{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}

Joining these lovely ladies in finding contentment in the everyday.

{Pretty}

In the face of some pretty challenging behaviour from Ginger this week it was good to find some photos which show her gorgeous, if strong, personality.

I have been praying for grace with dealing with her as her defiance has been coupled with some pretty unspectacular parenting moments of my own.  Including this morning where every single toy was one by one put out onto the verandah - and she still did not comply with my request. Where to after that?

Anyway, I was quickly turning through our local paper as Ginger was eating her breakfast when I spotted a Catholic Care ad for Parenting Magic 123.  I am taking it as God given because I don't even normally bother to open the paper because it is always wet from the sprinklers.  Hopefully I will find some nugget of help there.  Though given the time it starts I am going to have to brainstorm some ideas for how to give Tom Kitten an early bedtime feed before I need to leave the house

But back to my post on how special this little girl is.  Ginger came home from Spotlight on Saturday with a pink balloon.  Daddy had taken her to return a tablecloth I bought on clearance which turned out to have a giant hole in it.

"Is there a balloon for Tom Kitten?" she asked as she rushed into the kitchen.

"No darling, not unless Daddy bought him one too" I replied.

"Oh well, maybe he can chase my balloon." was her response.  Such love for her brother.

I also had to include in my {pretty} Ginger's nightly adieu to the moon.

"I see the moon, and the moon sees me.  God bless the moon and God bless me"

"I see the stars, and the stars see me.  God bless the stars and God bless me."

"I see the birds flying home to their nest, it must be time to take my rest"

Yes I did make the last line up one night when we spotted some birds heading home for their nests.

Ginger is wearing her new pajamas bought by her grandparents in Vietnam.  All I can say is the Vietnamese must think Westerner's are huge as Ginger's are sized at 18 months and she will be 3 in a couple of weeks (though she does still fit size 18-24 months in clothing).

{Happy}

Noah looks mighty contented for a former sewer dweller!

{Funny}

Do you belong to your local toy library?  If not, why not?  We are new members of the Darwin Toy Library this year and it is fantastic.  For our annual membership fee we can hire seven items at any one time, for a two week period.  Three of the seven are allowed to be big items (which do attract a small fee for each item).  Our trouble is that our car is not very big, but this week we managed to fit in the Cozy Coupe for Ginger.  They are having such fun with it.

I love the photo below.  Tom Kitten looks so sophisticated and cool; just hanging out with his Sis'.

And, when you have a new car you can afford to be benevolent with your castoffs (incidentally picked up at the op-shop the other week for 20c).

Oh, actually, you can never have too many cars.  Better make sure you have one for baby too.

 

{Real}

Jelly on a plate.

Jelly on a plate.

Wibble wobble.

Wibble wobble.

Jelly on a plate.

There has been a bit about Apple Juice Jelly on some of my favourite Aussie blog sites - Town Mouse and Little Brown Wren.

I thought perhaps I was missing out on something so made some of our own on the weekend.  800 mls of apple juice bought to boil, and 2 tablespoons of powdered gelatine stirred in.  

They are onto something.  It is delicious.  And healthy.

Only thing is I couldn't get it out of the jelly mould.  We had to scoop it out.  Any suggestions?

{PHFR}

Joining these ladies in finding everyday contentment.

{Pretty}

Sorry for the flash glare - the photos taken without flash were all blurry!

 

Lately I have been doing a lot of work to pretty up corners of our home.  Every so often I sink into the slump of not wanting to do anything more than minimal housework because this is not our own home.  Recognising the beauty in small parts of the house is the best anecdote to that.  Once you tidy and rearrange a corner of the room, you tend to be more inclined to go on and deep clean other areas.

In part I blame the weather for this affliction.  It is just so hot here.  All. The. Time.  And, it gets to me - as I am definitely a winter loving girl.  I love living the seasons; turning inwards as the days grow short and cold and cleaning as warmth fills the air.  Ah well, I keep reminding myself that it is only a matter of months before we are out of here (and my baby goes to Kindergarten.  Sob! I am really struggling to come to terms with that.  She is only just about to turn 3 and I will only have six months more of her at home!)  And there are some pretty good things in Darwin, one of which I will come to in my {Happy}.

We purchased this beautiful print of Our Lady of the Southern Cross by Paul Newman.  As we draw towards Easter we come ever closer to the conclusion of our RCIA programme and I wanted to find a way to thank our sponsors for their support and the time they have given us - not to mention babysitting our children so we can attend together!  I found this beautiful print online that was commissioned for World Youth Day when it was held in Sydney in 2008.  I loved it, and so bought a copy for each of them (which we will give them after Easter Vigil) and one for our own wall.  

It is our first piece of "Religious Art".  Multiple times a day I stop at it on the way to the kitchen and contemplate it.  I know it is a very westernised version of Jesus and Mary and that in all probability that were dark skinned, but the fact that the infant Jesus reminds me of Tom Kitten so much - with that little belly sticking out - just reinforces for the humaness of the story.  Only recently has the reality, by which I mean their pain, joy, and fear, of the people in the bible come home to me and I think part of it has to do with becoming a mother and thus identifying with Mary and Jesus. 

One of the aspects I have loved about the RCIA programme has been the development of my knowledge and understanding of my Christian faith - yes, in part it has been learning about the Catholic church and its teaching but more than that I have had the chance to discuss the bible in a level of detail I - a post-catechism born Anglican (ie. one who grew up in the Anglican church after teaching the catechism had fallen out of favour) - have never been exposed to before.  We are very blessed with our parish Priest who is most unassuming but so knowledgeable and a wonderful teacher.  One of the comments Father made in the lead-up to Christmas last year was that Mary was a Jew who knew her scriptures and knew what was foretold in terms of sacrifice for her son as a saviour to the world.  And, that is what I think about everytime I see this picture.  Mary knew and yet she still did what God asked of her.  And, Jesus, Saviour of the world a tiny infant in his mothers arm's - loving cuddles, and closeness just like Tom Kitten, and with fate of such enormity and criticalness in front of him.  Our God, came down to earth not just as a human, but as the most vulnerable of humans - a baby. 

The RCIA journey has also seen our little family turn inward, and in part explains my long absence from this site.  My maternal grandmother who I unfortunately never had the privilege to meet as she died when my Mum was young, grew up a Quaker and had the most beautiful philosophy on faith differences.  She believed that we all look through different windows on the same God.  To me, being christian unites us, and our particular denomination / faith is simply our window on the same God.  We have found a window that is clearer for us.  I pray that yours is clear for you too.

And boy, have I got off track on that one.  Hijacked my {Pretty} discussion well and truly.  Other pretty corners of the house have been my framed and completed Winterwoods cross-stitch, which though my first attempt at cross-stitch will certainly not be my last.  Our table glows with roses found on half price sale at Woolworths.  And Noah our street cat turned house pet, residing on his new 'Circus' cat scratcher.  Not a necessity I grant you, but it was an attempt to save the leather couches and floor rugs from a certain feline's claws. Cats do maketh a home I find and we love having Noah around!  We found him undesexed, uncollared, unmicrochipped and very skinny wandering under the rainbow - hence the name.

{Happy}

Ginger loves her uncle!

 

A few weeks ago we purchased year long tickets to the Territory Wildlife Park.  We love going there.  On Saturday morning we got up early and Mr Provincial baked crumpies for breakfast.  We headed out to the wildlife park and along with Mr Provincial's brother were the only ones there.  We got the Pelican feeding all to ourselves.  Since the pelicans were proving fussy about which fish they would eat - for the record they like mullet not herring - the keeper also threw fish to the Whistling Kite and we saw it catch the fish in mid air.  

Mr Provincial and his brother got to feed the stringrays at the 'Oolloo Sandbar'.  Meanwhile I tried to hold onto Tom Kitten who was attempting to scale the fence into the enclosure while pacifying Ginger who was sobbing because she didn't want Daddy to go into the water with the stingrays!

{Funny}

Ginger and I spent Tom Kitten's nap the other day sculpting with playdough.  

Here we have her cat and my cat.

{Real}

Tom Kitten is a climber.

Let me restate that.  Tom Kitten is a really good climber.  And, he is only 10 months old yet and can't actually walk yet.  I fear for the future!

The other day I made Ginger a sandwich.  She ate half and left the remainder on the bench.  She called me over to something she wanted and then I turned around and saw this.

Tom Kitten at the kitchen bench eating her sandwich and looking very pleased with himself.

Then there was the incident at the Wildlife Park on the train.

Excuse appearance, have I mentioned it's hot here?

 Oh, and he can also get on Ginger's little wooden table.

It is now impossible to leave him unsupervised for even a minute.  I have no idea how I will ever get housework done again.