the cousins had tickets to the football without my sister realising the game was on Mothers' Day. Anyway.... the upshot is I got to stay home with my OWN family most of the day and enjoy being pampered. I had an early start (I'm talking 5am - pitch dark and quite chilly) with the little girl waking up but a few hours later I went back to bed and that was bliss. Presents and cards had already been given on the Friday afternoon as it was all too exciting for little people to wait until the actual day to show me what they had made at school/family daycare. But....I was brought the yummiest breakfast in bed by my big girl (wearing a folded teatowel over her arm like a posh waitress). She (and Daddy and the little girl) had made me cinnamon toast, cut up fruit and yoghurt and a cup of hot chocolate. More bliss. I think I read my book for a little while too. Extra bliss!

In the afternoon, I wanted some fresh air and sunshine for the family so we set off to a local park where we haven't been before. We played our first game of soccer with some convenient trees for goalposts and gave the playground a good workout. Here are the girls at the top of the slide. Nothing like simple pleasures for Mothers' Day. (Chocolate peppermint fudge is good too!)

Happy Mothers' Day everybody!

Stuff I'm into at the moment....courtesy of Tammie

OK...I've run out of interesting things to say about my life and my family and our latest infectious virus. (I know, CT, I can't beat your virus!!! It's not that often we see Mexico on the news here). So I am taking a leaf out of Tammie's book and making a list of stuff that I am into right now. I have found that most of my favourite things at the moment are incredibly daggy. But that's ok. Now that I am forty-something, I feel entitled to enjoy whatever daggy stuff I want and under no obligation whatsoever to endeavour to be cool in the least. So here goes.....

Brisbane in the autumn - as you can see from the photo above, the sky is incredibly blue at the moment. The weather is gorgeous - warm sunny days and crisp nights that are just right for snuggling under the doona. A husband would be nice but at this point in our lives, we have a child each in bed at night - me in G's room and E and Daddy in our room. I guess there's always the single bed in E's room that cost a few hundred dollars on sale at a swanky children's shop that she never sleeps in.....

Easy peasy quiche. This is my mum's recipe and it is my current way to use up leftovers on the weekend, make my coeliac husband happy, save money by taking a wedge to work to have cold for lunch etc etc. Here's the recipe....

Combine half a cup of flour (SR I think - I use gluten free), quarter cup of oil (I use olive), half a cup or so of grated cheese, ground pepper and some salt, and four eggs. (I beat the eggs and milk first as that's what I do when I make pancakes). Add about half a cup of milk. (I use soy milk as I'm a bit allergic to dairy - but I can't resist having the grated cheese).

Then chop up roughly and throw in some of your favourite things eg semi sundried tomatoes, feta cheese, ham or bacon etc. Then examine the leftovers in your crisper and throw them in eg mushrooms, bits of brocoli, thin slices of zucchini, chopped shallots etc. I reckon it always looks prettier with something green in it.

Add a bit more milk if the mixture seems too thick. It should be sort of batter-y.

Pour into a buttered dish and bake in a moderate oven (180 c) for 40 minutes or until browned and cooked inside when you poke with a skewer. A non stick dish is good as the pan is always a bugger to clean afterwards. Sometimes I put it in a lasagne dish with non-stick paper underneath and just lift it out by the sides when it is cooked.

Great for picnics, too.

Scrapbooking - My dear friend Helen (who died the day before I had G and was responsible for my doing honours at uni, getting my first job as a historian, meeting my husband) was the person who first said to me "You should try scrapbooking". I had no idea what she was talking about but the first time I went into a scrapbooking shop and saw all those beatiful pieces of paper and cardstock and lettering and ribbons and stickers etc etc I was hooked. What other hobby allows you to buy something stunningly beautiful for a dollar? It's got all the things about quilting that I like - choosing colours, patterns, shapes, themes, emotions and stitching it all together - for a fraction of the cost and effort. And you get to stick photos of things you love on top. And you can do a page or two in an hour while your children are asleep. Here's a few of my favourite pieces of paper from my stash - just waiting for the right photos and an hour or two of my time.

Occasionally, I treat myself to a class for fun with my neighbour and this is what I made last time. (see photo below). We sprayed the background paper with templates and sparkly liquid glitter. It was great fun and like being back at kindy - making a mess and having a good time creating something. If you are into it, check out the online scrapbooking shop called Scrap Therapy. It's worth looking at just to see how pretty the graphics are - all 1950s gingham. I decided to start buying stuff on line as it is so hard to browse in peace with a two year old and a six year old in tow.

Scrapbooking is definitely good therapy and saved my bacon after both a traumatic miscarriage and a severe bout of postnatal depression/anxiety attacks. The only thing that took my mind off my irrational fears about how to get G to sleep as a baby was pondering "Should I use the pink checked paper or buy some green striped stuff" etc.

State of Play. This is a great British drama series that Scott bought on DVD after watching it on TV and loving it. I can barely stay up for an hour after tea at night but was riveted to this. We watched an hour every night and couldn't wait for the next installment. I love love love James McEvoy and he is so sweet and young in this. And if I were a lesbian, I'd be completely in love with Kelly McDonald. She is just so gorgeous - that face and that accent!! I can't get the slightest bit interested in the new film version with Helen Mirren and revolting old Russell Crowe. The series also has Bill Nighy who is just classic and John Simm, the guy from The Lakes (which we loved) and Life on Mars (which I have never seen)

Last but not least.....ABBA... Santa brought an ABBA cd for the big girl after she heard Mama Mia at the junior school disco and loved it. Now we listen to it in the car all the time. I'd forgotten what great pop songs some of them are. The funniest thing is that Greta calls the song "Rock Me" Rockmelon instead which cracks me up. So we love driving along, with ABBA blaring, singing nice and loud. When in the car by myself (doesn't happen much apart from driving to and from G's daycare lady and the railway station on the two days a week I go to work), I usually have on the Garden State soundtrack, KD's "Songs of the 49th parallel", the soundtrack to "Once", the album of various chicks doing covers of Neil Finn and Crowded House songs ("She Will Have Her Way", Missy Higgins, or Enya if I am feeling stressed. Also....Scott recently gave me a copy of Dire Strait's "Making Movies" which makes me feel nostalgic for my youth. I will always always love hearing "Romeo and Juliet".

OK....that's me at the moment. Enjoying dagdom immensely. Must go and put the big girl to bed. Love to you all.