Farewell for now

Hello old friends. I have been neglecting you. I've found that I'm just not getting the time, nor finding the inspiration to write on my blog at the moment, so I am going to take a hiatus. Not that I'm sure I'll come back to it. I've found the break since I last wrote quite freeing. So thanks for reading and putting up with my thoughts for so long. Thanks for coming along for the ride. Maybe I'll see you again some day. : )

If you are suffering from withdrawal, I am still writing at my family history blog, becoming prue, so you can always say hello over there.

Bye!

The Lord Cheesus

Apparently Jesus has appeared in a pizza. The article talks about whether it was a miracle or not, and contains quotes from a dude from the Australian Catholic University saying that medical miracles are much easier to validate than images on food and such. His statement "You have to understand we can't apply that kind of rigour to a piece of cheese" had me giggling.

As does the guy at church when he does the prayers and earnestly prays about and to "Cheesus".

Sausages

Little Sister has been starting to turn her head to look at us when we say her name. I got all excited that she might already be recognising that her name means her. But then, in the same way that I said her name to her, I said "Sausages" and she turned to look at me just the same. So I'd better stop doing that, otherwise the poor child will end up thinking her name is Sausages!

Missed another one

Well, Elizabeth Taylor died and I didn't have her on my predictions list this year. Last year yes, but not this year. I don't think I'm very good at this!

What's your favourite tv ad?

After yesterday's mention of one of my favourite ads I thought I would show you my favourites. There's both the Dare Iced Coffee ads:

and

Plus the Telstra Bigpond ad which means that every Australian now knows the real reason why the Great Wall of China was built:

Just about any of the lamb ads:

and

And why is it that so many beer ads are so funny?

and

School reunions

I watched the first episode of the new series Winners and Losers last night. Mainly because it has the girl in it from the Dare Iced Coffee ad - one of the best ads ever. Not sure whether the show is worth a second look (and Blair looked tired I thought), but the storyline about the school reunion got me thinking.

It's 25 years since I finished primary school this year. Which is somewhat scary. I was thinking a month or so ago about if someone organised a reunion (and I went) that I'd have to hang around with a guy who goes to the same church as us and a girl who works with my husband, because everyone else from my primary school either lives interstate or overseas or I haven't kept up with them. Quite some time later I suddenly thought "OH!!! My sister!" Ooops. Sorry twin sis. : )

There is actually a 50th anniversary thing happening at my primary school this year. Not sure whether I am interested in going. I was talking to the guy from church about it and we were speculating as to whether they've actually managed to find the time capsule that was buried at the 25th anniversary thing when we were in Year 6, which they apparently forgot the location of... But will it just be an awkward situation of saying "Oh yeah hi" or "Wow! You've changed!" to a whole lot of people you don't actually recognise?

I think I'd be happier going to my primary school reunion than my high school reunion though - and we're due for a 20 year reunion next year. Perhaps, deep down, that's because I was more popular in primary school. At high school I'd always hoped to be as popular but wasn't. I did love school, both because of friendships and because I like learning. But I haven't kept up with that many friends from high school. There's my best friend - we became friends at Uni even though we went to the same school - but she lives interstate now and wouldn't necessarily get to a reunion here in Sydney. I guess I'd worry that I'd be a bit of a Nigel-no-friends. Which is probably stupid but it's awful to be lonely in a crowd. Of course, thinking objectively about it there are plenty of people who I keep up with on Facebook with whom I could have a decent conversation.

I think it's partly also the whole thing that you go to your school reunion to show how successful you've become, and stick it to the girls who might have thought you were a loser. But by the world's standards I'm seriously lacking in success - I'm a (yes, happily) married, stay-at-home-mother of three children, and while I do currently have a casual job (yes, lecturing at a university, no less) it will finish at the end of the year as the course will not be run after this year - we've finally run out of students. Yes, I am a successful botanical artist, but is that enough to make up for all the rest? Girls can be so catty...

Of course, that's not the standard I should measure my success by though. In fact success like that is not what I want to be striving for. For me the most important thing is that I am a Christian and I know that the creator of the universe loves me and is saving a place for me in heaven. So perhaps that's the reason I should turn up to any school reunion that may happen - because I'm loved by my saviour and therefore happy in myself, and not worry about anyone who is looking down their nose at me because I'm still a nerd, or I'm not wearing the right clothes nor breaking through the glass ceiling!

A bad week

I really wanted a day off from being the mother of three kids this morning.

It's just a build up of too much of the kids niggling and annoying each other and me being at the beck and call of a four month old. I'd just like a day off. Of course, then I'd probably resent it all more after my day off. But I would like kids who didn't bicker constantly. Teaching them to respect each other is hard. Teaching them to respect me is hard. Although I did notice the irony of the following conversation as it was occurring yesterday afternoon:
Me: You always argue with everything I say at the moment.
Little Miss Enthusiasm (in her particularly obstinate growl that she has): No I don't!
Me: Yes you do.
Little Miss Enthusiasm: No I don't!

I love my Fridays because they are a day when I just stay home with Little Sister and we have a quiet day, and she has the best chance at sleeping all week. Except today she has her 4 month immunisation, so we have to go out for that. The one good thing about this is that she's woken up with conjunctivitis so at least I don't have to make a separate appointment for that.

I'm just a little bit weary at the moment, and I can't work out any way that I can make it particularly better at the moment. And afterall, they're my kids so I have to look after them and somehow learn how to do it well.

God, give me strength. Please.

The Pronunciation Police

I was listening to the radio this morning and they were talking about the problematic nuclear reactors in Japan, since the earthquake. The bloke that the radio host was talking to was from the Australian Science Media Centre. And he kept saying "new-cue-lar" (I just don't get how you can come up with that pronunciation from that set of letters), instead of the correct "new-clee-ar". Aarrgghh!

I was discussing this later and a friend then jumped on her hobby horse about how many Australians don't even pronounce the name of our country correctly - they say "Auschtray-ya" instead of "Aus-tray-lee-a".

"Arks" gets me too. Instead of "ask".

I suggested we become the Pronunciation Police. It's a good thing I worked out in my teens that I had been pronouncing "umbilical" wrong all my life!

A worthwhile legacy

Yesterday I went with Little Miss Enthusiasm, Little Sister and my aunt to Rookwood Cemetery. I had a whole lot of relatives to visit! We didn't manage to get to find all of them, partly because the Anglican and Catholic sections don't have exact graves with names mapped and so it involves a lot of walking around, looking at headstones. I'll have to go again when I don't have a hungry preschooler (she's always hungry) and a tired crying baby with me, to search some more.

One of the graves we did find was for my great great grandparents, Rosetta and Frederick Weiss.

It's hard to read because I took the photo on my phone camera so it's not a great quality image, but it shows that Frederick lived to 92 years old. My aunt made the comment that all in that family have lived to a ripe old age, apart from the three individuals who smoked and died younger. And I made the comment that it was a legacy of long life that was being passed down the generations.

However, I was thinking later about the statement (illegible in the photo) underneath the "Aged 92 years" which says "He walked with God". And amongst many of my relatives there are statements such as that on their headstones: "Absent from the body, present with the Lord", "Together with the Lord" etc. And I believe this is a more worthwhile legacy - that many generations later, their descendants still walk with God. I'm grateful for those faithful ancestors who took their children to church and brought them up to know Jesus, down through the generations to my parents, who also took us kids to church and helped me to know Jesus. It's a legacy I want to pass on to my kids too.

A 3 year old drawing genius?

Little Miss Enthusiasm has been drawing for a while, but it has all been scribble. Until now. Yesterday I asked her to draw a circle. She did. She didn't know how to do a triangle though. Fair enough.

Today she was visiting Grandma's. Grandma asked her to draw a face. She got her to do a circle for the head, then told her to do the eyes, mouth, nose etc.

She proudly showed it to me when she got home. I kept asking her whether she did it herself, I was so staggered.

Sleeping

I'm sorry I haven't been here much. I'm pretty tired at the moment and inspiration seems to flee when I am tired. Little Sister had been sleeping really well at night for a few months (usually waking only once a night, sometimes not at all) but has started waking twice a night for the last week or so. It's a bit of a shock to the system for me!

As well as that, Little Miss Enthusiasm is also giving up her afternoon nap. She still goes to her room at least, and usually thumps around in there, reading books, singing, etc. Yesterday she was clearly in the middle of playing with a whole lot of shoes on her bed (she's a shoe fiend - she didn't get that from me) when she finally gave in and fell asleep, all over the shoes. Comfortable!

Anyway, sorry to be missing in action so much. But that's life I guess!

Updated to add: Just spoke to my trusty lactation consultant. She says that Little Sister's night waking is likely to be developmental rather than hunger, so she said to work on getting the day sleeps better (which haven't been great recently) and then hopefully better night sleeping will follow. And if she falls asleep during one of the night feeds, don't persist, just put her back to bed. : )