{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Have a wonderful weekend.
See other wonderful moments at Soule Mama.
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Have a wonderful weekend.
See other wonderful moments at Soule Mama.
The weekend has finally arrived. It is time for a new look here at ‘Not Working’… As I mentioned earlier in the week, on Monday I enter the potentially crazy world of workinginsideandoutsidethehome. I am shying away from saying I am going back to work, since it is abundantly clear to me…and most people who think about it for a few minutes…that there are all kinds of work done in our world – and not all are remunerated. But from Monday, I shall be remunerated for some tasks I do, and I will be remunerating someone else to do the many happy tasks I have been doing with Kazuo for the past two years.
Akira and I will be renegotiating the roles we play in keeping the home running, though we have managed to develop a fairly smooth routine, so I am hopeful that there will not be too many teething problems there. Kazuo will make perhaps the biggest adjustment – as he settles into a life of full time nursery school.
As I reflect back on what I have felt about ‘working’ over the past few years – and look forward to more time here in the blog (yayy for lunchbreaks!) I came to the conclusion that I was working hard to make us all feel at home, wherever we happened to be. So even while I return to the paid workforce, this need to feel at home…and help my family and our critters feel at home…is perhaps the guiding narrative of our life together. (See more on this on the Where I Find Myself Page.)
This weekend I have bustled about trying to get our house in order to weather the changes ahead. I finally managed to find some secondhand cubbies for the entrance hall, and managed to wrestle some control over the chaos that had developed in that little vestibule. Now the coats hang in the corner, the boots have a space, and the wee guy can sit down for wellies/shoes/slippers and not stand up caked in mud (or latterly, chicken poop – ewwww!):
We’ve planted a tiny row of garlic in our little plot – and now to wait for the spring for the other plantings:
And we installed a compost bin and made a trip to the recycling centre – showing the little one the delights of separating out our waste:
Here we are then…making ourselves at home. I hope you will too.
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Have a wonderful weekend.
See other wonderful moments at Soule Mama.
In April last year we gave Kazuo his first haircut. In reality, it was merely a trim. Since then, his abundant curly locks and long eyelashes have often garnered some of the confused and silly presumptions people make about small people’s sex/gender. I think that small people who are still growing hair and recognisable adult features mostly look pretty interchangeable in terms of gender, especially since much of their gender socialisation is still in the future. So if people think my boy, who at present is kinda on the pretty side, is a girl…so be it. But hair seems to be a real confusion for some people. So I promised to arrange for Kazuo’s next haircut to happen around his second birthday since it was getting very long and woolly.
Then Kazuo started ASKING for a haircut…since he was struggling to see out from the fringe. So, last Sunday, in the midst of dinner aftermath, Akira and I took to the scissors and gave Kazuo his first big-boy haircut:
Here are some before (top row) and after(bottom row) shots of his two haircuts. As you can see… there was much more to tame in the recent shearing. He was totally fascinated by the little packet of hair I collected for the memory box.
Funny how less hair can make for a more grown-up look. Lately he is seeming more and more like a little boy – not even a toddler any more!
Our girls survived the night and a really frosty, sleety morning. We are making constant modifications to their world and ours to accomodate them and we hope that poor little Naynaynay Number Four will last the distance, she is looking very much the bottom of the newly established pecking order.
But the big news this morning was: Eggs! Here is Kazuo proudly displaying the first one that we found after breakfast:
He’d never held an egg before, so sadly, it came to a bit of a sorry end at the close of this photo shoot.
But by the time I returned from the shopping at lunchtime, there was another warm little brown egg in the nest box. Well done girls!
After Christmas came the birthday…and this year Kazuo had it all figured out. Birthdays involved a party which consisted of friends (thankfully we could finally muster up a couple of lovely ones with whom we have recently had the joy of becoming acquainted), balloons, his birthday banner and a cake with candles:
I decided to get a little crafty. To keep it simple but still have something for the wee ones to take home I sewed up some little birdy bags and made some finger puppets a la MadebyJoel and I sewed up a playmat for Kaz that has a landscape on one side and streets on the other, you can see it in progress here (a tutorial may follow):
In the morning we had a little ceremonial unwrapping time – this year we invested in a little portable kitchen that has already become a firm fixture in the roleplaying around the house:
This time the treasures made it in the post in time – here he is exploring the finished playmat with the new matchbox cars AND messing about with the fun garden toys from Grandma and Grandpa at the same time:
Kazuo decided that he wanted an animal themed celebration…and it was down to the wire on cake preferences – giraffe and elephant ran neck and neck for days. Finally Mama realised that in the absence of the cake decorating tools (where DID they end up in the move??), it would have to be a roundy kinda elephant. This year we had some dairy/soy allergies amongst our guests, so it was a scrummy vegan chocolate cake with vegetable-fat frosting:
Sneaky Kazuo managed to help himself to cake numerous times throughout the day, and he was still gobbling it down when chatting to his Grandparents with Dada on Skype that evening.
It has been a delightful two years and it was lovely to be able to celebrate this milestone with some new friends…and in as handmade-homey way as possible. Two weeks on and we are still having happy chats about birthdays, friends and parties. Having a two year old in the house has led to lots of giggles, hugs and charming conversation. Thanks to all who helped us to celebrate these two great years!
A couple of years ago I began reading the marvellous Aussie children’s magazine LMNOP online. Last year they introduced Joel Henriques of MadebyJoel as their regular craft contributor and I stumbled across his blog and had a fleeting infatuation. But Kazuo was still a little small for most of his clever innovations. Then, over the holidays, our friend Denise sent me a link to MadebyJoel and I revisited…and I am HOOKED! Joel has three year old twins who are the obvious inspirations for his prolific creative output. But even lowly derivative pseudo-crafty mamas (or papas) like me can execute many of his fabulous ideas. Especially since the kind man posts freebie pdfs of many of his kiddy crafts. And they are excellent – stylish, simple and so popular with wee pops. If you have any little people in your life, visit MadebyJoel NOW!
On the weekend I was looking for inspiration for the upcoming birthday…I found several ideas that might translate into great party favours for our three wee guests. But the major crafty gift from Mama this year is a playscape/street mat for Kaz to use on the floor for his little cars and animals etc. [More to come on this project once I have completed, it is very much WIP right now...] Joel’s Paper City will be a great addition to the little street mat.
Since the wee guy has just had Christmas and there are still a plethora of presents for this coming birthday, I thought I would just try out the paper city and let him play with it right away. So I printed it onto cardstock and cut it out for him to play with on Sunday afternoon, post-nap. The images are charming and lots of fun:
It was a hit. He particularly loved flinging the little button helicopters around.
Three days later and it is still in good shape and getting plenty of attention. In fact, yesterday, he built an extremely large duplo tower (a recent motor skill success that causes daily glee) and set it amidst the paper city as a kinda monolith for the little duplo and paper city people to admire. I love it when the new toys begin to merge with the existing toys.
I think Joel is pretty amazing…and I am just hoping I can stop reading long enough to try out some more of his great ideas…Thanks again Denise, for the crafty linky!
