Proudly presenting....

Our family has increased by 4 gorgeous little furry mammals. This brings the guineapig population in our garden to 7. These female guinea pigs made the big move from Balgowlah a couple of days ago and have been named Nibbles, Blackie, Brownie and Cloudy.
Not wanting to impose too much they brought their own accommodation in the form of a guinea pig Taj Mahal. I have never seen a 2 storey hutch before - these girls have a good set up with a dining/living area downstairs and a mezzanine level with sleeping quarters...... Sadly they are not in the best of health but we will soon have them feeling better. They spent much of today in their playpen doing a little weeding on our lawn for us. They were truly in clover.......

Here is Turtle out for his first trip with new rollerblades that we acquired through freecycle. The boy who gave them away thought they were too slow. Ideal, I thought....

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.....

Just fancied that as a title although I am not blue today at all - in fact quite the opposite. I just made a loaf of bread and some breadrolls, and besides feeling very accomplished, my tummy has that wonderfully warm, satisfied sensation that only comes from eating freshly baked bread with butter and Nutella melted into it.....mmmmmmmmm Worth about a gazillion points on the WeightWatchers dietplan, I'm sure.

Eating freshly baked bread reminds me of my mother who used to make the most wonderful bread all the time. I didn't pay enough attention to her methods at the time which would have saved some experimenting now... Come to think of it, I should have paid better attention to a lot of the things my mother did because she was one amazing woman and besides her bread I miss her wisdom and her humour, her humility and faith.

water storage

I went to the self-reliance group meeting on Water storage last night. Suzi was well prepared and I learned some essential things on the subject. Having been kicked into doing something about it, I went home and rescued some PETE bottles out of the recycling bin, washed them and filled them with sanitizing solution to prepare them for water storage use...... When filled there will be enough water for our family for one day...... but that's one more day's worth than we had yesterday.....

Mad scientists... part 3

Here is Turtle about to help himself to the "brain-jelly" at Doodlebug's party. The jelly was made with 6 packets of raspberry jelly, but with only a 1/4 of the water....... just to make sure it had the right consistency. A big hit with the boys!

QueenBees and Wannabees

What it is about some girls and their need to manipulate and control?
Having made it through childhood and adolescence alive but slightly scarred from the way girls treat each other, I must admit I worry about how my little girl will fare. My feeling of wanting to protect her is overwhelming.
She started pre-school this year, and I was shocked and saddened to see that the power play begins even with the 4 year olds. It seems that the girls who are the oldest sibling or in a family of only girls are the worst. Those, like my daughter, who have one or more older brothers seem to have more of a no-nonsense approach to their relationships. Long may this continue!

Mad scientists......

Doodlebug's birthday was celebrated in a style befitting an 8 yr old boy and 15 of his friends - making slime, giant bubbles, sherbet and liquid nitrogen icecream! The demonstrations were done by Sabrina from the CSIRO education centre and the boys had a great time. It was supposed to be held in the garden, but since we had about 2 months' worth of rain in one day, we held the science part in "the Bunker" under the house.....
Little Possum floated in and out a little. She was more interested in the progress of the party food upstairs and "looking after" the Twisties.
The party food included the usual party foods, but the specials were a jelly made in a brain shaped mould. I wasn't brave enough to use the recipe for a flesh tone jelly, but went with plain raspberry instead... Then a jug of cordial with dry ice in it and a volcano cake with dry ice steam coming out if it.
It all went well, and the guests went home clutching their little pots of slime and their party bags. Then it was blissfully quiet at our house.

Mad scientist

Doodlebug with his slime made by mixing Poly Vinyl Alcohol and borax....

of course, the next game was to pretend to do a big sneeze... I say no more.

Beethoven

I was listening to one of my favourite pieces of music - Beethoven's 7th Symphony. The 2nd movement (or part of it, I should say) is soft and melodious and very relaxing.
The symphony was written in 1803 which was 2 years after Beethoven's deafness had started to manifest itself. What would it be like to have such a passion and talent for music and then lose your hearing? I am fascinated at how he could still hear the music in his mind and heart after the hearing had gone. It inspires me to think that he continued to create and to use his talent despite the limits placed on him. He was not handicapped at all musically..... well, except that I wonder if he would still have pitched the choral parts to "Ode to joy" quite so high if he was still hearing...

Going home

This viking is going home - for a visit, at least! I will take the junior vikings home to Norway for 5 weeks next month - my horns are twitching with excitement! The 30 hr journey seems unbearably long, but it would take longer by longboat, so I suppose I ought to be grateful for modern transportation!

Where does the time go to?

The weeks seem to fly by. But the school holidays are soon upon us, and that will slow life down a little. First there is the birthday of Doodlebug . His party is on Saturday and we are hoping it will be a fun day. It is very much dependant on good weather as we are holding it in the garden. It feels wrong to live in a country in drought and then hope for no rain.........
The party is going to be a science party so hopefully it will be educational as well as fun.

must be lucky in love.....

because I am not lucky at cards. Have tried to learn how to play 'Hearts' just for fun, and decided to try playing online. My results have been terrible, but I can manage that without too much of an assault on my self-esteem. What worries me more is the insults that were dealt after the game. I wonder what makes people so free with their comments in the cyber-community that typing an insult to a stranger is acceptable. I am fairly certain that a face to face situation would have been handled differently. Being anonymous online seems to bring out the worst in some people. Sad really.

"The secret river"

It was my turn to host the book club this month. Record turnout tonight with 2 new sisters turning up. We are now up to 11. Up for discussion was "The Secret River" by Kate Grenville. This book is amazing. 5 years in the making, it is thoroughly researched to the point of having a book written about the research itself ("The search for the secret river"). It tells the story of early settlers (convicts) in Sydney and on the shores of the Hawkesbury River. There are some raw parts of the book which deals with the relationship between the new people and the aboriginal people. The imagery of the book is amazing and the characters and landscape described wonderfully.
The discussion was lively as usual, and a great evening had by all. What an amazing collection of women we have in our group, each bringing their experiences, thoughts and insights.
I love the BookWorms!

Yup, yup, yup!

My daughter is watching "Land before time", episode 647 (or is it merely episode 1 for the 647th time? - I can't tell... ) and "Duckie's" emphatic "yup, yup, yup" has rubbed off on me.

After successfully raising 3 children to Primary school age (at least I hope successfully..... I am putting money aside for a therapy fund for them when they reach adulthood, just in case...), I have been entrusted with my son's Tamagotchi while he is in school. Tamagotchi's are not bad really. Although they are much like children in that they need feeding, toilet training, entertaining etc, they have a pause button!!! How my day with toddlers would have been different if children came with pause buttons.

A funny email I received today

Subject: A special holiday thank you for adding me to your Email spam lists in 2006.

I must add my special thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat poop in the glue on envelopes, cause I now have to get a wet towel with every envelope that needs sealing. Also, I scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I want to thank all of you who have taken the time and trouble to
send me your chain letters over the past 12 months. Thank you for making me feel safe, secure, blessed, and wealthy.

I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave, because it causes cancer. And I no longer drink bottles of water that have been frozen since they release a poison from the plastic bottle once thawed.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones, because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants, even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

I no longer go to shopping malls, because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS, or FedEx, since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer shop at Target, since they are French and don't support our American troops, or the Salvation Army.

I no longer answer the phone, because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore, and Uzbekistan at $750 per minute...

I no longer eat KFC, because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer have any sneakers -- but that will change once I receive my free replacement pair from Nike.

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus, since I now have their recipe.

I no longer worry about my soul, because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish.

Thanks to you, I have learned that God only answers my prayers if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

I no longer have any savings, because I gave it to a sick girl, who is about to die in the hospital (for the 1,387,258th time).

Actually, I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

Yes, I want to thank you all so much for looking out for me, and I will now return the favor! ...And if you don't send this message to at least 144,000 people in the next 60 minutes, a large seagull with a bowel problem will land on your head at 5:00 PM(CST) this afternoon and have an accident. I know this will occur, because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician!

Thank you...