Sticky Beak Horses

I went outside to photograph the home made water slide for the blog and the sticky beak boofhead horse in the paddock had to come and see if he could eat my camera. Here is the photo progression of his investigation.

Him trotting up in the hope a carrot might be forthcoming,

Him sniffing the camera and deciding it is not that interesting,

and then looking away to indicate disinterest in anything not edible

Sorting a Packing

I am temporarily home between jobs. When I arrived home, My stuff was transported into Heather's room, Heather is not using it, and put onto the ground. Heather's room has residual junk from both Heather and Jessica and by the time my junk arrived, it was getting pretty cramped. I did a brief sort out of things and junk, including the lounge box in the family room where mum had put my junk so our boarder could move in. This included books from my bookshelf, all jammed in with the other junk. I have a LOT of books so I moved them back to my bookshelf and thus made a mess and room for more stuff.

Today I began to sort through what I would take to Perth and what I could begin to pack now and how to go about it... The theory was to turn this
And this

Into this

And this

As you can see there was some degree of success, The stuff I won't be needing till Perth is packed and the other stuff is sort of sorted into appropriate places including the bag to take to Summer School and Maitland Alive... And the lounge box is shut!

Cleaning Windows

One day, towards the end of my stay in QLD, the children had the choice of going to town and going to the movies with grandparent or staying at home with me to clean windows. Three of the four children opted that staying and cleaning would be the more enjoyable option. We divvied up the jobs, one child cleaned all the flyscreens (and had a really good time) one squidjeed the outside of the glass and one did the inside and both squidjiers cleaned out the window runners with me. Here is a before shot of a window track,

And here is an after shot. Who knew they were meant to be cream coloured.

It was quite enjoyable, we had music, and water, and job satisfaction, and after working so hard for at least 3 hours, we decided we deserved to go out for lunch.

Junk

I have now got a car with distinct advantages over the last one, the windows work, the radio works, it remains running until such time as you decide to turn it off, that sort of thing. This new car belonged to my mothers father and when I opened the boot for the first time to pack up and come home, I discovered it was not as empty as I assumed it would be. There was a bag full of vital things one might need at any moment, including a rope, a set of work overalls (seen below)

And several tins, containers and boxes full of first aid equipment, mainly bandages. The best things were First Field Bandages from WW2 (The disgusting grey package at the bottom right of pic)

Car Things

I have been nearly hit by a car once and nearly hit somebody else with a car once in similar circumstances.

When I nearly hit someone, I was sitting at a red light in semi dark and the red light turned green but my turning arrow was red. I thought this odd since I was pretty much all of the traffic for the intersection but, being in no hurry, obeyed the laws of the road and waited until the arrow went away and I was able to proceed on my way home. Unfortunately what I had not noticed was the reason I had a red arrow, namely a man crossing the road. Unfortunately he was about half way across and heading nearer when the arrow changed and I went. Happily there was at least a meter of room between us when I turned the corner and I only received an angry glare for not noticing him.

When I was working in Campbelltown last year though, I was walking home from the train station at MacArthur Square and waiting in the nearly dark for the little green walking man to appear. I was wearing Jeans and a black jumper which would have made me blend into the night a fair bit. Beside me was a car containing a driver who was clearly keen to arrive home in a speedy fashion. While we were waiting, me to cross and him to turn left across my path, he was revving gently and sliding back and forth. I should have known he was in a hurry and paid more attention. The light turned green for everybody except him and, unable to see the reason for his red arrow, namely me meandering across the road, he went. Two things prevented injury that night, one was I was dawdling and the other was he accidentally swung wide. Another half step forward and I would have been hit by the front of a 4 wheel drive. As it was he ended up crossing my path so close in front of me that I walked into the side of the car. Like I said, not paying attention.

I was a bit shaken up and though he pulled up down the road a bit, I did not go and talk to him, however that is why we have traffic lights and even if you can't see why things are so, you still know what you should have done.

There was a different problem in Warwick, the main set of lights in the shops had the green arrows to turn left at the same time as the green walking man to cross the same piece of road. I got a few evil glares crossing that road legally.

Dogs

I like dogs, I will never get a puppy (famous last words) after taking a pretty big part in raising the Labrador puppy on the farm, and donating the occasional personal item to her enjoyment. I still like dogs though and really enjoyed playing with her and training her to fetch, crawl, play hide and seek, and go and find the old dog for breakfast time.

Today I was visiting a friend in Ashtonfield and on my way back saw a boxer, complete with a collar, running about the road. I called it, figuring if it came, I could take it home and thus call it's owner or take it to the vet, if it ignored me, well I tried. It rushed over to me with a look of dribbly joy and I read that its tag told me its name and some of the phone number. I took it home and it followed me pretty well, much to the relief of the lady with a pram that we happened upon.

When we got to the vet I said "I found a dog, I can't read the number on the tag, it leaves out some fairly important numbers." He said to read out the numbers so I read "0, 4, 0, 5, something, 3, something, something, something, something." Mum walked in to hear this and said "that's not very useful is it" The vet came and put a lead on the dog and took off the collar thinking the wriggly dog was preventing accurate reading... not the case. I find it odd that he wouldn't think "Maybe she already thought to ring the owner and save herself a drive to the vet." No he assumed I had not thought of that and rushed immediately into his helpful presence.

Happily the dog was micro-chipped and he should be back at home soon.

Travels and Excitement

On Friday, goodbyes were said for the last time and I drove from Killarney to Gunnedah to stop over night with friends before finishing the journey on Saturday. I have yet another first on for this year that was unexpected and occurred while I was having a pit stop on the QLD border town. I was just finishing up in my cubicle when a mother came in a struck up a conversation with her daughter that went something like this;

Mum "Hey baby, are you alright?"

Child "I can't open the door"

Mum "Can you stand on tippy toes?"

Child "I still can't reach"

I observed that while the doors went from floor to ceiling, the wall between our cubicles had a 2 foot gap at the top. I suddenly interrupted the mothers growing panic attack and offered to climb over the wall and let her out. I did pretty easily and opened the door (happily I remembered to open my toilet door first) the little girl was fun and the mother was almost collapsing in relief.

I can honestly say that it was a highlight for me and not exactly something I expected to ever do.

Christmas

Buying or making Christmas presents. Making them, especially children making them for parents, has a certain charm and specialness so that even if it is not spectacularly pretty or useful or artistic, it is still incredibly special to the receiver because the special child made it for them.

When we were little, Heather was always thinking of clever, sweet things to make for mum. One of these was a pincushion that she made out of material, paddle pop sticks (for legs) and stuffing. Mum still uses this now as her only pin cushion and Heather still notices it is in use.

Buying presents is harder to do in a way because more thought is needed to make it special and not just 'because I need to'. This means that presents given for no reason and only because I felt like it and because I knew you would like it hold more value then ones for birthday and Christmas. I enjoyed getting presents for the family members that I live with, I got to know each person and got them a gift that I thought suited them. Christmas however was much harder and I really struggled to think of good ones.

Kids and presents

I stole this idea from a friends blog, http://www.womenbiblelife.com/ She is much more biblical then I am but I too noticed that presents and lollies don't make kids happy. Last year I was looking after a 4 yr old boy and I noticed he was continually asking for lollies and toys and things but would lose interest in even the lollies pretty quickly.

I began to suspect he actually didn't like them and was only asking for them as part of a generally pleasant interaction with him dad. I did not give him a toy or a treat for the first four months and even after that he was not especially interested in them. Some people try to make up for this by increasing the quality of the gift but the result is still the same, initial excitement then disinterest.

For the child, he actually preferred the traditions and activities we had that meant we spent happy quality time enjoying each others company. He enjoyed the bedtime reading of the big picture bible, the walks, going to the pool, and playing with other kids toys at bible study, he even enjoyed going shopping and choosing books at the library.

Some kids have a primary love language of gifts but even then there needs to be a huge amount of the other four languages, if his primary love language in NOT gifts, he will see them as trying to buy love, or bribery for good behaviour rather then the act of love it was meant to be.

One more thing, appreciation of gifts goes down with expectation and with over familiarity. Too many too often means they lose their specialness, like going to a resteraunt

Seacow

The most recent discovery of the Seacow is that occasionally, the gear-stick is reluctant to move out of park. It sticks fast and nothing I do will shift it until suddenly, it comes rushing down past all the gears and be good to use.

Cars

I drive a revolting car that we have christened The Seacow. There is a good reason for this, it is ugly, it smells funny and it is slow and unresponsive and corners terribly. The other thing I discovered today is that it is a front wheel drive. This would not normally be a problem except that today, when I went to get my pay, the kids said not to park in my usual spot but to go round the corner and park in a "better spot". I did this and felt the ominous dip as the front wheel went into a puddle that reached its hub cap. I figured it would be OK since at the time I assumed it was a rear wheel drive and the back wheels would pull it out.

It took a little while for me to admit defeat and get some help and it took 2 blokes and a lot of pushing to get it out. I will NOT miss the Seacow when I go home

Sound makers

I have a laptop and it has the most atrocious sound quality from the original speakers, quiet and nasally. I am not an Audio Nerd but even I can tell it is bad. Since moving here I have discovered sound eggs, they are small, not easily broken and light up with pretty lights when on. They also enhance the sound from my computer quite a bit. I decided to try to lay my hands on one and when I found out that there was a trip to the city where the shop abides in the offing, I asked if they might procure one for me.

There were not "eggs" as such so they got me this one.
It does not light up but it is also not pink, it fulfills it's intended duties and it was $25. I am happy with it.

Hair

I have hair... Surprised? I guess not. I have never dyed my hair in my life because I like it the way it is. I have shaved it all off for a cure because I figure you need to do that at least once and it is better to do it younger then older.

This year, I have had a few firsts, first time away from home for extended periods of time, first time on a plane, first ever big mac and now... first ever time seeing somebody get streaks in their hair and then, first time getting this done.

I allowed 2 teenage girls paint my hair blue and wrap it up in foil... it took so long for it to finish washing the excess out and it dyed part of my fringe blue as well, but at least none of it went green. Since I let them dye my hair we are calling it quits for all the times they ended up having cold showers.

Exercise

I have been making use of the local pool since it opened but after a while, laps get boring, especially in a 25 meter pool where you need to do twice as many to get as far.

Recently though, Aqua-aerobics started up and I have been waiting for an opportunity to go. Last night, this opportunity arrived and I went to see what happened. It was brilliant, about 20 people came and it turns out that you can make a whirl pool at one end of a long, big pool. it was tiring, I am stiff and it was absolutely hilarious. I fully recommend it to EVERYONE.

The most interesting thing though was the lady I met who said she was 24, and when I asked if she ever gets mistaken for younger she said she can pass for a 13 yr old. I think this is brilliant because I am 24 and still get mistaken for a 16 yr old.

YUCK

Sorry if you just ate lunch or similar. These gorgeous pictures at the built up slime and hair from the pipes under the bathroom sink.

Stirrups

Here is a picture of a stirrup iron. A strap of leather goes through the hole at the top and attaches to the side of a saddle. There is one on each side and your feet sit in them. This enable you to balance while the horse moves, and to stand up in the saddle to gallop or jump.

Here is the pair to this stirrup. A 30 kg child managed to do the during a lesson.

Impressive yes?

More Cats

Last Night, Romeo was being social and friendly. This took the form of asking to come into my cabin by squawking outside my door and then giving me a heart attack by suddenly clawing the flyscreen on the window next to my head at 10:00pm. I let him in and he began helping by sitting on my book, rubbing his head on my pencil and rearranging my belongings by knocking them onto the floor.

This picture of him really proud of his efforts to climb onto the high cupboard. He is the only cat I have met who, once completing a challenge, will look down and call out to you as you walk past. This was true on the cupboard last night as well. I find it amusing that he is so insecure that he needs to say "look at me" to passers by.

He was so friendly this morning, that he sat at my door and called out to me at 430 am.

Computers

I have a computer, obviously, I also watched enough of the IT crowd to know that when something goes wrong, you try forcing an unexpected reboot (aka have you tried turning it off and on again?).

The other day, my computer decided to do this by itself in the form of a forced shut down. This is ok except that afterwards it would not turn on again. I could not do the tried and tested Forcing Unexpected Reboot because it would not turn on again. I would push the on button, wait for absolutely nothing to occur and then shut the laptop, open it again and repeat this exhilerating process. Yesterday my laptop went to the computer doctor in the form of my bosses IT nerd and he fixed it (YAY)

Yes it was plugged in :)

State Pride

I am a New South Welshman, technically I even still live in NSW though only by about 2km. I never cared much about this, and mostly I still don't, although this year was the first year I cared enough about the State of Origin to ask how the games went. I still didn't watch them since I had nobody to explain them to me.

Recently though, state pride has welled up with the onset of daylight saving for NSW. Though I still live there, everywhere nearby is QLD so our clocks run to QLD time. I miss daylight saving terribly, I wake up at 5 in the morning and in a civilized state that would be 6 and nearly time to get up. once I woke up at 430 and the sun was about to come up, that is too early. Plus we miss out on the extended evening, at home the sun sets around 8pm and we have time to go for a walk, or play cricket, or whatever. Here it is down at 7 so walks after dinner (due to a lack of street lights) is out.

Then there is the CONSTANT complaining from the Queenslanders who have never had the benefit of daylight saving and think we are idiots for wanting it. That is like somebody who has never eaten a mango telling people who have that they are silly to enjoy them.

I miss daylight saving and I usually defend NSW when people are out to attack it.

Sneaky Pride

There are a lot of kinds of prides, there are the ones everybody knows about "I am too good to hang out with you" and there are the ones that are harder to spot and easier to pretend don't exist. These Sneaky Prides include "I am too sinful for God to be able to forgive me" and "Why should I do this job" and "She thinks she is so much better then me" and the sneakiest of all (in my opinion) the Humble Pride. This is not pride in Jesus, this is pride at how humble I am being and "look at this I am washing up after church without complaining, aren't I humble and helpful" This is one I struggle with a lot and I have noticed it more lately.

Jessica and I are beginning to learn Matthew chapter 6 which helpfully begins "Beware of doing your acts of righteousness before others that you may be seen by them, for then you will receive no reward from your father who is in heaven." This, I realized last night, means that the way to practice humility without pride is to do the unnoticed, thankless tasks without complaining or drawing attention to yourself. I have also found two other strategies to prevent prideful thoughts while I am serving, one is to sing to myself, the other is to share the job with another and make it an enjoyable and social occasion. Both of these strategies also prevent the "I am so hard done by" mentality.

Hand waving code

In the city, nobody waves to ANYONE unless they know them, even then they triple check before committing to a wave. In the country town though, the chances of knowing people you see are far higher, the longer you live there the more likely you will know them. This has made a "wave code" necessary. Contrary to the city persons belief, the country wave is not merely "the finger lift" That is only for incase you might know them, or just habit. The person who has spent his entire life in the small town does this to everyone based on the fact that he is acquainted with 80% of the residents. The 2 or 3 finger wave, is when you are pretty sure you recognize the car or driver but you can't be sure so play it safe. Then there is the "Hey look, there's so-and-so" wave. This is the lean forward, hand up near wind screen, energetic side to side motion to attract attention and show companionship with the other person.

The city person sees only the finger lift from country people who do this on the off chance that they know you, therefore the city persons conclusion is that this is the country mans wave.

Horse and wind

Last night we were putting away the horses and it was pretty windy and feeling like it should storm. The new horse watched us put away the others and then I went to get him for his turn. I went in the gate and he trotted up to me, then when I reached out to touch him, he rushed off and bucked, reared and jumped all four feet into the air as high as he could. Then he rushed up and sniffed me again, then went charging round the paddock. It took five or six goes off this before he let me put on his halter and lead him to the shed. It was a bit like he knew he had to go to bed but he wanted to use up some energy first.

Rush up to me then say "Wait a minute I just gotta..." then leap around like a puppy, then come back and say "Ok I am ready... no wait" and rush off again. In a 15 hand horse this is a bit scary but cool to watch.

Dogs making entertainment

Here is Friday, the teenage Labrador puppy. She is pretty good at finding her own entertainment. This rarely involves her toys but often includes washing, shoes, bottles, containers and, beds.

She now sleeps on the ground.

Making lunch again

Here are some more damper creations we made for lunch. This is Mickey Mouse

This is a man and two rocks
This is a man being hanged. Cheerful I know.

Random Pictures

These are some roses that I was walking past, I didn't want to pick them and I wanted to play with my camera so I practiced taking nice pictures.

Here we have a man from church looking a bit surprised that I took a photo.

Unicorn Pony

Here is a picture of Xena, this was taken just before she had a wash so she isn't as blindingly white as she could be. Nevertheless we are all of the opinion the if we included a horn she could pass as a unicorn.

Summer School

Most year since I was a little kid, our family has gone to Katoomba in the blue mountains for Summer School. I love it, the camping, the people, the kids program and the adults program, the rocks, the weather, the sleepless nights. The children's programs at Summer School are so good, I thought that it was lucky the adults had something to entertain them while we went to the kids thing.

On the way to Summer School, every summer, all the way up the mountain along the highway, are bright yellow daisy type flowers. I grew to associate seeing these flowers with going to Summer School and I have liked them ever since. Also warm whether makes me begin to look forward to Summer School.

Here is a picture of some Summer School flowers that I found the other day.

Canteen

At the Rodeo in Warwick, I was volunteering at the canteen for two of the busiest days. They gave me a volunteers wrist band so I could get in, a blue ticket so I could park and sore feet so I couldn't sleep that night.

I was my usual cheerful, probably annoying self, and there was a lot of laughing at my expense, like when I went out to give people their meal and called 89 about ten times before looking at it properly and then calling 98. There was a lot of laughing and chatting, they were mainly women in the canteen, and I wondered if they would normally be that happy at the end of a long week, or was it just that I was happy. I remember mentioning to my brother once that a friend of ours was always smiling and laughing and Matthew said "not really, only when your there." Maybe one of my gifts is to help people laugh at themselves and me. This is a good gift to use, all I need to do now is learn when to use it and when to let people be sad.

That was an odd post and did not turn out at all like I expected. The other thing I learned is why I don't work in hospitality, it is fun for a one off but every day would be stressful

Rodeo

This weekend I went to the Warwick Rodeo which is apparently the biggest one in Australia. I have now seen calf roping, where a man on a horse chases a calf and tries to lasso it. Of the 10 I saw, one bloke managed it. I have also seen competition barrel racing, the fastest time was 17 and a bit seconds. It is so close and so contested that they have a sensor to measure the time and it goes to 3 points of a second, so for example 17.429 seconds. I also saw camp drafting which is when a man on a horse chases a cow through around post and through a gate. I also saw Steer wrestling where a man jumps off his horse onto a running steer with long pointy horns and pulls it to the ground. I also saw bronc riding and bull riding where the aim of the exercise is to not fall off if you are the rider, and toss your rider if you are the mount.

I have thus decided I will NEVER let my children (if I ever have any) do Rodeo things, except perhaps barrel racing and even then.

Dogs

Usually it is Friday the puppy who is in trouble for being a pest, this is because she deserves it. We leave anything out there for any length of time and she will swoop in a steal it. She used to put everything in the garden nearby but now she is going further afield. There is a definite sense of knowing mischief in her behaviour, today I saw her look round and then quickly jump up to grab a horse brush and run away. She was extremely quick as I was standing about 2 meters away at the time.

The old dog though, she can usually do no wrong. Her name is Simba and is usually good and is too old and slow to cause much damage anyway. However, if left to her own devices for long enough, she will engage in a bit of trouble making. This is like great grandma playing a practical joke and only being suspected because she is the only one around. Yesterday I went to collect the kids from school and as I left I thought "I should kick Simba outside or she will mess up the bin." I didn't and when we got home one of the kids said "what happened to the bin?" I said "If it is spread all over the place, Simba came in a riffled through it again" She was lying innocently in her bed.

Today is a nice day and there is no reason for her to be inside but she barged past my leg and went trotting through the house to her mat. She is deaf as a post so if you want her attention you need to touch her. I caught up to her and she looked round then went faster and stood on her mat. I opened the door and indicated she should vacate but she pretended to obey then hurried back to her mat. This behaviour in a younger dog would be like "Ha ha you can't catch me" While dancing nimbly out of reach. Simba is so old it is just funny though.

Chickens

We have 6 chickens here. They are purely eaters of scraps so the dogs don't. This is fine, though my least favourite job is emptying the chook bucket. Today however I noticed an egg lying on the ground, then another one. I looked n the box and collected 17 eggs all up. Now the question of what to do with these eggs looms up. I don't think we can eat them because we have been feeding the chooks incorrectly. Now we have 17 eggs to deal with ????????? Who knew chooks lay eggs :)

pools

I went swimming today and one of the difficulties I have is remembering how many laps I have done. This is irritating enough in a 50 meter pool but in a 25 meter pool it is down right frustrating. I counted in 100 meter blocks and still managed to lose count. However the upside is saying I did 40 laps of a 25 meter pool is far more impressive then a mere 20 laps of a 50 meter pool, even though they both work out to be 1 kilometer.

Heather and I both have this counting problem and I reckon they should put a sensor across the middle of the pool and then give you a watch to wear and each time you pass the sensor it ads a lap on so that it can keep count for you.

Swimming

As you may have noticed, the weather is getting warmer (finally in my case, it has been cold enough for a jumper till last week). This, in turn, brings on a desire among the children to go to the pool. I also enjoy the pool and will hopefully use it a lot in the coming weeks.

The children have assured me all year that they are not good at swimming, my theory then, is that they practice. When we were little, we lived within 5 minutes walk from a pool and we would go there every day to swim. Mum set up a lap/lollies system so that every lap of free style earned 5c and every lap of form stroke earned 10c. I decided to steal this genius idea and use it for these kids. Unfortunately the pool is only 25m long not 50, so I changed it to 5c per lap.

We went to the indoor heated pool one day when I had the kids and they earned 40c 35c 80c and 30c. I was really proud of the 10 year old who swam 400 meters to earn 80c. We spent it at the corner shop on the way home and they are keen to go again. I capped it at $1 for the moment, which is 500 meters.

Pointing out the obvious to people

Today I went swimming, then I had to go grocery shopping. You can't do this the other way round because of the dairy products, and melting-ice-cream-in-car, and similar difficulties. The difficulty with swimming is that you can never manage to get completely dry if you wear your swimmers under clothes. This drew the comment of "your butt is really wet" from onlookers. I didn't really mind but it got me thinking of replies when people point out things you clearly already know.

1) "yep, it is raining a lot where I come from."

2) "what gave it away?"

3) "I accidentally sat in a puddle on the driveway" (this would only work if it has NOT rained in days.

4) "oh THATS why it feels so cold. Thanks"

Another obvious point people mention is red faces. I am NEVER pale so when I went to karate my teacher would often greet me with "Hi Julia, your face is red today" This was said in the same voice dad uses when he says "your acne is looking better, except for that bit". Heather and I discussed responses to the red face thing and here is what we came up with

1) I am terribly embarrassed to be here

2) I got sun burnt while I was out last night

and my favourite

3) I am slowly turning into a lobster.

Organisation

I am not a terribly organised person. I am not a complete slob or anything and I show up to things on time and rarely forget events, but I am not very organised all the same. I don't keep a diary because I never remember to write things in them and I am not busy enough yet to make it worth while. I prefer weekly routines, church on Sunday, bible study on Tuesday, babysitting on Friday, that sort of thing.

My main organisation strategy is ticky lists. These are the best and I inherited this from my mother, my sisters also like ticky lists. We use ticky lists for packing, shopping, running those annoying errands that take all day and you get home and realize you forgot the most important thing. I also, when writing a list, write down things I have already completed so I can tick them off and feel a sense of accomplishment. I am not alone in this, my sisters and mother also do this. My boss reckons I have too much time on my hands if I have time to sit down and write lists about what I need to do, but it helps me stay on track AND see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Weak Preaching

I moved to a place where the bible and Jesus death and resurrection for our sins is not taught well or faithfully. I did not realize how blessed I was at home with strong, Jesus focused, biblical preaching until I went home for Easter and heard our old pastor preach. It was like a long drink of cool water after a really long hot walk. I had slipped back into the numbness of shallow preaching for a while until I started listening to Mark Driscoll in the car.

I was at church on Sunday and realized what everyone was missing out on as the preacher talked about God speaking to him using even pictures. The example he used was helping him find keys in a pair of pants. I am sure it was true and probably God but it occurred to me that maybe pointing people to read the bible for guidance might be more helpful. I talked to him afterwards, as politely as I could, and during the conversation I said that the bible is the same bible for everyone. He said it wasn't, what the Holy Spirit/Bible said to me would be different to what it said to you. That may be true to a point, for example, the sins I struggle with will be different to the sins other people struggle with, but it is dangerous to apply it too much. I got into the car to go home and the very next part of the Driscoll Sermon said that when people begin to "interpret" the bible to suit themselves you can get some whacked out ideas.

I thought of an excellent example, Romans 6:1 actually says "sin more that Grace may abound" The fact that the bits around it indicate that we should not, in fact, do this, these bible words give us licence to do anything.

Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? By no means.

For those of us blessed to have access to strong preaching, make the most of it and support it because it is NOT everywhere.

Reading to children

Reading a friends blog called Women Bible Life, and her blog about literacy in community, I was thinking about the reasons people don't read to their children. They assure themselves they are too busy, while having time to watch hours of tv every night. They reason that they don't have many books, when there is a perfectly good library where you can get them for free. They think their children are old enough to read to themselves and it is not MY reading that needs to improve.

Reading to children is only slightly about teaching them to read. It is far more about teaching them the love of reading, and of spending one on one time snuggling and chatting together. Yes you can snuggle while watching tv, yes you can chat while driving in the car, and you should. But books have a special place in your relations with children. The other thing about reading to children is that the child usually chooses the book where as other times the grown up usually chooses the entertainment or program they both share.

Last year when I was looking after a single four year old, I read to him every night at bed time, we went to the library every week, and he quickly grew to love both of these activities and found a favorite book called "My daddy is a GIANT". One day he asked his dad to read it to him but his daddy said no. The little boy came up to my room and cried and I read him the book we cuddled for a bit.

Clothes

Those of you who have known me for a while know that I prefer jeans and a polo shirt as general wear. This is because they are comfortable, and practical, and it usually doesn't matter then if a horse wipes black make up all over it. Black horse make up does not, apparently, wash out. Ever.

This style is fine for house and farm etc. but on the occasions when I am going somewhere like... the shops, or a restaurant, or in fact anywhere not associated with horse muck or water, it is considered normal to wear clothes that do not have unnecessary speed holes in them.

I do not like "posh" clothes much, they are not terribly comfortable and, people used to comment every single time I wore a skirt. Heather, my sister, said I just needed to practice wearing nice clothes at home. This goes against everything I was brought up to understand, good clothes are for special occasions. Unfortunately the 2 or 3 times a year, that said special occasions occurred I was so uncomfortable that I couldn't sit still. Also I attracted undue attention from the people who know what I usually wear.

Since Heather gave me the advice to practice, I have started wearing shirts that require ironing, jeans that are not stained with dirt from the puppy jumping on me, shoes that retain some of their original colour and hair done up other then a pony tail. The advantage of moving to another state is that nobody comments when I wear nicer clothes then I would normally wear.

Pride

The other day, and older lady said to me "come here and I will show you how to clean a toilet" She then proceeded to show me a very sensible way to easily remove dried on muck from the bowl by resting a bit of toilet paper over it and half in the water. The water soaks up and the next flush removes it. I said thankyou very politely.

Yesterday I was cleaning the loo and noticed that there was an opportunity to try this method out, however because of the perceived sanctimonious delivery of the message and the indication that I was unable to clean toilets properly, I chose not to use it. I was using the brush to scrub, like you do, and I considered that this was a weird kind of pride that had me scrubbing a loo in defiance.

Interestingly I kept going and did not feel remotely silly (though I do slightly now)

Cars

I have driven a few interesting cars in my fairly short driving life. One was the camry, this was fairly straight forward except that the speedo needle stopped telling us how fast we were going after we hit 60 km an hour. I fixed that with a pocket knife.

I also drove the verada. This was called The Music Bus because when MEC first started it shuttled most of the music team and their instruments to and from church. This one developed a few interesting quirks; firstly the doors handles disintegrated so that you needed special training before being able to exit the car. Next the the right hand windows, while going down with amazing ease, had difficulty going back up. Then, at intersections, we discovered we had an automatic that stalled to the point where it did it four times in a 5 minute drive one day. Then the speakers merely produced a grinding noise when the radio was on.

Whenever another person drove the car, I would diligently explain all these facts and what to do about them. This does not stop every single mechanic from winding down the driver window (a real problem since it rain here a lot). The funniest one though was when my aunt had to drive it and forgot about the window till she tried to wind it up, then couldn't open the door from the inside and had to get help. She decided I needed a new car.

The last car that I will tell you about is the Nanny car I use while I am here. I named it very early on in the piece, it is called the Seacow because she is ugly, grey, slow, smells funny and really irritating to handle. A Seacow is a Dugong or Manatee and my boss reckons calling the car Seacow is an insult to Dugongs but I reckon it fits nicely.

Laundry Detergent

The laundry detergent we are using at the moment is really irritating. It does the job as well as can be expected considering red dirt doesn't EVER wash out. The problem is when you are tipping the last few drops into the machine, before rinsing it out into the next load.

When you tip the bottle upside down, the liquid detergent, instead of following the usual laws of gravity, falls sideways. This is very noticeable because the only thing it falls sideways onto is the tippers shirt which they had intended to wear all day. Usually the washing is done in the morning which means that the shirt has only been worn for an hour or two before it needs to be changed.

Puppy Training

I have stopped horse training for a while because I have been busy and disinclined, though I will need to start again as he has gone completely mental recently. I have begun puppy training. This is a useful thing to do I suspect because, as someone pointed out, she knows her name, when you call out Friday, she runs away.

First and obviously she was taught to sit. I did not teach her this, every one else did when she was really young.

The next thing was to wait till I said she could before eating. This is valuable in a Labrador since they are so keen on food they will knock you down and breathe it in. I try to get everyone who is giving her food to make her wait till they have put it down then said "eat it up". This was funny when one of them did it with a toy and she said "go" and I said to try "eat it up" and she did and Friday grabbed it.

The next thing was for her to not barge inside whenever we open the door, this has gone backwards of late unfortunately.

Then, for fun, we have all begun to teach her hide and seek. I used to play this with Roger, my dog. One person goes into the laundry with the dog and the others hide in simple places, like behind bushes, then Friday is let out and the person with her says "go find" and she goes to find her pack. The kids hid behind 3 bushes and she found them, then they hid behind the same bushes again and Friday must have decided that the key was looking in these 3 places, because the third time they hid in different spot and she was sorely confused. She seems to have the general idea now though which is nice.

Today I was teaching to sit, stay come. To lie down and to crawl. She is much quicker at picking things up now and it is a rewarding experience to teach her things. I was also beginning to teach her to come when she is called even if she has something in her mouth. This may seem odd but usually it is somebodies shoe or shirt or similarly desired object.

Perspectives

There are two perspectives (at least) in every event, issue, process and story. One of these I had not considered the other side of is the job hunting scene. I am obviously more experienced with the looking for employment side of it, as most of us are, but what about the other half... the potential employers.

Since moving to work for the boss of a company I have heard a lot about the frustrations of finding staff for their business and, more so, of finding nannies. Specifically nanny role applications (which I hear more about) the first frustration is the applicants not actually reading the ad properly and when they are contacted saying they actually don't want the job because of xyz. The second irritating thing is people applying who don't even remotely meet the requirements, for example never having spent time alone with any children of any age (seems a frivolous requirement I know). The third frustration is when people agree to come and then pull out before leaving home for whatever reason. The fourth frustration is people coming and then leaving 2 weeks later because they only accepted the job so they could get a working visa into the country.

One of the other weird things I found out is that when you put down referees on your resume or similar, the potential employer is meant to only call them with your knowledge and permission and then your referee's are not actually allowed to tell them anything useful. This strikes me as pointless, why put down referee's if you don't expect somebody to give them a call. Why call a referee if they are not allowed to give any useful information. Easier to work with integrity and have nothing to hide and then they can ask and tell what ever they like (as long as it is true).

Just out of interest I wrote that entire post while Romeo the cat was asleep on my lap with his paw across the keyboard so I had to keep shifting it to get to the letters.

Also some of this information may be wrong, this is just what I have gathered and as a result I actually read ads now and only apply for jobs I actually want (assuming I get asked of course)

Making lunch

Yesterday the kids were asking for playdough and it was nearly lunchtime so the obvious solution was damper. This was what we used to do for lunch when we were home educated and we had run out of bread (yes, my mum is a genius) Here is a picture of the creations we came up with.

As you can see firstly the writing has turned blue and is now underlined ??????

Secondly we used food die to make it more interesting. This resulted in patches of colour on some hands and entirely blue hands on one child.

Needless to say we had fun.

Walking

Today I got some big news so I went for a looong walk to process it. I went to the bottom of the driveway (1.5 km) and turned right and went past the next door neighbours house and wandered along thinking about stuff.

After a considerable distance I was thirsty so I turned back, as I walked along I noticed a calf in the paddock. In springtime in beef cattle country this is not unusual, however this calf was really small and wet and the cow standing nearby had afterbirth (sorry for grossness, maybe it is good I did not have my camera) hanging down between her legs. It appears that I had wandered past a cow in labour and not noticed and missed watching a calf be born by about 10 minutes.

This was one of my more pleasant experiences with cows, partly because of the calf but mainly because apparently it is only dumb steers that feel the need to rush up to you and stare at you like you have an extra head. Cows seem not to have this need.

Exciting moments

We took the Labrador puppy down to the dam to teach her to swim. Everything was going swimmingly but she did not seem to be very confident at it. She can do it but she is not really a huge fan.

When she would go in to get a stick, she would wade in and when it got to nearly her chin she would do a funny little jump. This pushed the stick out of reach. She did this a couple of times until she got the stick. She had thus far only gotten the stick while standing, the effort of plunging valiantly made her sink under the water. We all went "oh look" the OH LOOK!!!", she came up just as I was going to grab her. This appeared to shake her confidence because she did not go out of her depth again.

When we had all gotten out to dry off and go home, one of the kids yelled "snake, JULIA, just behind you!!!!" I looked down in time to see a snake slide between my feet towards the water. We left after that and I considered that it is the kind of excitement we did not really need.

Horse event

Today we all went to a horse event and one of the parts of these events is packing away the equipment. I went out to help pull apart the temporary dressage arena's and after we had pulled them apart and put the poles and things into piles. I was the last one out there with one other person.

She said I think there is a trailer coming so we can pack it all away. I said that I too had heard that rumour. She said "Lets run away quickly". As we got to the gate exiting the field, another lady saw us and said "There is a trailer coming if you just wait for a minute. My pack up buddy turned and said "rats, we weren't quick enough".

More Traps

Because I was home educated, I was pretty cluey about some things but naive about other things. One of the things I was a bit innocent about was that people would try to catch you doing the wrong thing.

When I was working in a fast food place, I was usually on dining room clean up because I complained the least about it. I discovered an honest way to have a sit down and rest and that was to clean seats. Because they were mainly bench seats, the best way to clean then was to slide along, cleaning as you go. I was doing this one day, out of sight from where everyone else was, and chatting to myself (it is not weird if it is intelligent), totally absorbed in what I was doing (not a busy day obviously) when I looked up and saw a scary manager standing over me. I explained cheerfully what I was doing and that I thought somebody had lacquered over a child's foot print because it wouldn't come off. She laughed at me and went away. It only occurred to me years later that she had probably wanted to catch me bludging and doing nothing.

Happily, I have been taught by my parents and the bible to work diligently all the time not just when somebody is watching. Also there is a certain protection in that sort of cluelessness, it protects you from assuming the worst in people every time they say or do something that could go either way.

Animals

Here are some of the animals we have here:

This is Major, ready for a ride.

This is Choice, ready for a ride as well.

This is Romeo, sleeping in the lid of a suit case

This is Simba (Golden) and Friday (chocolate) having a rest outside in the sun.

Traditions and simple pleasure

We have set up weekly traditions for the times when I have the kids and their parnets are not there. On Monday mornings, if they get themselves ready in time, they get to have a pancake. This is tradition after I suggested it once. They NEVER forget to ask.

On Friday afternoons, when I pick them up from school, it used to be making a cake or biscuits but there was always a squabble about what we make and who gets to do what. Now, we stop off at the shops on the way home to get ingredients for Pizza and then make our own dinner. Friday night is pizza night and there was some disappointment on the part of a child was going to a sleep over on Friday night that she would miss pizza night.

Traditions like these are good, I like them.

Verbal Traps and similar

There are some social and conversational patterns that I really don't like and one of these are verbal traps. A verbal trap is when somebody puts you into a position where you can't refuse. An example of this was when I was sitting on a bus to go on an excursion and two girls approached me and said "would you mind moving? only we want to sit together" What can you do? In this case it was either fold and give into their intimidation (there were other places they could sit) or refuse to move and seem like a petulant child.

Another one might be your sister is asked to go out with friends and they ask you if you would mind staying behind as there are no spare seats in the car (hypothetical but helps with my other point) If you say ok, you are left out (which you probably don't want). If you say "No I want to come" you spend the evening feeling like you ruined their night.

Another pet conversational hate that I am sure others share is "no offence but..." Also once you get upset or offended by something someone said "I was just joking" Both of these phrases mean that you are not allowed to retaliate or get upset because you would be seriously overreacting.

paradox

I was cleaning the shower the other day and I noticed something interesting about the bleach bottle.

Notice the little dark spots? That is mould growing on a bottle claiming to contain a liquid guaranteed to kill mould.

The presence of mould is not a good recommendation for the product.

I should put some on the mould and see if it kills it.

Permission

I have a fear of rejection. I have had this since I was a child and I was at other people's houses and needed to ask for a drink of water. Unless I knew the person INCREDIBLY well (for example my own mother) I couldn't ask, even though it is a request no reasonable person would say no to.

This has progressed into adulthood (yes I can now ask for things like water and where the bathroom is etc.) and it makes it hard to ask permission to do things in case they say no.

IF I ask and IF they say no, then I would honour their wishes, but it has always been a temptation to just... not tell them. I can't lie, but I can Not Volunteer Information. This does NOT work because people have a way of finding out things and while they would most likely have given permission, they like to be asked. I know this because if a child wants to go into my area, I am likely to say yes if they ask and get cranky if they don't. It is a respect thing.

So why am I so unwilling to ask permission? Does anyone else have this issue or is it just me? I know that hearing a No is not that devastating, you just move on with life, especially if you were prepared for the possibility and a yes is then a surprise and a bonus.

Any thoughts?

Toffee

One of the children and I decided toffee would be a fun thing to make, so we rang up my mother to get the recipe and began. Sugar, water, vinegar, green food colouring, stir till sugars dissolved over low heat, bring to boil without stirring, go outside to play and it turns a beautiful brownish colour instead of green and smells and tastes distinctly burnt. Also it turns out that super heated sugar and water snaps and cracks when dropped into a glass of cold water. Uncertain of how to dispose of the unusable and seriously hot mixture I ran cool water into it in small doses until it was cold and then poured it into a horse paddock. Today there will be some happy horses if they find it.

We tried again after dinner (this time leaving out the step where we leave it and do something else) and it worked beautifully. We have clear, green toffee that looks like glass and is rock hard and clean rather then slimy. I also cut up an apple into slices and we made little toffee apples which were delicious if eaten at once. The juice from the apple dissolved the toffee over night and it ended up at apple floating in syrup. But last night it was really good.

Cats and Kids

Cats like regular, one on one attention, children like one on one attention.

Cats usually ask when you are busy, children usually ask when you are busy.

Cats like attention on their own terms, times and varieties, children like attention at times and in ways they want.

Cats give up trying if you keep saying no, children give up if you keep putting it off.

Cats know when they have had enough time and attention and leave to do something else, children know when they have had enough and are more willing to play by themselves.

With both cats and children there is no need to give in instantly every time, but if you say to a child "in 5 minutes we can play" then in 5 minutes you need to go and play. Cats are a lot less verbal but I can read Romeo's body language pretty well when he wants a snuggle, like with children you can put it off until you have finished what you need to do but if you put it off forever, your cat will become a traitor and sit on anybody else's lap for preference. Children may also go to others for the love and attention they need and this can be dangerous.

Words of dubious wisdom from a person who does not particularly like cats and who does not have her own children.

Cat separation anxiety

Cats: I reckon that cats have separation and abandonment issues for life if they are taken away from their mum too soon. I think this because Wednesday, the beautiful little grey cat (here she is, owning my pillow), has some strange habits. For example while all cats knead a bit with their paws before settling down, Wednesday does this excessively and for ages after lying down and even dozing off. Since she uses claws as well, this can be really annoying. She also burrows into warm little holes, like the one made by your neck when you lay down. I reckon she is trying to recreate how she would have behaved as a tiny kitten to her mum when she wanted a sleep or some milk.

Horse Training part 3

I have had a break from training Arakei because of adverse weather conditions and other interruptions of life. Yesterday I was feeling energetic, the weather was ok AND my boss had told me she wanted the jump stands I was using. I got some sacking and cut it into three or four strips and hung it onto the "Terrifying Face Flapper" I also built a little jump, about fifteen inches high, and decided to make use of the "Revolting Puddle".

I had brought Arakei with me and he watched me set all this up and then obediently followed me around and through the obstacles. Only a slight difficulty with the "Revolting Puddle". I decided he needed a harder task and went and found a small tarp and weighted the corners with bricks. He had a little sniff at it, tried walking around it but when that received no rest, he walked on a stood there. This brand new obstacle was over come without a halter and without batting an eyelid.

Today I added a wooden board raised onto bricks, again he did not bat an eyelid and followed me first time without a halter. The whole Obstacle Course ran like this. We trot over the jump, walk through the "Terrifying Face Flapper" over the "Tarp of Crackling Death" around a corner then over the "Scary Wooden Board" and a circle around a single pole then halt.

We completed it a few times then I came and invited my boss to come and watch, she was meant to be studying but seemed ready for a break and came to sit on the fence to watch. In spite of an audience, he was perfect and did everything calmly and nicely. She suggested teaching him to stand with his front feet in a tyre (The Tyre of DOOM it shall now be called). We thought it would be comparatively easy, BUT apparently he either didn't understand what was wanted and became frustrated, or it is more scary then I thought.

I put the halter on for the first time since starting, and helped him to understand what was wanted. Eventually he stood with his front feet in the tyre and we did the Head Down to relax trick. After that we stopped and he went to his paddock, that way we finished on a high.

Another suggestion was getting him to walk over the "Scary Wooden Board" as a seesaw. Since he had issues with the tyre I will leave that one till we have conquered the "Tyre of DOOM"

Cat Communication

Those of you who have been in the vicinity of cats for any length of time will know that cats train their humans and they have a number of commands which we obey usually unhesitatingly. The most common three are

1) FEEEEEEED MEEEEEEEE, I am STAAAAAARVING. This is both a vocal command and, if the response is not instant, rubbing against legs and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

2) Up now, let me in/out this instant! This is mainly vocal but usually includes the death stare if one does not respond quickly.

3) This is one that I did not realize even existed but it is "go and sit down or lie down somewhere so I can sleep on you." This is the most tricky to work out, it sounds and looks the same as the first commandexcept that when you go and look there is already food there. Romeo has given up the verbal bit and just falls over in front of where I am walking as seen here.

Rub foot and roll

Lay still for a moment, confident in the irritating nature of his position

Look up and say "come on, what are you waiting for?

After a hard days sleeping on a chair, he is ready for a nap on my stomach.

Cooking

This is another blog post thingy about cooking which makes two or three in a row I think.

I have spent a lot of time in my life cooking cakes and biscuits and things. When I was little it was one of the ways mum spent one on one time with me and my brother and sisters. She was smart and refused to cook with more then one child at a time, now I can see why. I think of all of us, I am the one who enjoys cooking the most, I taught three other kids to cook from scratch (not packets) before I turned 14 and now I cook something with the kids I look after about once a week.

I had stopped cooking for pleasure though, I cooked dinners out of necessity, morning teas and suppers because they were needed and since I moved here, cakes and biscuits because a child wants to make them. I had forgotten the pleasure of just cooking because you feel like it and not for any reason. The difference is time and choice, if it is someone else that suggests cooking, it is their choice of what to make. If it is for a function or event there is a time limit about when and also what you will make. Somehow these take some of the pleasure out.

Now that I am almost entirely in charge of the family dinners (my boss is NOT fighting me for it) I am finding a pleasing kind of responsible feeling, and planning ahead novelty, I had not expected. When I cook just for myself, there is a bit of that, but I can make it when I get hungry, rather then to a time table, and make what I feel like eating, without reference to others.

Cooking by myself while listening to music I like, planning meals for the week and what I will make for afternoon teas, cooking without time pressures, this is a useful and simple pleasure.