My life as the good twin

Farewell for now

2011-05-02T09:32:00.005+10:00

Hello old friends. I have been neglecting you. I've found that I'm just not getting the time, nor finding the inspiration to write on my blog at the moment, so I am going to take a hiatus. Not that I'm sure I'll come back to it. I've found the break since I last wrote quite freeing. So thanks for reading and putting up with my thoughts for so long. Thanks for coming along for the ride. Maybe I'll see you again some day. : )

If you are suffering from withdrawal, I am still writing at my family history blog, becoming prue, so you can always say hello over there.

Bye!

The Lord Cheesus

2011-03-30T17:53:00.003+11:00

Apparently Jesus has appeared in a pizza. The article talks about whether it was a miracle or not, and contains quotes from a dude from the Australian Catholic University saying that medical miracles are much easier to validate than images on food and such. His statement "You have to understand we can't apply that kind of rigour to a piece of cheese" had me giggling.

As does the guy at church when he does the prayers and earnestly prays about and to "Cheesus".

Sausages

2011-03-25T09:59:00.003+11:00

Little Sister has been starting to turn her head to look at us when we say her name. I got all excited that she might already be recognising that her name means her. But then, in the same way that I said her name to her, I said "Sausages" and she turned to look at me just the same. So I'd better stop doing that, otherwise the poor child will end up thinking her name is Sausages!

Missed another one

2011-03-24T19:47:00.000+11:00

Well, Elizabeth Taylor died and I didn't have her on my predictions list this year. Last year yes, but not this year. I don't think I'm very good at this!

What's your favourite tv ad?

2011-03-24T07:25:00.002+11:00

After yesterday's mention of one of my favourite ads I thought I would show you my favourites. There's both the Dare Iced Coffee ads:

and

Plus the Telstra Bigpond ad which means that every Australian now knows the real reason why the Great Wall of China was built:

Just about any of the lamb ads:

and

And why is it that so many beer ads are so funny?

and

School reunions

2011-03-23T09:56:00.000+11:00

I watched the first episode of the new series Winners and Losers last night. Mainly because it has the girl in it from the Dare Iced Coffee ad - one of the best ads ever. Not sure whether the show is worth a second look (and Blair looked tired I thought), but the storyline about the school reunion got me thinking.

It's 25 years since I finished primary school this year. Which is somewhat scary. I was thinking a month or so ago about if someone organised a reunion (and I went) that I'd have to hang around with a guy who goes to the same church as us and a girl who works with my husband, because everyone else from my primary school either lives interstate or overseas or I haven't kept up with them. Quite some time later I suddenly thought "OH!!! My sister!" Ooops. Sorry twin sis. : )

There is actually a 50th anniversary thing happening at my primary school this year. Not sure whether I am interested in going. I was talking to the guy from church about it and we were speculating as to whether they've actually managed to find the time capsule that was buried at the 25th anniversary thing when we were in Year 6, which they apparently forgot the location of... But will it just be an awkward situation of saying "Oh yeah hi" or "Wow! You've changed!" to a whole lot of people you don't actually recognise?

I think I'd be happier going to my primary school reunion than my high school reunion though - and we're due for a 20 year reunion next year. Perhaps, deep down, that's because I was more popular in primary school. At high school I'd always hoped to be as popular but wasn't. I did love school, both because of friendships and because I like learning. But I haven't kept up with that many friends from high school. There's my best friend - we became friends at Uni even though we went to the same school - but she lives interstate now and wouldn't necessarily get to a reunion here in Sydney. I guess I'd worry that I'd be a bit of a Nigel-no-friends. Which is probably stupid but it's awful to be lonely in a crowd. Of course, thinking objectively about it there are plenty of people who I keep up with on Facebook with whom I could have a decent conversation.

I think it's partly also the whole thing that you go to your school reunion to show how successful you've become, and stick it to the girls who might have thought you were a loser. But by the world's standards I'm seriously lacking in success - I'm a (yes, happily) married, stay-at-home-mother of three children, and while I do currently have a casual job (yes, lecturing at a university, no less) it will finish at the end of the year as the course will not be run after this year - we've finally run out of students. Yes, I am a successful botanical artist, but is that enough to make up for all the rest? Girls can be so catty...

Of course, that's not the standard I should measure my success by though. In fact success like that is not what I want to be striving for. For me the most important thing is that I am a Christian and I know that the creator of the universe loves me and is saving a place for me in heaven. So perhaps that's the reason I should turn up to any school reunion that may happen - because I'm loved by my saviour and therefore happy in myself, and not worry about anyone who is looking down their nose at me because I'm still a nerd, or I'm not wearing the right clothes nor breaking through the glass ceiling!

A bad week

2011-03-18T09:50:00.004+11:00

I really wanted a day off from being the mother of three kids this morning.

It's just a build up of too much of the kids niggling and annoying each other and me being at the beck and call of a four month old. I'd just like a day off. Of course, then I'd probably resent it all more after my day off. But I would like kids who didn't bicker constantly. Teaching them to respect each other is hard. Teaching them to respect me is hard. Although I did notice the irony of the following conversation as it was occurring yesterday afternoon:
Me: You always argue with everything I say at the moment.
Little Miss Enthusiasm (in her particularly obstinate growl that she has): No I don't!
Me: Yes you do.
Little Miss Enthusiasm: No I don't!

I love my Fridays because they are a day when I just stay home with Little Sister and we have a quiet day, and she has the best chance at sleeping all week. Except today she has her 4 month immunisation, so we have to go out for that. The one good thing about this is that she's woken up with conjunctivitis so at least I don't have to make a separate appointment for that.

I'm just a little bit weary at the moment, and I can't work out any way that I can make it particularly better at the moment. And afterall, they're my kids so I have to look after them and somehow learn how to do it well.

God, give me strength. Please.

The Pronunciation Police

2011-03-14T10:11:00.004+11:00

I was listening to the radio this morning and they were talking about the problematic nuclear reactors in Japan, since the earthquake. The bloke that the radio host was talking to was from the Australian Science Media Centre. And he kept saying "new-cue-lar" (I just don't get how you can come up with that pronunciation from that set of letters), instead of the correct "new-clee-ar". Aarrgghh!

I was discussing this later and a friend then jumped on her hobby horse about how many Australians don't even pronounce the name of our country correctly - they say "Auschtray-ya" instead of "Aus-tray-lee-a".

"Arks" gets me too. Instead of "ask".

I suggested we become the Pronunciation Police. It's a good thing I worked out in my teens that I had been pronouncing "umbilical" wrong all my life!

A worthwhile legacy

2011-03-10T12:20:00.007+11:00

Yesterday I went with Little Miss Enthusiasm, Little Sister and my aunt to Rookwood Cemetery. I had a whole lot of relatives to visit! We didn't manage to get to find all of them, partly because the Anglican and Catholic sections don't have exact graves with names mapped and so it involves a lot of walking around, looking at headstones. I'll have to go again when I don't have a hungry preschooler (she's always hungry) and a tired crying baby with me, to search some more.

One of the graves we did find was for my great great grandparents, Rosetta and Frederick Weiss.

It's hard to read because I took the photo on my phone camera so it's not a great quality image, but it shows that Frederick lived to 92 years old. My aunt made the comment that all in that family have lived to a ripe old age, apart from the three individuals who smoked and died younger. And I made the comment that it was a legacy of long life that was being passed down the generations.

However, I was thinking later about the statement (illegible in the photo) underneath the "Aged 92 years" which says "He walked with God". And amongst many of my relatives there are statements such as that on their headstones: "Absent from the body, present with the Lord", "Together with the Lord" etc. And I believe this is a more worthwhile legacy - that many generations later, their descendants still walk with God. I'm grateful for those faithful ancestors who took their children to church and brought them up to know Jesus, down through the generations to my parents, who also took us kids to church and helped me to know Jesus. It's a legacy I want to pass on to my kids too.

A 3 year old drawing genius?

2011-03-09T07:49:00.000+11:00

Little Miss Enthusiasm has been drawing for a while, but it has all been scribble. Until now. Yesterday I asked her to draw a circle. She did. She didn't know how to do a triangle though. Fair enough.

Today she was visiting Grandma's. Grandma asked her to draw a face. She got her to do a circle for the head, then told her to do the eyes, mouth, nose etc.

She proudly showed it to me when she got home. I kept asking her whether she did it herself, I was so staggered.

Sleeping

2011-03-08T11:10:00.005+11:00

I'm sorry I haven't been here much. I'm pretty tired at the moment and inspiration seems to flee when I am tired. Little Sister had been sleeping really well at night for a few months (usually waking only once a night, sometimes not at all) but has started waking twice a night for the last week or so. It's a bit of a shock to the system for me!

As well as that, Little Miss Enthusiasm is also giving up her afternoon nap. She still goes to her room at least, and usually thumps around in there, reading books, singing, etc. Yesterday she was clearly in the middle of playing with a whole lot of shoes on her bed (she's a shoe fiend - she didn't get that from me) when she finally gave in and fell asleep, all over the shoes. Comfortable!

Anyway, sorry to be missing in action so much. But that's life I guess!

Updated to add: Just spoke to my trusty lactation consultant. She says that Little Sister's night waking is likely to be developmental rather than hunger, so she said to work on getting the day sleeps better (which haven't been great recently) and then hopefully better night sleeping will follow. And if she falls asleep during one of the night feeds, don't persist, just put her back to bed. : )

The imaginary family

2011-03-01T20:26:00.004+11:00

You know how some kids have imaginary friends? Turns out Little Miss Enthusiasm has a whole family of them.

The family comes in three sections: her girls, her boys and the baby.

Her girls (she calls them My Girls) - there are four girls, all the same age, all sisters (yes, they're quads!) who are at preschool just like her.
Her boys (My Boys) - two boys, brothers, of the same age (yes, twins!), who are at school, just like the Aviator.
The Baby - a baby of indeterminate sex, of approximately the same age as Little Sister.

Her girls, her boys and the baby are all from the same family. Her girls seem to go everywhere with her. They seem to do all the things she'd like to be doing. Last week at the supermarket they were running up the other end of the supermarket until she called them back. Today in the carpark at the shops they were up on the ceiling. Often she'll sit on the loo or in the bath and have conversations with them. Sometimes she'll teach them things. Her boys are usually at school so I don't often hear about them. The baby only pops up occasionally these days, though it was around a lot after Little Sister was born.

It's all very enlightening to hear what they are up to - a bit of a window on her thoughts!

Shaun Tan - Oscar winner!

2011-02-28T20:33:00.002+11:00

I was so pleased to hear that one of my favourite children's book illustrators Shaun Tan had won an Oscar for Best Short Animated Film for The Lost Thing. So, any idea how I get to see his award winning masterpiece?

Hot weather affecting grammar

2011-02-23T11:20:00.004+11:00

I was listening to the radio the other afternoon and a guy rang in to complain about the grammar of the news weather reporters.

"Oh, give us an example of what they say."
"Well, like, they like, um, like, say stuff like um 'It's hotting up' instead of like 'It's heating up'..."

I wondered how the radio DJ managed not to laugh at him. Perhaps there was some judicious use of the mute button.

In which we have a joyflight and the kids get lost

2011-02-21T07:28:00.003+11:00

Saturday was an interesting day. We decided to go to the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) discovery day. When I was little we had some family friends who worked with Christian Radio Missionary Fellowship (CRMF) in Papua New Guinea. CRMF worked closely with MAF and has now been integrated into it. In fact, whenever I hear of Australians being killed in plane crashes in PNG I always hold my breath to find out whether they worked for MAF - sadly, sometimes this is the case.

We thought the Aviator particularly might enjoy seeing the planes (as well as the rest of us). The only problem: it was going to be a 35°C day, and it was at Camden Airport, over the other side of the city, where it was too far away from the coast for a maritime breeze. Hot, hot, hot. We were thankful for the air conditioning in the car!

They had a variety of activities there: joyflights, small planes to look over, flight simulators, toy pedal planes to ride on, games, balloons, etc, as well as more missionary oriented stuff - meeting people etc. All as drips of sweat ran down our backs.

The kids both got balloons, and Little Miss Enthusiasm's promptly burst as we were on the way back to the car because she let it touch the ground. She very bravely commented later that she would cope without her balloon.

They both also had a couple of goes on the flight simulator. The Aviator managed to crash a 737 into the sea, then crash-landed a small Cessna onto a runway. Little Miss Enthusiasm managed to land her Cessna very safely, but she also had an awful lot of help from the pilot sitting beside her, demonstrating how to use the simulator.

The joyflights weren't free, but we were happy to allow the kids such an experience. So I went up in a small Cessna with the two kids and our pilot for a 20 minute flight around Camden Airport. Little Miss Enthusiasm sat on a cushion but still couldn't see a huge amount because she was a bit short to see much out the windows, but she was still terribly excited. As was the Aviator. They both had grins from ear to ear. At one stage the Aviator told Little Miss Enthusiasm she could stop shouting (we all had headphones with mics) because she was yelling very excitedly. She didn't stop talking the whole time. The Aviator was very pleased to be able to make out Sydney Tower in the distance, and we could just see the top of the arch of the Harbour Bridge. The houses below us truly looked like models on a trainset. Our pilot's regular job was as a flight instructor, and take off and landing were expert, as you would hope with a flight instructor! I sat up in front with the pilot and the kids were in the two seats behind. I got to hold the sick bags, just in case, but I think the kids were way too excited to have any time to turn green!

Ours was the last joyflight of the day so after that it was time to head home. To continue the special treat-ness of the day though we decided to go to Sydney Domestic Airport for dinner on the way home. After we'd had dinner we went to Gate 59 where there is an excellent view of the runways. On the way back out of the terminal, the kids ran ahead because they were so hyped up from the excitement of the day, despite being told to stay with us. They disappeared from view and we had to go searching for them - not a great thing in a busy airport. Little Miss Enthusiasm was found just further along the terminal arm, with some ladies who had stopped to help her because she was calling out for Mummy and Daddy. The Aviator was not with her, and nowhere to be seen. We split up to look for him. My husband found him in one of the shops, quite upset, with an old lady trying to comfort him.

Once we got back to the car the kids were read the riot act. It was such a disappointing end to a great day, but at least they were safe. Hopefully now they will understand how easy it is to get lost and will understand the value of staying with Mummy and Daddy. I think the day will be memorable in more ways than one.

Carted around all over the place

2011-02-16T07:30:00.001+11:00

During the school holidays I was trying to ignore my worries about how much of a pain it was going to be to have to wake the baby to do the school run, and even just to fit in feeding her.

Happily, she's apparently very adaptable and readily accepts being woken and carted around after her brother and sister. She's even, on the odd occasion, been woken to take big brother to school, been carried around in my sling as he's walked in to school, and then once home again, gone straight back to sleep!

They say that third children learn to just fit in. I guess I didn't want to get my hopes up about it, but it seems to be true! I do cherish the days we just get to stay at home between school runs though!

Freya Blackwood AND Lisbeth Zwerger

2011-02-15T07:50:00.004+11:00

My two favourite children's book illustrators were mentioned in the same sentence last week, and not by me!

In a review of Maudie and Bear, written by Jan Ormerod, illustrated by Freya Blackwood, Meg Sorensen of the Sydney Morning Herald wrote "Blackwood's exquisite line work, whimsical application of watercolour and pure feeling for the state of childhood seem destined to put her work on a par with the miraculous Lisbeth Zwerger."

I'm glad someone else has noticed!

When I last wrote about Freya Blackwood (June 2008) her body of work was not nearly as extensive as it is now. She has not only illustrated other people's books but she's also written and illustrated one of her own. She has developed a very recognisable style; pencil outlines (and sometimes shading), with beautifully executed watercolour or gouache painting. The colours she uses are almost always understated and extremely well chosen. She also uses some patterning on clothing in a similar way to, but less frequently than Lisbeth Zwerger - Her Mother's Face is a good example of this - in fact the colour palette in Her Mother's Face is reminiscent of Zwerger's The Merry Pranks of Till Eulenspiegel. Blackwood regularly uses interesting viewpoints in her compositions, to portray vastness and smallness - often the viewer is very low down, like at child's level, with everything else towering, or looking down, like from a helicopter, seeing large landscapes.

I found an interview with Blackwood about her influences. I was totally unsurprised to learn that Lisbeth Zwerger is one of her biggest inspirations. (Plus she also likes Shaun Tan's work - clearly we have similar taste!) In another interview with her, Blackwood stated "I have clutched a book of her collected work to my heart and stared at its beautiful pages in awe for years". I wonder if her copy of Zwerger's book fell apart just like mine has, from overuse!

I'll say it again, Freya Blackwood is one of my favourite illustrators, as is Lisbeth Zwerger. : )

Learning to see again

2011-02-14T07:53:00.000+11:00

Reading Girl with a Pearl Earring the other week, I couldn't help but think that the author, Tracy Chevalier, had dabbled in art herself, as she showed such an understanding of the process of painting.

Just to explain, Girl with a Pearl Earring is a fictional story, based around the Vermeer painting of the same name. The story tells of the life of a girl called Griet, the name Chevalier has given to the girl pictured in the artwork. In the book Griet goes to work as a servant in the household of the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer, and he eventually paints her portrait.

Part way through the book, Vermeer started a new painting and Griet was confused by the method he used to build up the colours in the artwork. "I had never seen a painting made from the beginning. I thought that you painted what you saw, using the colours you saw." However, he started off with black paint for a blue skirt, ochre for a black and yellow bodice, and red for a silver pitcher, which completely mystified her. "They were the wrong colours - none was the colour of the thing itself. He spent a long time on these false colours, as I called them." Eventually he explained to her why. He got her to look out the window at some clouds, asking her what colour they were. "Why, white sir." He helped her to see that there was some blue in them, and yellow, and green, that there is little pure white in clouds, yet people say they are white. "I had been looking at clouds all my life, but felt as if I saw them for the first time that moment." As the painting progressed she understood this further - he painted light blue over the skirt, and the base colour of black helped it to look three dimensional, as in life. Other items in the painting reflected colours around them, "everything but their true colour. And yet they looked as they should..." She observed "After that I could not stop looking at things."

This reminded me so much of when I was doing my illustration degree. One of the primary reasons I did my illustration degree was to learn to use watercolour paints. Although it is a different process to using oil paints as Vermeer does in the book, you still need to plan from the very start of the painting which colour goes where, adding washes of different colours to build up to the final colour. As I learnt this process, I too started to see things in a new way. For days I would look at things and think "How would I paint that?" I thought about what colours I would use to produce the correct colour, including all the reflected colours and all the colours in the shadows, and the order of the washes. It really was a new way of seeing things.

Little Sister

2011-02-11T12:15:00.003+11:00

You've been very patient.
In fact none of you have even asked.
Perhaps you're not interested... Hmmm.

Well, whether you care or not, here's a photo of Little Sister. : )

30000

2011-02-10T21:08:00.000+11:00

If you happen to be the lucky person who gets me over the line to 30000 hits do say hello in the comments box!

Reading time

2011-02-09T20:17:00.008+11:00

Little Sister has been given the all clear by the paediatrician to be weaned off the reflux medication. Hooray! And it occurred to me later in the afternoon after our paediatrician appointment that she no longer needs to be upright after a feed to help the milk stay down.

Although this is great for her, this means that I now no longer have dedicated reading time. After her night time and early morning feeds she used to sit in a baby rocker, wrapped, and drift off to sleep whilst I read. Then, after half an hour, I would pick her carefully up and slide her into bed, turn the light off and leave. I enjoyed my half hour of reading time. Since the beginning of the year I have read lots of books: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, Paper Garden by Molly Peacock, Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, Year of Wonders plus Nine Parts of Desire both by Geraldine Brooks, and I am currently reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (actually I was surprised with a title like this that it wasn't by Alexander McCall Smith). Being the type of person who finds it quite difficult to put a book down halfway through, and would much prefer to ignore the phone, children, housework and all other daily distractions in order to read, having dedicated time to read has been lovely. I guess I'll have to read instead of watching tv. Not so much of a problem really!

I have enjoyed all these books, though Paper Garden the least (the author seemed obsessed with sex). I think I am enjoying The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society the most - hopefully it won't be destroyed by a bad ending!

Edited to add: There was no bad ending. I loved the book, though I did feel like it romped to the end and just stopped. In the days after I finished it I was really missing the characters - I wanted to read more!

Cyclone Yasi

2011-02-03T12:52:00.007+11:00

Dear God,
We've had enough weather now for a little while. Thanks.
Amen.

Floods, bushfires, monster cyclones, week-long heatwaves. However, amidst the chaos, terror, exhaustion, loss of life (in the floods) and belongings, there are some positives.

Despite being almost the size of the whole of the United States of America, amazingly at this stage there are no reports of loss of life or injury from Cyclone Yasi*. Indeed, this morning, in one of the evacuation centres a healthy baby girl was born. A doctor plus a British midwife, holidaying in Australia, both sheltering in the evacuation centre, delivered the baby. A volunteer emergency worker made the courageous decision to move 10 people from an evacuation shelter in a senior citizens' hall in Tully to another evacuation centre, later learning that the senior citizens' hall was completely destroyed in the cyclone.

I went to bed last night on edge, anxious for the many thousands of people hunkered down, awaiting the inevitable destruction. At 3am when I was up feeding Little Sister I prayed and prayed for the people I know living in the area where the cyclone was to have hit. And when I got up this morning and checked the news I was just astounded that the top item wasn't the number of dead. Praise God. Sure, the townspeople of Mission Beach and Tully have been through a terrifying ordeal, but they are all alive. And now the recovery can start, though it may be a long road.

*Sadly, one death reported as of Friday 4th February.

Ivy doll

2011-01-31T07:16:00.000+11:00

Another little girl's birthday coming up so I've made another doll, "Ivy". I found the book with the pattern in it eventually so I was happy again! I'm particularly pleased with the way the hair turned out.

Blogging my family history

2011-01-28T08:25:00.003+11:00

I decided a little while ago to start a family history blog. My plan is to write about my discovery process, about some of the individuals in my family history whom I've researched, and also about some of the useful tools available for family history research.

So if in the past you've been interested in what I've written here about my family history discoveries you might also be interested in what I write there. And if you are interested in doing some family history research yourself you might (hopefully) learn a little about how to go about it.

The link is here, plus there's one in the sidebar: Becoming Prue - about all the people who came before me to make me who I am.

Insulate insulate insulate

2011-01-27T10:07:00.003+11:00

I know yesterday was an unusual day - it was extremely humid and extremely hot - but the house didn't cope so well. I hate using the airconditioning, but we really needed to use it yesterday, especially in the evening.

It just drives home to me what we found out on Tuesday with the assessment of the house - we need to insulate insulate insulate. I spent just over two hours with the guy who came out, he looked over the house, took photos, then we sat down to talk about what measures we could take to make it a more reasonable and less variable temperature. It turns out there's ways we can insulate areas that I didn't think we could - such as our lovely high ceiling in the living area, which has exposed rafters. I didn't really want to cover up the rafters with a ceiling in order to be able to put in insulation, but it turns out we don't need to. Although it will be a fiddly job, we would need to just put foil insulation between the beams that the roof is attached to. Then over the beams we attach a foam batt, which the ceiling gyprock can be secured through.

We've just got to work out how much it will all cost, so that we can prioritise it as the money is available. Hopefully next summer won't be quite so hot for us though.