The end of another year

Christmas and New Years Eve 2011 leapt on me with a bit of a surprise. I have felt so busy this year, even though I got so much more accomplished in 2010. Here is a very brief summary of my 2011:
Mieke aced grade 2. Quinn mastered riding a bicycle. Matt went back to working 6 days a week. I got myself a job at Bunnings. We accomplished nothing around the house. We had two brief holidays with family. We threw around the idea of me going back to work full time. The dog stopped chewing things he's not supposed to. The cat continues to walk about on the bench like it's his God-given right. Quinn perserveres with his fondness for Abba and AC/DC and Justin Bieber lyrics and a love of all things superhero. Mieke remains true to the stereotypes of what 8 year old girls are into, adding to that a natural skill for and commitment to karate.

Happy new year to everyone and may you all enjoy a healthy and happy 2012. Over and out.

The dreariness of it all

Absurd really. But what's the alternative?

Christmas 2011

The weather for Christmas day this year was strange and a just a tad eery: hot and humid with brief flashes of sun alternating with brief showers, ending the day with a spectacular lightning show and an hour long torrential downpour that included hail the size of large marbles.

Christmas often brings out the best in people, but it can also increase stress and anxiety and tension between relatives. Spending the day with Matt's family was something I used to feel quite apprehensive about (and was always exhausted upon leaving). 14 years later and I look forward to it, getting lost in the hustle and bustle, enjoying a glass of wine, watching my children play with their cousins, pull the bons bons and pick at their food (before the inevitable unravel of emotion at the end of a long lead up after too much food/sugar/stimulation and not anywhere near enough sleep). I have learned (sometimes the hard way) not to take anything too seriously. But for others the tensions run deeper, with a history I do not share and cannot understand. Even though I have been well accepted into the family I will always remain somewhat of an outsider and their relationships I think will always be mysterious. The interactions of those involved in my Christmas 2011 were a little like the weather of the day. Unpredictable, fraught, angry, ambivalent, but warm nonetheless. There was laughter, tears, love. Love. Love. And wine. There is always wine.

My baby is six with two adult teeth!

I'm a bit late with this post, but it is an important one as my youngest babe turned 6 last week. And what a week of celebrations it was! Having just started a new job I felt busier than usual and we had a massive lead up to Quinn's special day. I was fortunate enough to do classroom help with him after a morning of opening presents and exclamations of how much bigger he definitely is (and a couple of tears from me in private, lamenting the end of the preschool years and the passing of what was a wonderful time in my life. Though the freedom of having children who are less reliant on us for everything and mostly require more conversation with us than supervision is a pleasure).
So we out for dinner on his actual birthday (Thursday) with just family. All 23 of us, not including a couple who couldn't make it. Then on Saturday he had his party. Can you guess what the theme was?

Star Wars. Even though he decided to dress as a pirate (hey, its his perogative). He invited 8 friends from school, all of whom came. It was FABULOUS weather and we were able to be outside for most of it. Matt arranged workshops from droid making to make your own light sabers. I did food, decorations and pass the parcel, pin the asteroid on the space ship. It was a success, the boys were all exceptionally well behaved and Quinn soaked up every minute of his birthday week.

A day after his birthday Quinn lost his second tooth. The tooth fairy was so exhausted that she forgot to come that night, visiting instead on the second night and leaving a bit extra for interest!! We are all looking forward to a quieter couple of weeks of catching up with friends in the holidays!

High ropes

Last Tuesday my work had its annual team building day. It has been our tradition to partake in fairly sedentary activities like movies or bowling (and it always revolves around food) but this year we took it up a notch and tackled the high ropes. I had some reservations about the task at hand but surprised myself by completeing the second hardest course. And was on such a high afterwards!

That's me on the left in the black up amongst the trees, I'm crossing a net. I didn't come out of the course completely unscathed as you can see below. This is the underneath of my arm, 4 days after our team building day. 

To have a look at where we went and the courses you can do, go here. If you're looking for an activity for the family (age 5 and up) I would highly recommend Trees Adventure park. We will be taking the kids there before the end of the year.

The politics of food, the welfare of children

Matt and I love Jamie Oliver. Last night we watched the premiere of series 2 of Food Revolution.We seem to watch a lot of cooking shows in this house, huge crush on Jamie Oliver aside. The new season of Masterchef has started which we all look forward to, we've also seen a few My Kitchen Rules. Mieke and Quinn have a keen interest in the methodology of cooking and discussion about ingredients often ensues.

Jamie Oliver appears to have his work cut out for him in LA. The Los Angeles Unified School District has closed their doors and are not allowing him into their schools, despite a well known national obesity epidemic and all the related health issues. The sorts of food that is fed to children via their schools is nothing short of appalling. Beige, refined carbohydrate-rich, nutritionally poor, heat-in-the-bag, manufactured rubbish.This isn't confined to LA, it's happening in other areas of the western world. And we wonder why our children are fat, why they feel lethargic, why they can't concentrate, why heart disease and type 2 diabetes is on the increase. Is it really rocket science? We have experts explaining this link regularly and yet as a society we continue to not only pump this crap into the mouths of our babes, but the hierarchy of people who have the power to make significant large-scale changes endorse it by behaviour like that displayed on Jamie's show last night. This sends a clear message about the values they hold in high esteem, and it ain't the health of children.

My personal experience with food in educational institutions has been positive, acknowledging the different systems between Australia, UK and the USA (ie: parents supply the lunch here). Our kinder had a healthy snack rule. The school that my children attend has a 'healthy lunch' policy which hopefully is the case for all schools in Australia - but I'm not sure. There is to be no rubbish in the lunch box. Kids are to take water only and they must have fresh fruit and/or vegetables. Last year we had campaign to highlight that white bread is not a healthy choice and the school urged parents to give their children wholemeal bread instead. We don't have a canteen either, once a week the children have the option to get Subway. Last nights Jamie episode highlighted that we are incredibly fortunate.

It seems to me that children in general in today's world are far removed from where food actually comes from. In one of Jamie Olivers epsiodes in a previous season (UK I think) many kids weren't able to correctly identify fresh vegetables, and this would be the case for many children here too. We live in a society where we go to the supermarket and buy our food in bags, packets, cans, our meat in trays, much of our bread is bleached white and fluffy and sugary (I was asked recently by an adolescent what the "bits" were in a slice of multigrain bread). We can't ever really know what is in our food when we buy it this way yet it is the norm for us now. Ingredients on the packets include sugar, salt, strings of numbers which mean flavour, colour, preservative, anti-caking agent and a variety of other mysterious things. Are chicken nuggets really made from meat that we would consider satisfactory if we could see it pre-nugget? What about hamburgers, what part of the beef is it exactly?

I don't claim that our family eats fresh, unprocessed food all the time (far from it) though I have been told on more than one occasion that I am 'anal' when it comes to the foods and drinks I will not let my children consume on a regular basis, which I find alarming. Alarming because I've always understood my role as a parent is to act in the best interests of my children in all areas of their development, and the evidence of the ramifications of poor diet is very well publicised.

Go Jamie, love your work. We will be watching with interest and hoping someone with clout starts thinking wisely about the way LA children are eating and what you have to offer.

Holidays in the sun

These past school holidays saw us and my brother and his family heading up north together for a week. We rented an apartment on the 34th floor at the Crown Towers Resort, and had a busy few days trawling around all the usual theme and water parks. It was really good to spend time with my sister in law whom I adore but don't see nearly as often as I should. The children all got along extremely well, the weather was fabulous, we really couldn't have asked for a better holiday. We are planning our next one!

Sunrise on the Gold Coast. View from our balcony.

Holidaying with friends and family is something I never did when I was a kid. The majority of my family lives in the UK and I don't really know why we never did it with friends. There is something really special I think about cousins having opportunities to spend time together and forge their own relationships. Mieke and Quinn's cousins on Matt's side are significantly older (the eldest turns 27 this year, the youngest is 13), but my brothers children are close enough in age that there is a chance of some close friendships forming between them. And some of my fondest childhood memories are sitting amongst adults at BBQ's etc and feeling the positive energy and joy as they have a really fun time together - I hope to emulate that for my children.