Cherry Tomatoes

One of the nice things about the rain we've had is that the garden is growing. Early this summer, we went and bought a bunch of seedlings. Some got eaten by the snails - but this little tomato plant has produced a punnet of tomatoes already - and boy are they sweet as sweet!

Happy New Year

OK - so now I've got the Christmas thing off my chest - happy new year everybody!

2008 looks like it's going to be a big year. First off the husband wants to move house - which sounds fine if you say it really quickly but that entails:
a) getting your own house in order so that it looks somewhat more desireable than a "renovate or detonate" proposition
b) keeping your own house actually in order so that it's ready for inspection at the drop of a hat - this is hard when two parents are working and the three kids are at home - eating (plate? what's a plate?) drinking - (coaster? what's a coaster?) and going for swims (think wet cossies and towels dumped in sodden piles along with several changes of clothes a day.
c) keeping the garden in order - it's summer and a reasonably wet one at that - so all the plants (and more especially the weeds) are growing like mad to make up for the last three summers when it was so hot and so dry they weren't allowed to do anything above barely survive).
d) finding a house where one would like to live - we've found a couple but they are in a different area so would entail changing schools for all three kids. I don't even want to go there!

Maybe it would be easier to get a divorce -hmmmm.

Now you may well be thinking why not just renovate, detonate, put on an addition etc. to deliver what we want? Well - that's all very sensible but as we have had gee - I don't know - at least 1 million iterations of this question the one thing we know about ourselves is that we are not knockdown rebuilders, renovators or anything else like that - mate - we can barely maintain!

So we will search for the perfect place and hope we eventually find it. We did see this place - but someone bought it three days before Christmas. Who buys a house three days before Christmas I ask you? We're also thinking about this place - but it may well go before we get our act together.

So how did I spend my one week of the year off?

Painting.

Steven is a great starter ( I call him the gusher) - he is however totally crap at finishing- anything. So he started painting the laundry, the outside bathroom and the inside bathroom ceiling with great gusto. I of course finished them all - you know those boring fiddly bits where ceiling meets wall, second coats - that sort of unimportant stuff which requires going up and down the ladder a thousand times? I also repainted our bedroom and took down the curtains and washed them, stripped the bed and washed all the linen including the quilt and dusted and mopped every nook and cranny.

Basically I've come back to work for a rest.

Now apart from all the moaning the exciting thing is that lovely Patti Culea has asked me to do a project for her new book. A great honour and the timing is pretty snappy which suits me as the longer I have to procrastinate then that's exactly what I do. Mind you the inner critic is having a lovely time with me - but I think I've got an idea that will work - knowing me the overachieving perfectionist will do at least two different ones - you know - just in case.

Better go and extract my digit!

Ok - I'm ready for Christmas

Well - in true Megan fashion I feel about ready for Christmas now - even though it's the 3rd January.

Every year I tell people I'm ready for Christmas by early January and they laugh (they are usually the people who have done all their Christmas shopping in the June sales and put their fruit for the Christmas cake down to soak on the 1st July). But I kid you not - I find the rush up to Christmas and the responsibility for Christmas somewhat overwhelming - so I am not emotionally ready to kick back and relax until - well - the 3rd of January or thereabouts.

Am I alone in this feeling?

That said we actually had the tree up early this year because it was the 7 year turn to have Steven's family. I don't normally put the tree up until after Em's birthday (who wants their birthday upstaged?) But ahhh - the blessing and the curse of a large family - blessing because you only have to host the event once every seven years - curse because when it's your turn it's a very large number of people to have in your house all at once. Thankfully they have this family event well in advance of the actual day - so we don't fight about who's parents we spent last Christmas with and all that other stuff I know many people have to contend with.

I did make a gingerbread house too - because there was a gingerbread house "outreach" night at my church. Couldn't really give a tinker's cuss about the gingerbread house - just wanted to hear the speaker - Rebecca Manley Pippert. I have read all her books - and my copy of "A Heart for God" is truly well thumbed (but missing in action at the moment - may well have to get a new copy). She is truly a gifted speaker - we were very lucky that she had a cancellation on the Sunday and so was able to speak in church - you can hear that message here (you might need to scroll down to 2nd December to find it).

I also snuck out of the shop to go to the K-2 infants school concert and awards. Every kid in the class gets a certificate - so no biggie - but Claire's teacher did say that she always kind and friendly to everyone in her class - which was very heart-warming and much better than "works hard to improve at maths". It's nice to know your kids are nice to others (even if they scream like banshees to their siblings).

Emily of course finished up Year 6 - and I totally missed it because she told me it was at 3pm. Of course it was at 2.45pm - so haven't got a photo of her walking down the "tunnel of love" or anything else. Bad mummy!

My blessed father paid for us all to go out for Christmas lunch - so we didn't have the whole food shopping/cooking/serving trauma although Mum couldn't help herself and cooked a chook, a pud and a cake anyway! She said she felt funny not doing any food - I told her all I felt was relief. You might remember this photo from last Christmas - well I have to confess that was me this year - I totally conked out on Mum and Dad's bed and had a good long snooze. (No photos though - I'm not that silly!) I managed to buy Christmas presents for the children who have everything - helped along by the fact that Chris wanted a guitar and at 14 you can get away with a single expensive present.

So that was the end of 2007 - jumbled up and rushed. 2008 isn't looking very different at this point - but more on that later.

Summer is here

Ok - so this post was supposed to happen in late November/early December but...... you know - I've been a little busy!

One of the first signs that it's really summer in Sydney (well - the part where I live) is the jacarandas coming out in full bloom. I adore jacarandas and love the way they turn an area purple - both in the tree tops and carpeted beneath when the blooms start to fall. Here are two shots which look rather maudlin as they were taken in a churchyard at dusk - but I couldn't resist as the trees looked so pretty.

After the jacarandas there is more purple when the agapanthus come out.

And can't forget the christmas bush - both those things signify Christmas in Sydney for me.