26 and 10

26
Another birthday came and went, and so begins my 27th year. Celebrations included a family dinner (sadly minus my little sister - but only 2 weeks to go!), a lovely lunch with Papa Bear and Peachfuzz at a nice pizza place, a dinner with Damien and Miranda, and today, lunch overlooking some beautiful gardens with my mum and dad. Thank you to everyone who spent time with me, sent me well wishes, and showered me with gifts. I had, and continue to have, a lovely (extended) birthday.

Papa Bear bought me a fantastic new book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, which I am enthusiastically reading at the moment. My parents let me loose in a fabric shop where I picked out a few treasures. Damien and Miranda gave me a gift voucher for a pedicure - perfect for my tired feet and pregnant body. My high school best friend gave me a couple of nights worth of soups and a few batches of muffins to help fill my freezer for when Tiny is born. Such thoughtful gifts from wonderful people. I am blessed to have you all in my life. Thank you!

10
Another year has passed, and today marks ten of them since my Poppa died. My last memory of him is still so vivid, and so sweet, when I saw him on my 16th birthday, two days before he died. I think of him every now and then and miss him, but especially so every June 25, and especially this one. I think it probably has a lot to do with the new life growing in my belly. I feel sad for Peachfuzz and Tiny and any other children we may have, that they never got the chance to meet their Great Poppy. He was such an amazing man whom they would have adored, and I know he too would have adored them.

I wish he could have known me as an adult, and known that Papa Bear and I have made a wonderful life together. I wish he could have been at our wedding six years ago and seen how happy I was. I wish he had the chance to hold my newborn daughter two years ago. I wish he could have had the pleasure of her toddler hugs and kisses and hearing her say "Lub You". I always miss him, but especially so today.

Second hand doesn't mean second rate

Though we kind of gave up on The Compact, I'm trying to get back into that sort of mindset. I'm relearning that second hand doesn't necessarily mean second rate. I think I've been a bit of a snob about wanting new things. My thinking used to be "if I can afford new, why would I buy second hand?". I really don't like the sense of entitlement expressed in that attitude. So I'm changing my thinking, and have been blessed because of it.

Papa Bear and I have been thinking about getting a juicer for some time. I was actually considering asking for money towards a juicer for my birthday. But before I could, a juicer was offered on my local Freecycle and I was lucky enough to grab it. It even turned out to be a friend who was offering it.

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of spending the day with my dear friend Miranda (who snapped this photo), which included a morning of op-shopping. She bought Peachfuzz a gorgeous handmade outfit which will be perfect for this summer. I scored (all for Peachfuzz) 5 different kids clothing patterns, a jumper, a sparkly dress and Asian-inspired shirt for her dress-up box and a small pair of boots. I spent $11 in total. Everything was in good condition and so much cheaper than buying new. At this age, it really makes sense not to spend ridiculous amounts of money on brand new clothing for children who will grow out of it in a number of months.

And then yesterday, as if I needed any further confirmation that this is really the path we need to follow, a dehydrator was offered on Freecycle, and again, I was fortunate enough to scoop it up. This was another "significant purchase" that I had been thinking about, but not fully committed to yet. Now I get to play and experiment with juicing and dehydrating food, and I didn't have to spend a cent to do it.

When the lights went out

Today is our first full day back "on the grid" after four days of no power. We had crazy storms here over the weekend and lost our power very early Friday morning. It didn't come back on until late Monday afternoon, so we had an interesting few days. The picture above was taken after I showered early Saturday morning, before we used up all the hot water. Doing everything by candlelight was kind of romantic and a bit of a novelty at first, but it quickly got frustrating. The hardest part was having no heat, and a couple of nights the three of us snuggled up in bed together to keep warm.

We had some interesting adventures over the four days. The first night was fun, sitting around my parents kitchen table, eating food we had heated over a little camp stove and drinking hot tea by candlelight. My brother and his lovely wife didn't lose their power, so we had dinner with them a couple of nights and they let us charge our phones and wash some nappies. We put Peachfuzz in disposables for those few days, and it was quite amusing to watch her running around with her pants falling down, now that she had no cloth nappy bum to hold them all up. Unfortunately she has a bit of a cold now, in part because we kept going back and forth between really warm places (my brother's house, the shops) and our really cold house. We all dressed as warm as we could, but it was still very cold, especially at night.

I was amazed, and honestly a little scared, by how much we rely on electricity. I don't think you fully comprehend just how much you use until you lose it for such a long time. It has certainly made me a lot more mindful of our usage now, and prompted me to be more prepared should this ever happen again. I'd like to think we could learn how to survive without it for days at a time, and do all those things "by hand" that we rely on technology for. I didn't miss the TV, started to get a little anxious about not being able to email, and definitely missed being able to cook hot food or throw a load of washing on. I was quite disturbed by how bored we felt at times, that we rely so much on TV/the radio/the internet to entertain us. Not being able to go outside until the rain stopped made things a little more difficult, but we definitely should have been able to find plenty to do during the (very short) hours of daylight. So though the power is back now, I think we've learned a thing or two and we are certainly a lot more grateful for life's little blessings, like clean clothes and hot food in the middle of winter!

One of the wonderful things about the past weekend was getting to spend some time with good friends. I often remember back to my childhood, when I was six and my sweetheart at the time was seven. We were destined to be together, or so I thought, but of course life had other plans. And I'm glad that it worked out the way it did. Besides the fact I wouldn't now be married to my Papa Bear whom I love and adore, if D and I had have ended up together, I would have never met his lovely wife. She has become one of my dearest friends, and I am so thrilled to get to spend time with her and D over the next two months while they visit us back at home. Love you "Ranranda"!

The photo of the two of us above was taken by my gorgeous Peachfuzz. A budding photographer at 20 months old.

Turn off the TV and get some fresh air

I read an article in the latest issue of Kindred, entitled "Weapons of Mass Induction - How television affects your opinions, your will and your life". The article is an excerpt from Remotely Controlled: How Television is Damaging Our Lives by Aric Sigman, and has convicted us that we need to spend less time in front of "the boob tube".

I had heard of research before that suggested children under the age of two should watch no television, and while I agreed it would be ideal, we didn't really enforce that in our home. While we wouldn't sit Peachfuzz down in front of kids programs (until recently - Finding Nemo), she would still be around when we watched the news or cooking shows, or whatever happened to be on. There were some shows I thought it was best she was not exposed to, so we would wait till after she was in bed to watch those, but "family friendly" shows, we had no problem watching with her around. Still, every now and then I felt uneasy about it, especially once she figured out how to use the remote control, and would ask for "moonees" (movies) or "teebee" (tv). Whenever it was on she would gravitate towards it, often standing inches from the screen absolutely mesmerised until we physically moved her. So after reading this article, I could no longer hide my growing feelings of discomfort with her exposure to television.

The "RDA for Television" is that "Children under three should see no screen entertainment. After this age, television viewing of good quality programmes should be limited to an hour a day." Having read that, we agreed to keep the TV off whenever our children are around, until they are three. Obviously we can't control this when we are in other people's homes, but we can and will control our own. This didn't seem like too daunting a task until I read on... "And for adults, two hours a day. This should include any time spent watching DVDs, videos or video/computer games. Time spent using computers and surfing the Internet should also be taken into consideration as it's all screen time." I would have no issue at all with watching two hours or less of TV each day... but the internet? And not having Peachfuzz exposed to the computer and internet either? Wow, how on earth would I manage?!

So that explains why things have been, and may continue to be, a little scarce around these parts. I basically have nap time in the middle of the day, or after Peachfuzz is in bed to check emails, catch up on blogs and write my own blog. And I'm trying as much as I can to limit my internet time to her nap time. It just feels so antisocial to have spent the whole day away from Papa Bear while he's at work, only to put Peachfuzz to bed after dinner and then log on here while he watches TV in the lounge room. Time with each other, in the real world, is more important than this "virtual world", as enticing as it can be.

This past weekend, after we agreed on our new rules, we found ourselves sitting around going "what do we do", a sad and sorry state of affairs really. We took Peachfuzz down to the park and all ran around together, playing on the swings and slide, chasing each other and just enjoying being out in the fresh air! Ironically enough, as a complement to the TV article, there was another story in the same magazine about the effects of greenery and the outdoors on our wellbeing. A couple of quick facts:

*While both violent and non-violent television has been consistently linked to increased aggression and violence, exposure to greenery is being found to diminish it within neighbourhoods.

*Further research is looking at the way plants have a powerful effect on people's ability to cope with poverty. Poor people with a slightly green view were found to be much better able to manage major life issues... This is everything that television works against. Not only does television erode attentional resources but the content of television makes viewers feel even more deprived. It seems that exposure to greenery enables people to cope and make decisions more effectively.

*An hour of gardening a day can reduce your risk of dying prematurely by 28 per cent and help reduce coronary heart disease and other chronic illnesses... In comparison, even one-and-a-half to two hours of television is being linked with an array of well-established risk factors for serious illness later in life and premature death.

*Television erodes both adult and child self-esteem in a wide variety of ways. A study of 120,000 children found that gardening increases their self-esteem and reduces the degree of stress they experience.

So go on, turn off the TV and get outside. Better still, plant a garden, and cultivate some greenery in your little part of the world!

Birth Plans - A Happy Update

I was very quick to update with the bad news, and terribly slow at updating with good news... why is that? The day after my appointment with the doctor, the midwife called me and told me another doctor had reviewed my notes and decided I could give birth at their hospital after all. I was surprised, relieved, and so thankful.

I had another routine appointment yesterday, and everything is going along wonderfully. I'm measuring spot on, baby's heartbeat is great, etc, etc. I had a blood test yesterday, for gestational diabetes (routine). So now my next prayer is that all will go well with that, and the results will come back negative. Both Tiny and I need to stay as healthy as possible over the next few months so that I can still birth at this hospital. I still feel a little unsure, as if at any moment someone could come and burst my happy little bubble. But it's all in God's hands.