homefront – St GEORGIA & Boo

letting go

i have been living in the same place, the same house for almost twenty years now. I have been living here all the while dreaming of there. Never moving or changing the scene for fear of it being too hard, of not wanting to upset delicate routines of children and thinking that staying grounded in the one place is what is best for everyone; even though i have longed for as long as i can remember for different, for new, for something other than here. I envied people who took chances, who moved around, who were always heading somewhere new , some place fresh. Over the years i have been seeking out possibilities of where we may see ourselves, but really nothing ever felt right, not right enough to uplift an entire tribe. I have found it hard to be inspired having to stay in the one place, my creative flow always searching for something new to draw from, searching out scenes that have become all too familiar now. Yet this house of ours has served us well. It has housed and nourished five children from babies and provided a safe place for life to unfold. It has been the solid foundation when much in our lives has been volatile over the years. It has sheltered us from many wounds and ever so gently nurtured us back towards ourselves. It has been as much as i dreamt of different, in the end, our saviour. Something deep within says it’s time now. Time for letting go of this place we have only ever known as home. It’s time now for a new beginning in a new house. Our story within these four walls is inching towards the end, and I am unafraid, and unresisting towards the process, as i know this is exactly the way it is meant to be. Life is asking us to begin again the intricate journey of unfolding ourselves in some place new. And i am looking forward to the story it entails.

free range kids, free range eggs

There is nothing simpler and nicer than wandering outside and collecting the eggs to then cook them up immediately for breakfast. If you have ever had eggs like this you will understand what I’m taking about..

ingredients: sourdough bread , free range fresh eggs, organic butter, organic baby asparagus spears, 1 avocado, juice of a lemon, olive oil, sea salt and cracked pepper, a couple of free range kids

method: Heat a non stick grill pan on low, put on a small pot of water for the asparagus. With a glass cut holes into the centre of the sourdough, lightly butter on both sides and put aside. Gently snip with fingers the ends off the asparagus and place into the water when it comes to the boil. Blanch for 2-3 minutes, then remove and run under cold water to stop the cooking process. Slice the avocado all the way around and remove the seed. Scoop the flesh out into a bowl and add the juice of half a lemon and season. Mash with a fork and set aside. Lightly oil the grill pan and turn the heat up to a medium heat then add the sourdough slices, as many as you can fit onto the pan. While toasting lightly season with salt and cracked pepper. Allow to toast for a minute or so then begin cracking your eggs into the holes of the bread. Allow the bread to cook to a buttery golden brown before flipping over to cook the other side. The second side will take less time than the first. Try not to over cook the eggs. When nicely toasted, take out of the pan and set aside on a board. While the grill pan is still hot add a little more olive oil and add the asparagus, gently sear for a minute, lightly season with salt. Serve the asparagus spears on the toasts, and add a spoonful of the avocado mixture to the plates. Give thanks and enjoy!

April

April.

April

April has been, trying ever so hard to purposely slow down, about creating new humble spaces for babies and chickens, challenging teenagers on their ideas about doing when all I am wanting is in the not doing. it has been about getting clear and being still, still enough to hear my own inner voice. It’s been about watching the worry, leaning away instead of falling into it. It’s been about knowing that whatever is playing out in this moment will eventually move on if i allow myself to let it go. Im letting go of a lot lately. We have created great spaces for celebrating birthdays and explored new places, we spent more time in the garden, more time just being with life. April has been a time for new growth. I am grounded and for now i’m comfortable in the not knowing of what lies ahead. I understand now, that everything is as it should be, that life is merely unfolding..

thoughts over lunch

The simplicity of

feeding the chickens

who laid the eggs

for me to cook

to feed

to the children.

can all of life possibly be this simple?

I am so thankful that my children are living just a little of this simplicity, in between ipads and youtube train clips. I’m thankful that my three-year old with autism can tell the difference between a carrot and a potato and that I often find play dough in muffin trays in my oven because he has been making cookies. Both of our little ones enjoy cups of tea in the morning, not because they are thirsty, more so because they already in their young minds understand the sacredness of that first morning cup, where sleepy eyes and heads are not quite awake enough yet for the beginning, for play. They will learn where their food comes from and that they don’t really need much to keep their bellies content.. maybe just a few chickens roaming in the yard.

baked sweet potato chips

ingredients: 1 whole sweet potato, olive oil, sea salt flakes

method: pre heat the oven to 180°C. Peel and thinly slice the sweet potato and lay in a single layer onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. lightly drizzle with olive oil and season with the salt flakes. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes, keeping a watch that they don’t burn. When crisp remove from oven and allow to cool before storing in a jar or container.

mothers

He asks,

‘What is it you do?

I’m a mother

‘Yes, I know that but what else, before that?

She feels her heart drop to the pit of her stomach , as she frantically searches her mind for a more suitable answer.

A mother, just a mother.

He is oblivious in the knowing, that in that moment all worthiness was stripped away and her heart was silently crying an abundance of tears

For the self she is yet to know and the self she has whole heartedly given to her children.

when did it become not enough? when was it that becoming a mother became so undervalued? It is true, there are parts of myself, parts that are not a mother or a wife but are simply me. They are most of the time in the shadows or only seen as a glimpse now and again and as mothers, the caretakers of our families we know only too well that this is a selfless journey we have chosen. We move through our days nurturing and nourishing our families by meeting needs and with an abundance of love. Often allowing all those who matter most to us to move on their journeys ahead of our own. We wait patiently, maybe for only a few minutes of solitude, or a full nights sleep, or enough time to take a bath, read a chapter in a book, or a pause long enough to feel the warmth of the sun on our faces, maybe the bigger things we will have to wait a little longer for.

It is undeniably deplorable that the very words ‘ I am a mother’ are so often perceived as insignificant and demeaning. That even I, when asked this was not able to convey my own importance and sacrifices here, that I was, in that moment diminished to feeling like it wasn’t enough. I believe that if it wasnt for mothers, so many that are blessed to be living up to their ambitious dreams and walking the journeys that they have chosen for themselves without the need to pause or defer to raise the children, might look upon us in a new light and with gratitude in their hearts.

chewy chocolate chip cookies

chewy chocolate chip cookies.

domesticating children

‘washing dishes can be a meditation…

i have placed a small sticky note above our sink with these words roughly scribbled on it. since the unfortunate dying of our beloved dishwasher it is taking some great convincing in our house hold that this could be an opportunity presenting itself. Thich Nhat Hanh, a practicing zen buddhist monk, uses washing the dishes as an opportunity to practice prayer and meditation. Here, looking out the kitchen window from our simple home front, I see children learning to cooperate, the sharing in household tasks,learning life skills, growing up. It seems though that the only person i have been able to successfully persuade in this new approach to washing up is our Georgie, at 16 months she’ll happily do the rounds of dishes morning, noon and night. Thank god for my little domestic goddess.

discovering words

Its taken a while, to get to this place. Where our boo is happy to play along side baby Georgie. We have been eagerly waiting and hoping that he would one day embrace and accept her existence. I’m happy to report we are there. It seems to be that all we needed was time, time for her to grow and develop into a little person that he could understand. From a very young baby Georgie has taken special interest in her littlest brother, intrigued with his every move. Even now I catch her watching him, taking him in, her love for him radiates, it is like nothing I have ever seen between siblings. She began talking very early, imitating our words, repeating everything eager to learn this skill. Quite recently Boo too has caught on to this fine art of learning language. They are at a very similar level of communication and words that he says, she says, what i say, they both say there is a constant echo of words happening all of the time. It requires you to pay particular attention to everything that is said Im calling it mindful speech. My teenagers are yet to have the patience or tolerance for such notions, they have unfortunately but successfully planted ‘shut up’ as the common phrase used for asking everyone to be quiet please, in a house hold of 7 it is now used quite frequently by our boo. They are embarrassed to say the least. When we all go for walks with the babies and we happen to pass people who are leisurely in deep conversation and our babies repeat one after the other, ‘shut up’ at the innocent by passers, they clearly see the unfortunate dilemma we are now in. Unteaching this to a child with autism and his confident 15 month old accomplice,is going to take some time and lots of patients. A positive perspective on this scenario is, at least they arn’t practicing the fine art of profanity.. just yet.

kitchen tale

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life
― Picasso

Every now and again life can temporally turn you up side down. We are in a moment like that now. There seems to be a few things that i do during these moments, without much thought. Maybe unconsciously thats what Im needing to do. Most of the time I renovate or change something, make something new, leaving behind our world for a while. Fortunatly we have an old house with plenty of spaces to do this to. My latest creation is a kitchen wall. I painted it with chalkboard paint on a spur of the moment thing. I was only really intending to put a fresh coat on our babies chalk board and well just kept going. Surprisingly it’s turned out well. I added an old plank of wood as a shelf and filled a few wine bottles with olive oil. I feel better.

just another day..

just another day on the on the home front.. numerous cups of tea, Vegemite toast,endless amounts of washing,home-made ice-poles with water play, nose piercings, mess and afternoon tea. And we will do it all again tomorrow.

gifts that made us smile

we are trying to live more consciously and more ethically. i have a saying, when you know better, you do better. this is a year for knowing better. I have set my family a few challenges for the new year, my hope is these challenges become the normal for us, that by the end of 2014 we will have settled into a new way of living and my children will have learned a few new life skills that will not only benefit themselves but also our planet and all others that encompass it. my hope is that kindness reaps kindness. My husband and i are continuing on our GLOBAL PARENTS journey this year, by supporting the less fortunate children of the world, we will also only buy PRE LOVED CLOTHING for ourselves and our children in support of bringing a greater awareness to the sweatshop industry and child labour. my children are lucky, they will never have to sew clothing until their tiny fingers bleed, or sort through rubbish dumps for mere survival, they will never need to be sold or sell themselves, they will always have food to nourish their souls, suitable clothing and a roof over their heads, they will know how fortunate they are, how others like themselves do suffer for the sake of the rest of the world. my intentions are not to make them feel guilty for their fortunate lives, just greater awareness, and the knowledge of truth, so the they too may make more conscious choices in their life times.

SHOP ETHICAL http://www.ethical.org.au,THE ETHICS OF WHAT WE EAT readings book store,PRE LOVED PRAM for Georgia camberwell market melbourne,SUKIN shampoo http://www.sunkinorganics.com,MAPLE NUT CRUNCH GRANOLA http://www.plumorganics.com,SWEET ORANGE AND ALMOND HAND WASH http://www.thankyou.co

christmas

Christmas day was celebrated at home this year, this being the first time we have been brave enough to play host to the whole family for a day. We set up a long table in the garden under the maple trees which turned out to be the perfect setting. Our big girls set the table with crisp white table cloths and hand made place cards, they picked herbs from the garden and put them into little green bottles, we used silver bone cutlery passed down to us from the nanas and drank Moet Chandon for the occasion, we served pork that we slow roasted overnight with a home made beetroot and apple chutney, lamb on the bone cooked for 6 hours in red wine, honey glazed roasted pumpkin and whole baby carrots. We ate way too much, laughed, shared stories, watched the children play, lazed about in the garden and in all had a really nice day