Carols at Gungahlin

The school choir looked great, but starting the evening at 5.40pm in full winter uniform was not so comfortable for them!

Ginger Rose and The Little Prince enjoyed having enough space to run around and enjoy themselves. There weren't many people at the Gungahlin carols, which meant no queues to speak of for the friendship farm, helium balloons and meeting the friendly reindeer and elves. We had to leave before Santa arrived.

Possum was the Little Drummer Boy and enjoyed it so much that much of the 40 minute drive between venues was spent pleading a case for drum lessons.

A friendship farm on a pleasant summer's evening is hard to beat for a preschooler. Especially when the animals are clean, well-rested and very tolerant of small people wanting to stroke them.

Because I have to add photos

Ginger Rose took this photo of Grandad just about to finalise the repairs on his property, before dashing home to sail in the Commodore's Cup.

Saturday morning TV. Oh the squalor. See those four shoes on the ground? And the two socks? And the giant bucket that once contained popcorn and was so wonderful it had to come home from the movies with us? And the book due back at the library?

Just remember that it's only two misplaced items per child in the photo.

And oh my wonderful wonderful Little Prince. Developing right on target (he "talks" and bats at his toys) and able to put himself to sleep when left forgotten behind the couch while I gave Ginger Rose a bath, put on yet another load of laundry (choir performances require full school winter uniform which get rather damp and smelly when worn in summer) and composed the previous blog entry. As far as babies go, he's a total dream!

Why am I so silent?

Let's just say I can't remember the start of the week, except that it had Possum singing at the Senior Concert, me showing 4 lots of tenants through Dad's property and answering at least 20 phone calls and emails before finding a tenant and organising a lease, our phone system, hub and at least one network card were fried in a lightening strike, and despite numerous attempts I didn't make it to the supermarket or library.

Last night was Possum's Middle School concert, which he tried to avoid:

Possum: "I don't want to go because I do NOTHING - I don't NEED to go..."
Dh: "Are you seriously telling me that you had parts in the Junior School AND Senior School concerts but have nothing to do in the Middle School concert?"

So, he went and sang in two choir performances and operated the IT and sound system for the Year 6 play. Nothing to do.

Today, I'm taking a breather and a strong cup of tea before we have Ginger Ninja to a flute concert rehearsal before lunch, the concert after lunch ("Bring a plate" - how I've come to dread those words!), before Briar Rose and Possum need to be at the local Carol service at 5.40pm for a 6pm start, then we run to the cars and drive like, well, mothers late for school events to get to the absolute other side of town in time for the radio broadcast of their Carol service.

In the meantime, Dh goes to his annual Christmas dinner without me. :(

Tomorrow, Possum sings at a military graduation (we skulk in the local vicinity before returing to collect him), has a short break for lunch, then needs to be onstage by 1.30pm for another performance. I have cancelled his basketball match which was scheduled in between the two choral performances. Mean Mum strikes again.

So, I'm counting my blessings:
1. Yesterday's downpour, while drenching three loads of washing including some very absorbent nappies that are still dripping, watered the garden for us.
2. Ginger Ninja delivered 16 pamphlets to 390 houses yesterday in 30 degree heat, and quit the pamplet run so I can reclaim the dining room.
3. Dad's new lease paid for last night's Chinese.
4. I have too many blessings to count!

Orientation day

Friday morning was orientation day, so all four older children were at the same school for the first time! Briar Rose was a fantastic big sister, helping Ginger Rose into her school uniform for the first time. Of course, Briar Rose is an expert as the uniform is a hand-me-down from her!

Ginger Rose really enjoyed school, and was disappointed this morning when she wasn't able to go again. Her teacher taught Briar Rose for kindergarten and is an absolutely wonderful teacher - kind, patient and always smiling. I can't imagine a better start to schooling.

And the real domestic goddess is...

Grandma L, who drove 5 hours to get here to mind the children so I could get some work done with dh! In between minding five children she's also brought in and folded the washing, given the baby his first bottle, hemmed three pairs of dh's pants, cooked dinner, and even shopped for and prepared a truly delicious salad for dh and I to take to a dinner party tonight while she looked after the children. I think that's my week's quota of domesticity used up in one day!

Today she measured the Ginger Ninja for the jumper that's been languishing unknitted in my UFO cupboard, discovered that he will need a combination of two sizes, and has already made an impressive start on the actual knitting.

But it was truly scary to discover that my bed had been remade and looked as though it belonged in a hotel! We're just glad she uses her powers for good...

Science day

On Wednesdays Dh takes the Ginger Ninja with him for the day, and teaches him science. Ginger Rose, Little Prince and I usually try to do something special. This week we met friends at The Bookplate for morning tea. Unfortunately, they have a $20 EFTPOS minimum and I only had $12 in my purse, but would really have liked to have bought coffee and cakes which would have been about $14 so Ginger Rose and I had coffees and shared lemon meringue pie, but the poor Little Prince had none.

It was very hot, and fortunately Questacon was just a short walk away and nicely air-conditioned. Mini-Q was almost deserted so Ginger Rose had personalised attention and spent most of her time playing with nice cool water.

The Little Prince enjoyed some quiet time watching the fish.

End of an era

Here's the Little Prince's last sleep in his bassinette - the end of his newborn days. He's transitioned seamlessly to the cot, but as he spends most of his sleeping life being toted here, there and everywhere in search of various siblings, it probably wasn't as much of a transition as it could have been.

The undomestic goddess

Remember the ironbark pumpkins? Well, the incredible time taken to produce something edible out of the first pumpkin I tackled was so dispiriting that I left the second pumpkin sitting out on the verandah for just a little too long. Perhaps two months too long.

It's now sitting in the vegetable garden in case it sprouts.

After all, last season's celery and silverbeet are growing seeds nicely...

And we missed harvesting at least one potato...

Note: Large piles of paperwork looming behind my three youngest children. The undomesticity isn't confined to the garden.

Xmas concert

And thus begins this year's round of Christmas concerts. Briar Rose played a duet with a classmate. I was really impressed with the number of siblings and friends who sat in the audience. It was a very supportive atmosphere - though I suspect the turn-out was higher because it was raining (so indoor lunchtime) and the "bring a plate" lunch looked pretty tasty.

We had to leave early because Ginger Rose was tired and hungry, despite the judicious application of rice crackers.

Usually the school performances run like clockwork, but this one started late and while we left half-way through the program, we left at the time it was due to finish. The rain is so so so welcome, but it was challenging to get a baby, preschooler and plate of hot food from the mud car park across the road over to the chapel without getting anybody or anything wet.

Botanic gardens

Sometimes I take the gorgeous bush setting for granted, but Canberra really is special. We had lunch at Hudsons in the Botanic Gardens this week. Our table was nestled amongst the bush and Ginger Rose had a wonderful time exploring.

There were some very friendly birds and lizards, but my companion was a little nervous when I pointed out that the lizard pictured above was sitting under out table. He was quite large and adventurous!

The Little Prince hung out with his friend. What a life :).

Chubby bubby

Just look at those lovely plump limbs. I think he's filling out nicely. He sometimes joins us at the table for meals, but our table conversation is clearly not stimulating enough.

Evidence of undomesticity

On Friday afternoon the TV comes on again - and my children loll in exhausted heaps. If I didn't insist on food and drink being consumed on the tiled areas of the house they'd never move!

And after a traditional first bath, here's the real way to bath a fifth child. In the hand basin. I found it remarkably quick and easy, but the Little Prince wasn't so sure.

And a gratuitous sleeping baby photo.

Baby smiles

It's hard to catch the elusive Little Prince smile, but we finally caught one on camera! He's a very smiley responsive baby, and even chortles appreciatively if he's particularly impressed with something. It's amazing how fast he's growing!

Evidence of domesticity

This is the way I make our drinking yoghurt. I make a double batch at a time but split the commercial pack and top it up with powdered milk to reduce sugar and cost! My handy Tupperware digital scales make it much easier!

First bath

It's hard to believe that we've made it to six weeks without needing a bath, but thanks to washcloths and a lack of heating, the Little Prince has not been bathed since his arrival!


I was worried that he might take a while to acclimatise to bathing, but he really enjoyed himself. Possum brought in the camera to record the action!




He even enjoyed being dried and dressed.

Christmas Crazy Commercialism...

The pamphlet run is a stern lesson in commercialisation - we can't believe there's just so much JUNK mail! And it truly is JUNK mail. Our biggest delivery so far has been 17 pamphlets at once, which was challenging because of the sheer bulk of 17 pamphlets that included a large newspaper style addition (The Good Guys are NOT our friends!) as well as the time it took to fold that many pamphlets.

One of the saddest things is that "No Junk Mail" stickers don't really save the environment because it's in the pamphlet distributor and the pamphlet deliverers' best interests to pretend they don't have as many "No Junk Mails" in their area. Our distributor is a little horrified that we actually return all of the pamphlets that aren't delivered.

Our latest delivery is "only" twelve pamphlets at a time. We're getting quite systematic about the deliveries - we put out two lines of pamphlets in size order on the dining/table tennis table so that we can have two people working at once. Dh is in charge of bagging, and has it down to a fine art, using the right number of recycling bags for each street.

Dh kept us entertained last night reading our latest family novel, The People of Sparks, while we folded.

Ginger Rose loves her soccer ball...

With difficulty we've convinced her to play outside not in the kitchen!

Meeting Grandma L

Grandma L certainly has a way with little boys - apart from bringing them fantastic knitted presents she's clearly the funniest thing! Andrew beamed and giggled away with Grandma last night!