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.

Swearing

So this morning as we were nearly ready to leave for school Quinn says to me, "I don't feel well enough for school today". I know this is not true and I talk to him about all the fun things he will do today and karate this afternoon. We get to school and his teacher asks for a chat with us. She tells me that yesterday Quinn used some colourful language in the playground and that when pulled up on it, stated he was allowed to swear at home. We had a brief 3 way discussion with me assuring her that this is not the case and that we have also spoken about this very issue at home in recent weeks. Quinn has a friend who likes 'experimenting' with language and I have heard them together many times, giggling and dropping a word casually into a sentence to see if I notice.
It's really tricky to explain to a 5 year old why some words are perfectly okay and some are not.

Conchiglioni is what's for dinner tonight

Inspired by the numerous food blogs I read and feeling totally devoid of blogging ideas, I thought I’d share what we’re having for tea tonight.

While I am positively sure this is not an ‘original’ recipe I am also sure that I followed no written instruction to put it together. I is smart like that sometimes.
Conchiglioni are giant pasta shells. They are versatile and the children love assembling and eating them.
I made the same meat sauce I use for spaghetti bolognese. I always make my own meat sauce, it is one of the few meals I can do with my eyes shut and it is a big hit in my house (my husband prefers my spag bol to restaurant versions). Thanks Dad for imparting the special spag bol recipe of the 80s to me.
So this is what they look like before pouring the sauce over the top:

I then added a tomato sauce from a cannelloni recipe I have. It involves vegetable stock, crushed tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, celery and carrot, among other ingredients which are cooked then pureed together and poured over the top of the pasta. It is one of the tastiest sauces ever. Topped with a good grated cheddar cheese.
                                     
And voila! This will be plenty for Matt and the kids. I'm not eating wheat anymore so goodness knows what I'm going to have! Might post about that tomorrow...

Ugly things can be beautiful too

Meet Rosella Brownie and Lisa Nellie, Mieke's birthday present this year. Just what are these prehistoric looking creatures? I hear you ask. They are Spiny Leaf Stick Insects. Matt and I went to Fish and Feather to find out more about getting a frog (Mieke has been longing for a frog for a while now). Turns out frogs are quite sensitive to their environment and can't really be handled - a must for any pet that comes to live with us. We asked what the alternatives are, stating that we don't want furry. Which lead us to the stick insects, an affordable, low maintenance child-tolerant creature.
Also purchased with these two was a Goliath Stick Insect - a male - whom Mieke has named Max
Freddo. Max hasn't been very photogenic to date though he is amazing to look at.

Introducing Larry

Here is the newest member of our family. He is cute, mischievious and has very sharp claws! His favourite spot to sleep is in the lining of one of our couches (yes, actually in the lining underneath. Couch is now in need of repair). Eddie is in love with him. Larry would have Eddie disposed of if he could. Mieke likes wheeling Larry around in her doll pram. Quinn likes having Larry on his lap. I like is when Larry doesn't wake me up in the morning by clawing my feet off. Matt would like Larry to stop costing us money at the vet. As the sixth dysfunctional family member with his very own quirks, he is fitting right in.

Brand new Aidan

On April 22 at 4:34pm, Adelle, Justin and Ella welcomed Justin's very own minime Aidan James to the Fenn family. He is a teeny tiny 6lbs 6oz. And way cute. WAY cute. Hoorah to being an aunty!

Oxfam Trailwalker 2010

The past 7 months has all been preparation leading up to this day. We have walked over 300km together in training. I have been running and going to the gym. We are fit and well prepared, if not a little anxious. 

The epic 100km trek from Wheelers Hill to Wesburn Park began for us in the very wee hours of Friday morning April 16. Because we raised over $5000 (we think more likely around $7000 but we haven't done the final tally yet) we were offered a priority start time of 7am. This shot was taken around 4:15am. Nuts we are.

Here we are just as dawn breaks at the start line. My awesome team consists of Sue, Nerissa, and Clint. Nerves aflutter, we ate small amounts of food but no one really wanted to. And there were many toilets stops while we waited!

Checkpoint 2 around 11ish. Lunch stop. This is Lysterfield Lake. We are all in high spirits, running ahead of our estimated schedule. It is a glorious day. I think this picture caught Clint sniffing some happy powder and Sue attempting to jam her foot into her backside. Perhaps she had already snorted her happy powder... Nerissa and I are all about the food and sitting. I should mention here that we had a fantastic support crew, consisting of Amanda (Clint's wife), Trevor (Nerissa's husband), Matt and Mark (a friend of Amanda and Clint). Without them we would not have been able to complete the event.

Say cheeeeese! Taken with a full belly, change of socks and about to set off for Checkpoint 3.

We are still smiling at Checkpoint 3. What on earth is wrong with us? I have a couple of blisters by this point but nothing will dampen our spirits!

There is a big gap here in the pictures which I'm kind of disappointed about. This gap is our walk through the night and into the next morning. We walked from Olinda (where we stopped to have dinner), to Mt Evelyn, Woori Yallock and reached Warburton at 10am Saturday. We were cold, sad, and ever so tired. I have 7 blisters by this stage. My knee hurts. Clint has chafing. Bad chafing. Did I mention we were cold and tired?

Below is us around 11am at Warburton. After a pie for breakfast, dressing blisters again and the supportive smiling, encouraging faces of our support crew we are able to muster little smiles before we tackle the last 7km into Wesburn - over Mt Little Joe. It is nearly over and the just the daylight alone brings enormous relief to our spirits. It is hard walking all night in the dark with nothing but a little patch of light from a head torch to look at. Oh and my ipod went flat with over 5 hours of night walking to go. Sob.

The last dreadful hill in Mt Little Joe. 900 metres of this. See right up there in the middle of the picture? That's the track. And it goes around the corner too. Nice one.

I have never been so happy to see a sign, ever.

It's OVER. Not only did we finish, we finished as a complete team which only 58% of teams did this year. We walked it in just under 31 hours. I have 11 blisters in total. Going home for a bath, a meal and a SLEEP! My three nutty team mates would do it again but not I. I'm going for easy peasy things from now on, like half marathons!

                                             

Mieke is seven

Happy birthday darling girl. I am always in awe of you. Your spark, your intelligence. Your imagination, your tender nurturing heart and genuine concern for the welfare of all living things.

Family will be here to celebrate on Friday, a pool party with school friends on Saturday. Special mother/daughter time including ears pierced on Sunday. Ears pierced? Am I crazy? I might be, but I'm committed now!

She said to me this morning "I do feel older today".

Who's your doppelgänger?

There is a facebook thing going around at the moment about doppelgängers and I thought I'd post  here about it. According to Wikipedia, doppelgänger has come to refer (as in German) to any double or look-alike of a person. Beginning early years of high school I've been told I look like Sally Field. So much so that I acquired the nickname Gidget (one of her characters, TV series of the same name) for a few years. I was also compared to Jenny Morris, though now that my hair is shorter I don't see any resemblance.

Who do you look like?

Randomness

Firstly I have to get off my chest how much I love eating at the Pancake Parlour. Perhaps I've never been confident in my own pancake making ability; perhaps I secretly enjoy spending my money on overpriced flour, eggs and whipped butter; perhaps I'm just a big kid really who can't wait for her iced chocolate and the giant game of chess. Whatever the reason (a delicate blend of all the above?) I heart the Pancake Parlour. I visited today and had a trusted favourite, the cheese and potato pancake. I also very much enjoy the traditional bacon and eggs. I'm hungry again just thinking about it.

Quinn commented the other day about the plate he was eating from. He said "China made this for me. God and China made this plate for me and they sended it to me..." This has no tie to the first paragraph, hence the title of this post. I simply needed to write it down before it gets lost amongst the clutter in my brain. They just say the funniest things, both of them. This is a good place for me to record it.

Fact about me: I can be oversensitive. Sometimes other say things to me and I take it personally (often I don't). Logical thought processes would reach the conclusion that the intention was not to upset even though words spoken are clumsy (a slip I am often guilty of despite being trained in how to phrase things 5 different ways to suit particular recipients of information) and yet sometimes it just does. Today I am having an oversensitive day. An I'm oncall. Which I hate. So that adds to my annoyance. My solution? Pizza.

Australia Day, the Zoo and photography

Australia Day for us this year was celebrated in a different fashion to previous years. Amongst the discussion about the Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorry, population explosion, immigration and whether our flag should change (a change Mieke announced she would support because our flag as it stands "is too hard to draw") we visited the Melbourne Zoo. I don't think we've been to the zoo since Quinn was about 6 months old so it was an outing long overdue.

This strapping fellow below caught my eye and posed handsomely while I snapped away. Then, after watching me put the lense cap back on and relax my grip on the camera, he proceeded to defecate into his hand and nibble it like scroggin. Thank goodness we have evolved further.

The butterfly enclosure is breathtaking, the zoo I think is worth a visit for this alone. They are exquisite creatures. I was able to get some great close ups - you all have been spared the thirtysomething shots I took but here are a couple of my favourites:

Mieke and Quinn with cousin Jack. Quinn adores Jack. Loves him stupid.

The giraffes were Quinn's must see (he admitted to feeling quite scared of the tigers but "I have to look at them anyway". Like his own personal mission). I really like this shot of Mr. Giraffe, my camera did some good work today.

Well ok so I probably don't need to comment on all of these. Look, a penguin!

What you see below was how exciting the lion exhibit got. In my many visits to the zoo over the years I don't recall ever seeing any awake. Anyhoo. I quite like this shot, the dappled lighting creates a nice atmosphere over the beast. They look just like big soft cuddly kitty cats when they're not roaring with their ginormous teeth or tearing apart defenseless animals for their supper...

This needs no introduction! Too cool.

And finally we stopped in to the new seal enclosure with a bit of a show - some handstands, some waving, some fish treats, that sort of thing. Kids enjoyed it. Seals seem to like their home. Despite those scar-looking marks we were informed that the girl below just has wavy hair, cowlicks.

 

Quinn fell asleep about 5.2 minutes into the drive home. Mid stick-wave.

Australia Day 2010 was an enjoyable combination of family, sunshine, happy snaps and animals in captivity. Might be a good tradition to begin. Next year anyone?

Lazy Sunday with a sore head

This was my day today. I alternated between sitting here in the lounge and lying on the bed. You see last night we went to a party - a real grown up party without fairy bread and cupcakes and children. I had a great time, probably the most fun I've had in ages (which speaks volumes about how seldom we get out). I also had more glasses of wine than I care (or am able even) to remember. So this morning me and my poor head sat as quietly as you can with two children playing around you. It's only now, at 9pm, I'm feeling as though I resemble a human. Yay for parties without kids.

Birthdays

Matt had a birthday last Tuesday. Happy day of birth, Mr Not-Thirty-Seven-Anymore. We celebrated by barbeque with his and my family yesterday which was typically relaxed and easy.
Someone counted that we now have twenty four people in our family. We are a busy lot. Mieke is next, Miss Seven.

A tshirt I'd like to own

Love it. Getting one. Courtesy of www.snorgtees.com