Latest Australianisms

Getting tired of these yet? They just keep croppin' up...

Full On (term of disbelief/intensity)
Tinned (canned)
Sleeps (naps)
Embiggen (enlarge)
Chilly Bin (cooler)
Lounge (living room)
Entree (appetizer)
Stockings (tights)
Pop it (place it, throw it)
Good Mark (good catch)
Assessments (report cards)

Random Shuffle

Got up at 5am a few nights in a row last month to catch a non-cloudy view of this "once in a lifetime" event: Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, & Uranus all aligned with the moon on the horizon before sunrise. I thought it was awesome.

 The kids took a glance then shuffled back to bed, unimpressed. 

But they were thrilled to see Saturn's rings, the spectacular Jewel Box, and Alpha Centauri at the school's stargazing party the other night. There were about 10 highfalutin telescopes there from the Canberra Astronomical Society with friendly volunteers guiding us around the galactic beauties.

What's with this hair? 

No product, nothing. Straight out of the shower. I'm thinking some seriously unhealthy build up of some sort?

Had to chuckle at these prices. I remember stocking up on these for gifts last year.

They were $0.88 each.

Will about had a panic attack of "they're gonna kill me" when he did this (tried to pull out a shirt that was jammed in his closet door.) The whole thing fell over.

I was just relieved no one got slice'n'diced.

Last note: it's COLD here. 

4WD Saturday

we sat eye to eye with this gorgeous fox forever - what, you dont see it? I'm slow

row on row of very well manicured trees out in the middle of nowhere

pics don't really do these lookouts justice...

 Decorated the car with some fresh gouges when Dad decided the kids deserved another turn at the wheel.

Could we maybe choose an open track rather than a side sloped blackberry bush run next time?? (For the record, I hate every second of this foolishness... but they did sorta deserve it with all the carsick vomiting on the way out there.)

Gotta keep 'em fans of the FWD somehow I suppose.

The Artiste(s)

I joke about marrying a renaissance man, but when I bought the art set for our birthday girl, I never dreamed it would come to this...

Apparently, Dare's a crazy good painter - busted this outta nowhere, having never before picked up a brush!

Like I said, he's picked up more hobbies since we moved here than in the last 10 years combined. His Mid-life Awakening, shall I call it? Four-wheeling, telescopic photography, cooking (fish, at least), building computers, plunked out his favorite hymn on the piano, dons his painter's pallette in the evenings... What's next?! Keeps life interesting, that's for sure.

A closer look at some of his recent work - check out those brushstrokes:

 Kenna, Annie & Will got in on the action too.

And of course, I couldn't resist trying my hand as well.

(I have to say I enjoyed doing the funky use-up-the-excess-paint ones best. No stress of messing anything up there.)

These were all acrylics, but D's been online researching oil paints and brush sets and I bought a bunch of canvases, so looks like we've birthed a new family hobby for the cozy winter evenings ahead. Thanks, Dad Van Gogh!

WWM Award

 I've oft been frowned at for allowing my kids free reign of the banister or to hang over precipices and other such dangerous shenanigans. But the climbing gene runs deep in our blood...

turned the corner to find her here (10 months)

 Have you ever felt like you're the World's Worst Parent? This post's for you. Even though getting unsolicited criticism from a stranger is arguably the lowest blow a parent can receive, I do wonder what strangers think of me sometimes.  

Eating off the floor? Check. 

Playing outside shoeless & unsupervised? Check.

Not installing enough baby-proofing gadgets? Check.

Riding sans helmet on occasion? Check. 

Playing with balloons? Check.
Forgetting a child at the bus stop? Check.
Not enforcing a brush-your-hair rule? Check.

Leaving them home (with me on the cell) for a quick errand. Check. 

I'm not always in top form, but I think we do alright. Okay, I could step it up a notch at times. Who couldn't?

I definitely feel like I deserve the World's Worst Mom award when I notice another booger wiped on the wall. Or see my impatience mirrored in their reactions to things. But my 5 year old knows how to scrub a bathroom and make her own lunch, so...

You pick your battles, and for me, letting a kid dress like Pippi Longstocking for a few years is just not that big of a deal. I choose to believe I'm giving them ample opportunities to practice their independence, which is a plus, right?

(this is where I knock on wood)

When I start having a few too many WWM moments, I find solace in some of my favorite reads. If you are aiming to raise your kids into responsible, contributing members of society while maintaining a loving atmosphere in the home, snag these books, chock-full of real advice on how to get there:

 Parenting With Love & Logic

The Parenting Breakthrough

Christlike Parenting

Teaching Your Children Values

The Mint

Australian money's pretty cool. Fun, fancy colors and coinage that is actually worth something ($1 and $2). Darren is intrigued by coins. It's one of the many new interests he's taken up in the last couple years (sort of the opposite of a mid-life crisis, I'm starting to think - which, for the record, is cool with me.)

He took us on a fun little outing to the Australian Mint...

We got to "make" our own new coins.

Then watched robots dumping huge barrels of unprinted gold coins into machines that stamp and sort them. Cool displays on how everything's done, examples of misprints and cool, specially-produced coinage.

I love a good factory.

My friend pointed out the different lengths of their bills to aid the blind. Poses the question: How do blind Americans differentiate between bills?

Snip Snip, Sniff Sniff

I handed Darren the shears late Saturday night for a "quick trim" before singing in church on Sunday.

Decisions made at 1:30 in the morning are seldom the right ones.

A few seconds and six inches later, my brain revived with a giant 

"What have I done?!" 

So much for the notion that curly hair can mask anything. (Serves me right for trying to save a buck. Just wish I didn't have to wear a pony tail for the next 2 months until it grows past the awesome triangular blockhead look I last rocked in high school...)

I've witnessed many people experience the shock of D's "freestyle" technique so it was obviously my bad. I stayed up another hour attempting to salvage it with some layers - which are extremely obvious when I blow it out straight. Oh well, it's just hair, right?

(Nope, no pictures. I'm not ready to document this awesomeness yet...)

Tidbinbilla

Just down the road outside town is a magical land of protected Australian wildlife called Tidbinbilla. Now if the name's not intriguing enough to get you there, perhaps "the country's coolest playground" claim will be. We spent the afternoon walking amongst bird-filled flora and fauna, peeling our eyes for koalas and echidnas, swerving to miss wallabies and jackrabbits darting across the road, walking alongside pairs of emus, and sharing the playground equipment with no less than 30 kangaroos. It was awesome.

The only koala we spotted was in this enclosure - a newly acquired male to help populate the koala sanctuary there.

Koalas are very picky eaters and only feed off a few of the hundreds of species of eucalyptus trees in Australia. They receive very little nutrition from the leaves, which are tough and fibrous to digest, so they lack the energy to do much more than sleep up to 22 hours a day and switch trees (on grand occasions.)

There were 3 or 4 emu and kangas waiting for us in the parking lot of the playground and numerous others on the equipment. The animals like to drink from the trickle of water there so when we showed up we set off a cascade of bouncing, hopping marsupials.

I wasn't fast enough to catch the group on film, but the guy above was in no hurry.

Here are a few perfectly comfortable watching us from their safe retreat off to the side.

I find it amusing to compare playgrounds here to the ones in the States. Check out that slide. A total burn trap in the summer and enough speed to provide injuries year-round.

But oh so fun!

Care for a fall or neck injury? Super tall rope climbing structures, massive swings and these Flying Fox pulley things - even I just about fell off from the whiplash at the end, but they are a kids' dream.

Wind in your face, squeals from the thrill of danger...

You never find this stuff at U.S. playgrounds. Blame it on too many lawsuits or lack of trust in parental supervision - either way it's a shame.