Happy Birthday Little Guy

Tomorrow morning our

little man will wake up as a five year old. 
He has always been a handful of a child, he needed resuscitating soon after birth and was colicky and refluxy until he was a year old, He chipped his front tooth aged eighteen months when he was playing with a doll's house of all things! 

I battled with post natal depression all through his infancy and didn't come out of it easily so it was hard for me to enjoy his babyhood. He is a loud person. He has had to be with his chatty brother always at the ready to answer for him and the frustration of not being heard has seen him develop a roaring shout and dissolve into passionate tears at the drop of a hat.

After five years the shouting is starting to subside a little and the small person behind the shout has emerged, growing happily through starting kindergarten this year and becoming a big brother to an adoring baby sister.

He is like a person with no Graphic User Interface, no overlay, he is honestly him and expresses joy, fear, anger and mischief unfettered bubbling to the surface as pure emotion. He is unabashed and curious, asking the questions he wants answered regardless of social norms, particularly fascinated by things that cause suffering to people and seems to be on a mission to find a solution to death and starvation which he find to be unacceptable.

He has great gross motor skills, amazing imagination and mimics beautifully. 
I have never met a person like him. Turning five is the line in the sand where I can no longer refer to him as a baby and I am excited to see how our youngest little guy grows.

It's going to be great!

The Dreaded Mini Break or Facing your Demons!

© Snowturtle http://www.dreamstime.com

About two years ago I thought it would be great to make the trip down to Hobart which is a good two hour drive away and booked a Bed and Breakfast so we could have a bit of an explore.
Sounds fine.
We had two children then boys aged four and two-ish.
It was not fine.
 Not fine at all. It was Hell on Earth. The whole experience left my dear husband traumatised. Sometimes I would talk about doing some more overnight stay explores, his face would become ashen and a terrified whisper would escape his lips "You mean.. a mini-break?". So there were no more mini-breaks.

Until mid last week I was looking at all the Roller Derby bouts going on in Hobart and whinging about missing out. Suddenly he said "Why don't we go down then?" he knew it meant staying over-night. I didn't over-think and booked a room (a queen, two single beds and an ensuite) for a reasonable rate online and bought some bout tickets.
We had a pretty good time.
We survived. We will do it again. I will share the comparison of the two experiences:
 The children are older so slightly easier to wrangle (even though we have a bubby she can always be breast fed into submission or sleep if the worst strikes).

This time we encouraged them to bring toys and books, they actually packed their own bags. last time we had one toy each. This was really foolish in hindsight.

It was our plan to look at Hobart on foot. Two and four year old boys don't have the same appreciation of a Victorian Gothic revival or Georgian facade as we do. Apparently. Who would have thought? they express their lack of interest via tantrums. So do things that children like too. With ours this involves eating and roller derby which luckily are two of my interests. An honourable mention goes to @taniafordwalker. She is a person from twitter and surprisingly exists in real life as well whom I managed to convince to go to roller derby only to receive an onslaught of my children which she took with good grace, it also kept my boys entertained. Apparently harassing people is a hobby of theirs now.

They also need to run around a bit.

Pack snacks. This time our nearly five year old started eating the decorative kale as a protest when we wouldn't go to EVERY cafe we saw. I figured this wasn't my problem and at least he was eating vegetables. The council would probably replant the kale soon. But I had plenty of snacks as well.

Remove the minibar from the room as soon as you check in. We didn't last time. So ermm sorry about that who ever tried to eat those sort of squished Snickers. Luckily they didn't have minibar snacks this time.

Make sure you consider their sleep foibles. Last time the boys were small. They slept top-to-tail in a single bed with a rail to stop them falling out. When we satyed at the b & B we put them in their own rail-less single beds. Cue small children falling out of bed loudly onto the floor and then crying. Repeatedly, ALL NIGHT.  
Did I mention Hell on Earth?

 I tried with our bub this time round, I put her in a travel bed on the floor but she kept waking up because she couldn't roll over in it and then I would put her in our bed and she would want to feed so my sleep was sort of rubbish (parenting is such a learning experience, also there is a lot more poo than I would like) but we survived. We will do it again and we will be even better at it!

It seems like a small thing but somethings need conquering before you can move on.
Another tip, if your sensitive six year old says they feel sick STOP IMMEDIATELY and get them out of the car. OK?

Linking up with Rachel at The VI Blog for The Lounge this week!

Spring and Boasting Etcetera

An age has passed since I last blogged (sounds like a mildly dirty word actually). And Spring has been busy bursting forth all over the place. We have been exploring our surrounds and enjoying sunshine and eating fresh food and gardening and all the right things one does when one emerges from hibernation.

A stylish way wear one's smoothie

The latest trend to take hold here is the green smoothie which has been started up by request from small people. it is interesting to see our children's tastes develop at their own pace. Our nearly five year old loves avocado and strawberries on his weetbix at the moment and raw vegies with dips are very popular too, so if the measure of a mother is (as many seem to think) how many vegetables her children eat I feel like Super Mum at present!
Actually I am bursting with pride as my little folk scramble about on rocks and up fences and ask for vegetables and help each other and ask inquisitive questions. They are most devoted to the chickens and the garden and carefully watering and feeding. the raised bed has been planted with lettuce and tagetes marigolds and basil and a variety of greens and it was done by the boys. they come out in the morning and collect greens from the garden for their alarming looking smoothies. Three year old Lincoln thanks the chickens sweetly when he collect the eggs and I have the overwhelming feeling that this style of child raising is right. I have to be firm with them and I do find if I am not taking care of my own stress that my tolerance of their sometime too vigorous shenanigans is greatly minimised but we are all learning together!
I wonder what other people's children are doing that make their parents beam with pride? It seems that sharing joy in your children (which I think is warranted after the tough first couple of years they put you through and should be welcomed) is seen as boasting and skiting  and should be avoided. Well don't avoid it, share your joy here and I promise you you don't run the risk of boring me with their antics!

Is that Autumn I can feel?

The weather features heavily in my blog posts but it is a real influence here, it feels right to be influenced by the forces of nature rather than airconditioned, artificially ventilated and heated spaces with nothing natural.

We have wonderful weather at the moment and the zucchinis(courgettes- Jess- sounds so much nicer and easier for the baby to say) are growing well, I am letting them get bigger than usual so I can make some relish as last years is nearly done. The amazing sunflower is bowing it's head under the weight of the seeds and the corn will be ready any day now (if only I knew how to tell- I picked one which looked good but it was immature)

The sun is fierce but the Morning and afternoon light has a golden, muted feel to it which makes me think autumn is just about here- I shall collect many bags of leaves for mulching and layering in no dig gardens, hunt of mushrooms and savour the blackberries whilst the boys participate in the time honoured childish pursuit of "scuffling" the leaves in the their wellies. I love autumn!

I some plants are growing well and others I had given up on, like my eggplant (Aubergine Jess- parle Vous Francais, ummm un petit pous- errr non but it sounds good er bonne, oui? so maybe one day I will learn.) and I had a look at it today and BEHOLD! a beautiful tiny aubergine!

At the markets on Sunday we found a Fuchsia stall by following people carrying astonishing fuchsia plants and the lady gave Master Four a  Shasta daisy in a gift wrapped pot with a heart shaped decoration complete with wooden lady bird because "he looked like a gardener" he was absolutely delighted (and I promptly bought a gorgeous flamboyant fuchsia for $5) and we have planted his daisy in the front yard. Bless the boys, they really like gardening- I have found I even prefer gardening with them to gardening without them!

Chickens and corn and crazy weather...

Our weather has been mild, then hot, then muggy which makes for interesting gardening but of course nothing compared to the awful trials other folk are having, blizzards in the Northern hemisphere, floods and cyclones in ours...

Our blackberries are going well, I must plant some raspberries this year and we have been enjoying the locally grown cherries immensely, they are nearly too big and juicy to pop in your mouth- more like eating a small plum! Little Master Two is, well, fond of berries doesn't quite cut it- he is a sight to behold when he gets hold of any kind of berry, cherry or grape, they are shoved into his mouth so fast it is quite astonishing- I am trying to get him to slow down as I am worried about the choking hazard. He accompanies me when I pick the blackberries and says "Spiky" when I ask him what spiky means hes says "spiky hurts me" so he seems to understand that staying away from the brambles is a good idea.I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said "A Berry" what sort of berry? "A Cherry" to which his older brother says "Well he will need eyes and little feet- I am going to be a pirate when I grow up, when I am five".

He has developed a quirk of accusing innocent animals of doing nasty things to him, even if they are in a paddock and he is not- or they are on the telly. "doggy, doggy biting me" (or Porsey, or birdy or chicken, or elephant ) no-one is safe from the accusations, even an angelic baby girl of about nine months firmly strapped into her stroller who dared to say "Bah" at him was dropped in it "baby biting meeee".

I have put the boys to work and they seem to like raking and building gardens so we are slowly reclaiming the yard from the awful amateur concrete which is slowly cracking and sinking and instead replacing it with my amateurish garden where I simply take out the lump and build a no dig garden on top  with whatever I happen to have on hand. What I happen to have on hand at the moment is mountains of pea straw! I feel very rich having had five bales and a bag of pulverised cow manure delivered. This has allowed me to mulch the garden I had the chickens weeding for me (dull roar philosophy means no-one is safe from me putting them to work!) and that is ready for the next round of planting. Interestingly the hens went off the lay when they were in that garden and we are back to two eggs for the last three days that they have been back in their house which now has an extended run/yard. they were also suffering from being egg bound which was a bit scary as I thought one was going to die on me- I had a very eye opening experience feeling for broken shell up her vent (it behaves like a mouth- very sci-fi- I almost couldn't go ahead because I was rather alarmed by the sucking, kissing motion it made!) but I did gently extract the broken shell and then used a nasal irrigator ( small turkey baster thing-supposed to be for babies noses but is clearly an awful torture for them- glad I found another use for it!) to "douche" the vent with a sea salt and calendula solution and held her over the sink until there was no more yucky yellow/white stuff or congealed blood- then dosed her up with a strong garlic infusion to which I added some comfrey tincture and then added garlic and double strength raw apple cider vinegar to the drinking water. She went back with the others and laid an egg the next day.
It would seem that unless you are a commercial poultry farmer the Hyline brown egg sizes can cause you some problems- the methods for controlling egg sizes and shell; thickness are very complicated scientific amounts of Amino acids- not free ranging eating weeds and local layer pellets and scraps! What we have learned from this is don't believe it when people tell you your situation is hopeless- you have nothing to lose by trying to make it better (I found that all info about chickens who had had eggs break inside them was telling me they would die and there was nothing I could do) and that next lot of hens we will be getting some heritage breeds instead of weird MonSanto-esque commercially developed chickens....

Master Four is considering giving up being a pirate if he can be a farmer and have some heavy plant machinery as he tells me he is a really good farmer as he feed the chickens, builds gardens and wanders through the rambling pumpkins and upright corn which he tells me is "just like a field".

I have a massive amount I chives I have rescued from the neighbours garden- the landlord has given me free rein over anything living- he is going to concrete the lot so I am grabbing what I can before he does so... apparently it will be more rentable like that!

Confused Weather

I was entertained by last nights news telling me the sea off Swansea was going to be confused today. I don't know about the East coast but I was utterly baffled by today with howling windys and torrents of icy rain interspersed with bright clear blue skies!

We managed to fit in a very busy day of work for the business and a walk in the afternoon, even planting the garlic out with Sir Talks Alot- they are going to have two tyre beds- last year they had only a styrofoam box and were planted on Winter Solstice which resulted in lovely but rather small bulbs- I am hoping that the larger space and earlier planting will yield bigger bulbs. I was so proud of how quickly my little man learned about planting garlic- it only took us a couple of minutes working together! He marched back in and told his daddy very proudly "Pwant the garwic pointy end up wike this Daddy!"

I have been embracing the cooling weather and home grown pumpkins with much cooking. 

Pumpkin and date loaf is popular with Master Me Too whilst the glorious husband and Sir Talks Alot seem to be addicted to home made crackers. The first batch  needed work, I will make them thinner and cut them with a scone cutter next time but the key to making them "crackeresque" is beating the dough with a rolling pin which is fun.

Tonight I had a hankering for some comfort food so made a vegetarian "shepherds pie" not really very shepherd-ish though without any lamb. It was great and surprisingly hit the spot tasting better than the original in my humble opinion!

Vegetarian "Shepherds Pie"

1 cup brown lentils- pressure cook in two cups of water for half an hour. put aside.

about 300g of pumpkin and same of potato(my pumpkin was a bit underripe and therefore starchy- I would err on the side of more potato)- cut into 1inch chunks(peel the pumpkin)and cook for about 15 mins in microwave until soft enough to mash. Mash with one tablespoon of butter.

return pressure cooker to  high heat with some olive oil and add:

half and onion (chopped)

1carrot (medium dice) and fry for about 5 minutes then add

1 small garlic clove (bashed but not minced)

half a teaspoon curry powder- fry for about two minutes (lots of stirring too) then add

1can tomatoes 

lentils from above,
I also found about quarter of a can of baked beans in the fridge and in they went too!

half a teaspoon of mixed hebs

half a teaspoon of stock powder

a few drops of soy sauce

cook over medium heat until nicely thickened and reduced.

pop into lovely dish and top with pumpkin and potato mash and a little grated cheese, if you have a good fierce grill brown off the top or just bake it at 200c for 20 mins.

Very well received by the small loud people who I live with (including the cat)

I haven't included a picture as brown stew like foods photgraph so badly!

A Very Beany Day

It seems that blogs are rife with people gushing about their children so I am warning you now this is a gushy children edition of the dull roar philosophy...
This morning I went to the boys' room and found Sir Talks A Lot (AKA Beany) tidying up all his toys. There was a perilous teetering pile looming from his toy box but he was determinedly tidying up... I was astonished and delighted!It set the tone for a day with a Very Helpful Little Man (and squeaking baby brother).
I managed to walk to the shops to buy free range eggs and blueberries (also coca cola for ailing Daddy Man and newspaper for me) and a toy puppy at the Salvation army shop for the good little man in question ("Mummy I also covered my mouth when I coughed and you didn't even haf ta tell me to!"), collect borage, nasturtium and calendula seeds, make a vegetable slice (with homegrown zucchini(now called courgette by me as it is easier for me to spell), capsicum from the neighbour-over-the back-fence (traded for some blackberries) spring onions and wild amaranth that I have recently identified in my garden...I also made a delicious courgette chocolate cake(next time more cocoa and less sugar) , the boys relished cleaning out the bowl!
Cap'n Beany (AKA Sir Talks A Lot) then asked if he could have his own garden so we found a bit of the front yard long neglected and laid a no-dig garden on top for his pleasure.

First we sprinkled some pelletised fowl manure, then laid a layer of wet paper, then more fowl manure, then a mulch of leaf mold (fallen leaves and alkanet which I am hoping will be nearly as good as Comfrey- which has been attacked by now squished caterpillar) then another sprinkle of manure, a layer of compost , some more manure and finally a good layer of straw. The manure was only a light sprinkle for each layer and each was helpfully watered by a little person ("That's right darling, good job ...whoops! Ok not on mummy's shoes!). Beany was really very helpful and it was a joy to work with him especially as gardening with him can leave me feeling very stressed and then guilty because I feel I have been too short tempered... He will be a great help when we give the same treatment to the rest of the front yard (see the above picture) Then we went inside and they had a finger food meal of vege slice, homegrown cherry tomatoes, whole meal pita bread and cheese whilst we watched their favourite show "Nigella Express" and "Gardening Australia" (What, me influence their viewing habits? Never!). Now they are tucked in bed (including the Daddy Man -AKA my Soul Mate and long suffering husband -who has been terribly knocked around by catching a flu whilst stressed)
I made my first attempt at courgette relish and I am a bit obsessed with it and worried that courgettes are going to have me fatten up considerably as I can't stop eating cheese and relish sandwiches, cheese and relish on crackers... cheese with relish on it and now courgette chocolate cake! I hope all my walking about and lazy gardening along with the odd bout of belly dancing keeps the wobbles at an appropriate level!
I might go watch The Empire Strikes Back for the 93rd (approx.) time or possibly some old episodes of Angel...decisions...decisions...