All Toys Welcome

The Caveman was getting our kids into bed the other night when I heard him say "Stay in bed and settle down, or I'll take your Barbies away."

There is nothing unusual about this ... apart from the fact that he was standing in the doorway of our sons' room when he said it.

That's right ... one of our boys loves Barbie dolls. A room that has long been the domain of Thomas, Lego, Hot Wheels and various types of sporting gear has now been invaded by a group of small shapely blondes.

I've never been too picky about what our kids play with - if our daughter wants to build something with blocks, or race toy cars in the dirt, we're fine with that. If our boys want to wear dresses, or play with dolls or tea sets, that's fine too. The Caveman and I always figured it was better to not set gender-specific rules for them when it came to toys. It often turns out they will gravitate toward the more stereotypical items as they get older anyway; our boys both love construction and our girl went through the usual "Fairies and Princesses" phase that most girls seem to experience at some point.

So, it didn't bother me at all that our five year old got excited about his big sister culling her Barbie doll collection recently. He sat with her while she sorted through them, working out which ones she was happy to let go of, then patiently letting him choose which ones of those he would like to keep. He took his new responsibility as a doll-owner very seriously - when the sorting was done, they even put the Barbies in a tub and gave them a bath.

I have no idea what he plans to do with his new dolls ... he's going through a pretty strong "Star Wars" stage at the moment, so no doubt he will have them swinging lightsabers and using the Force on each other for weeks to come. On the other hand, he might build them some furniture out of Lego, or even have them riding his dinosaurs.

He is a great doll-owner, from my point of view. Unlike his sister, he isn't interested in all the accessories that go along with them, so I don't have to clean up (or trip over) little bits and pieces that have been left on the floor. The Barbies tend to stay naked too - he doesn't care about putting clothes on them, which is pretty much in line with his attitude toward clothing for himself!

He is such a character. I actually got some sneaky photos of him last week, running around in the back yard, in the mud, playing "Star Wars".  He was dressed in only a pair of undies, with a shower cap on his head and brandishing his toy lightsaber at imaginary figures as he went. It was a joy to watch. I do love seeing how kids get caught up in their own imaginations.

Those photos might come in handy in the future too ...

The Keys to my Fridge?

We currently have two cars.  For one of them we have three keys (one for each of us and a spare).  For our other car we have only one set of keys.  We had a second set, which we lost over a year ago and we still haven't got around to replacing.  That situation is changing very soon.

I had to make a mad dash home from the shops today, after discovering that I had two sets of car keys with me - one for the car I had driven to the shops and one for the car I had left at home for the Caveman to drive to his cricket match. That's right, the car with only one set of keys.

Luckily I had finished what I was doing at the shops, so I was able to leave immediately.  Also luckily, it was early enough that he hadn't had to turn the house upside down looking for the keys just yet, but I knew I was pushing it to get there in time.  I drove with visions in my head of my man getting very grumpy because the keys weren't hanging up where they should have been and then conducting a frantic search of each room in the house, getting more panicked by the minute.

I've seen this routine before.

You can imagine my relief when I got home to a very calm husband, who actually laughed when I told him I had the keys he needed.  It turned out I had confused the time he was meant to leave and he hadn't even thought about looking for keys yet!

It reminded me though, of another time we lost the car keys.  We only had one car at the time - you guessed it, that same car with only one set of keys.  I had been shopping for groceries, come home and put the shopping away.  The car wasn't needed again until the next day - again, for cricket.  It wasn't until the Caveman was about to walk out the door to go to his match that we noticed the keys were missing.

Madness ensued .. the whole family got involved, pockets and handbags were checked, we searched the table, benches, bedrooms, under the lounges, on top of the fridge and pantry, even inside the fridge and pantry.  Finally we accepted defeat and a phone call was made to a team mate who arrived, laughing, to give my poor frazzled man a ride to cricket in his car.

I waved goodbye to them as they drove away and went back inside the house to relax.  I figured the keys would turn up once I stopped stressing about where they were - and I was right.  A little while later one of the kids asked me for an apple, which jogged my memory ... a memory of juggling three or four bags of shopping at once as I entered the house the day before (in a hurry, as always) and of absentmindedly throwing my keys into the bag of apples.  Naturally.

It's been a long-running joke in our house, as we get older, that if something is lost you should check in the fridge. All joking aside though, I would have assumed that the missing item would be in plain sight on a shelf. Not this time. I went to the fridge, pulled out the crisper drawer and opened the bag of apples - and there were the car keys.  Well chilled, but otherwise unharmed.

After my sigh of relief came the realisation that I would have to call the Caveman and own up to my mistake ... knowing that he would take pleasure in telling all the other guys in his team.  It took me a while to live down the embarrassment of that day!

It's definitely time to organise that second set of keys.

Guinea Pigs vs Spiders

We got ourselves two more guinea pigs yesterday.  We now have five - all girls (we don't want any surprise babies!).

I didn't think we would do the guinea pig thing with our kids.  They seem to be a common pet among most families at some point, but they never held any interest for me.  I like dogs and cats.  The Caveman and I have also had a few budgies and goldfish along the way .. not to mention the other, more unusual creatures we've allowed our kids to take in.  We have cared for silkworms, various types of lizards, injured birds, a turtle that had wandered away from a creek and more "pet" spiders than I care to remember.

I used to have a phobia about spiders.  The very thought of a spider being in the same room as me would have the hair on the back of my neck standing up.  There was once a huntsman in our bedroom that the Caveman had to remove before I would even consider entering the room.  I stood in the doorway while he was attempting to catch it, with a container and lid, on the opposite wall and I still squealed every time it moved.  The strange thing was, despite my intense fear of them, I didn't like spiders being killed.  I understood that most would prefer to be outside anyway and, as long as that's where they were, they weren't doing me any harm.  Once that spider in the bedroom was released into the garden unharmed, I was happy.

Then there was the time we were driving along in our car and another huntsman crawled along the inside of my car door, right beside my arm. I saw it and completely freaked out, unbuckling my seat belt and launching myself into the Caveman's lap while he was driving!  Not a safe thing to do at all but in the panic of the moment my fear didn't allow a lot of room for sensible thought.  The car was an older style with a bench seat in the front, so scrambling over into the back seat wasn't really practical until we had pulled over and stopped (which my man managed very well, considering I was blocking most of his view).  That spider was also released unharmed, although I was left a little shaken and apologising profusely to a rather grumpy Caveman!

The cure for my phobia came in the form of our first child, now our teenager.  I didn't want to pass on my phobia to him, so I learned to stay very calm if he was nearby when I saw a spider.  As it turned out, he did better than not catching my fear - he actually developed a love for the creatures.  As a toddler he would often come to me saying, "Mummy, look what I found!", only to open up his chubby little hand and show me a spider he'd picked up in the garden.  (Of course, he admits now that he was bitten by quite a few ... it's just lucky they weren't deadly).

Our solution was to buy him a bug catcher - it meant he could catch spiders "hands-free" and keep them for a few days before releasing them.  We would catch moths to drop into the bug catcher for our "pet" to eat and, to my surprise, even I started to find spiders more interesting.

I guess it's true that the best way to overcome your fears is to face them head on.  Through trying not to pass on my phobia and learning more about spiders, I ended up being much more comfortable with them than I ever expected.  I still don't like them in the house but, if I do see one, I don't freak out and I am happy to do the "catch and release" myself (most of the time anyway).

I think, after some of the pets we've had, I can be quite happy with guinea pigs!

Water Water Everywhere

It's amazing to think this time last week we were wishing for rain ...

Right around Australia Day some pretty wild weather hit our lovely corner of the world, thanks to ex-tropical cyclone Oswald.  We expected a lot of rain (that is typical when a cyclone fizzles out up north and travels down the coast as a rain depression) but a few areas actually got tornadoes ... which took many people by surprise.

It isn't unheard of to get tornadoes in Australia, but they are smaller and less common that the ones we hear about in America's "tornado alley".
 
Thankfully, although we were warned to expect a tornado, we didn't get one where we live. However, there was plenty of wind and rain about.  I'm not ashamed to admit that we had a bag with blankets and torches in our bathroom, just in case we needed to shelter there in a hurry.

What we did get in our town was flooding. Those of us who are locals are well aware that flooding is a semi-regular occurrence here and, luckily, most are prepared for such an event. Shops and businesses that are most at risk are emptied out with military precision (thanks to years of practice!) and, afterwards, everything seems to be back in place and businesses up and running again in no time. There is no shortage of helpers and everyone works together - it's one of the things I admire most about our town.  There are other places that were hit much harder and weren't able to prepare for it ... they are the communities I really feel for.

Here in the Crazy Cave, we didn't suffer too much.  Our house is not flood-prone (apart from a section of our yard right down near the back fence) and, despite being cut off from much of the town, we were still able to get to our local shops by taking a different route to get there - although a lot of the shelves were empty. We lost power only briefly, unlike some others we know who were without electricity for days. As an unexpected bonus, I had my sister here for company - she had come up from Brisbane for a quick visit and found herself cut off by the flood water for a few days, but she assured me she really didn't mind.

We even became an unofficial "wildlife sanctuary" for a short time! From a variety of birds taking shelter on our back verandah during the initial storm to a young frill necked lizard we found in the back yard afterwards. We thought it was injured, but the poor thing turned out to be mainly waterlogged - after spending the night in a warm dry box, it looked much better the next day when the rain stopped and we released it.

There was also some frog spawn in our pond, which may have floated away with all the rain if our teenager hadn't rescued it - we now have tadpoles hatching in a bucket, also to be released once they are frogs.

The only way in which the flood really impacted on us was that local schools were closed due to flooding and electricity issues, so the kids got an extra day on top of their six week summer holidays.  Funny, I didn't hear them complaining about that!  It seems even the boring old school holidays can be livened up with a bit of water around the place and some stranded wildlife to look after.

Now that the river has gone down (in our town at least) and school has gone back, I for one am looking forward to things getting back to our crazy version of normal.

Australia Day

AUSTRALIA DAY

Today is Australia Day, which prompted me to read the poem "My Country" by Dorothea MacKellar - most Aussies recognise it by the simple line "I love a sunburnt country".  

I tend to get bored with poetry, but this particular one does pull on my heartstrings. I have never lived anywhere else in the world but, if I did, I can imagine reading this poem would reduce me to a puddle of homesick tears every time.

Australia Day means different things to different people.  It can be controversial - for some it seems to be nothing more than a reason to raise the issue of whether our national flag or anthem should be changed.

I love our national anthem, it stirs emotion in me every time I sing it and I think the words describe our country perfectly (I don't even mind the "girt by sea" bit!).  As for the flag, I love that too.  I am proud of the British heritage shown by the small flag in the corner and I like to think that the Southern Cross is a great symbol for everyone who lives here - aboriginal, immigrant and otherwise.
  
It bothers me when people use the flag (or images of the Southern Cross) as a symbol of hatred or violence against Aborigines or Immigrants.  It makes me sad to think that, on social media, more and more people share narrow-minded views while hiding behind their keyboards and a false screen name. It embarrasses me when the line between "Aussie Pride" and prejudice becomes blurred.

There are so many wonderful people here, of all races, colours and religions, who only wish to to live in peace.

Many Australians use today to simply celebrate the fact that we really do live in a great country. Barbecues, good Aussie rock music and games of backyard cricket are the order of the day wherever the weather is good - and if you can dress up in a crazy Aussie-themed outfit, even better!
  
I see us as a vibrant, optimistic country of stunning landscapes and bright, happy people. Today is a day to celebrate our beautiful land and our national spirit, which is strong. As a nation we have shown we will pull together through adversity. 

I love the people - the fact that we can laugh at ourselves and are, for the most part, happy to welcome newcomers from other parts of the world. I am proud that our children get to experience multiculturalism and can be encouraged to learn about other people for themselves.

Yes, definitely "The wide brown land for me".

Ear's to Natural Beauty

I left a bit of a gap between the last blog entry and this one ... partly because we have been busy, but also because I haven't felt like it. There you go, at least I'm honest.  

We had our trip to Brisbane and spent time with my family - always a treat.  We are a close bunch and I'm blessed to be married to a man who is more than happy to be a part of it, so everyone gets along well.  We got to catch up with my youngest sister and her absolutely adorable baby and also celebrate another sister's birthday with a great family day out.

Then we came home to reality ... doctor's appointments, getting ready for the new school year, etc.  As an added bonus, I had to go and have a skin cancer removed from one of my ears.  This had come as a shock when I was first told, but I reassured myself that there are worse places to have lumps removed from and decided to buck up and be brave.  In the end, I came out of the experience a little more shaken than I had expected.  

The needles required to numb the area weren't too bad and I could cope with being told I needed a skin graft to finish the job neatly - it was either that or end up with an ear like an elf.  What I wasn't expecting was the unbelievable sensation of being able to HEAR my skin being cut (of course, the sounds were magnified because of it being my ear - why hadn't that possibility occurred to me before?).  Then the blood vessels were cauterised to stop any bleeding.  To the layperson, that means burnt.  Which, in my poor ear, sounded a lot like SIZZLE SIZZLE.  The smell wasn't great either.  Urgh.  

The dressings were put in place and I was sent home to take paracetamol for a couple of days. This morning I went back to have the dressing changed - a very uncomfortable experience because there was hair caught under the sticking plaster.  I felt like I was getting the side of my head waxed as the dressing was gently (supposedly) pulled away.  Not to mention my poor tender ear being pulled in every direction during the process.  I was assured by the doctor that it all looks good, a new dressing was put on (I may shave that side of my head before going back for that one to be removed) and I was sent on my way again, with instructions to return at the end of the week. All in all, not a very pleasant experience, but a necessary one that I am glad I've had done.

While this has been an interesting experience to write about (and probably should be a signal for me to remind everyone about the importance of applying sunscreen to the tips of the ears), it was actually something else that gave me the urge to type tonight.  It was the drive we took today.

We needed to go to the Sunshine Coast to get a couple of things not available in our own fair town. On the way home, on a whim, we left the highway and took the scenic route home up through the beautiful Mary Valley.  It meant it took twice as long to get home, but we toured through pretty little towns we usually don't give a second thought to.  We travelled below the speed limit and enjoyed the scenery - the hills and valleys, the heavily treed areas where we drove in silence with the windows down so that we could listen to the Bell Birds as we passed.  Further along, we pointed out scrub turkeys and a kangaroo that hopped across the road a little way in front of us. Seriously, we were like tourists.

The amazing thing was having the kids really appreciate the beautiful areas we have so close to where we live.  

The skin cancer surgery was certainly the biggest event of the week for me but this afternoon's drive was somehow more significant.  After the past few days of feeling a bit low and wanting to keep to myself, I came home today with a clear, happy mind.  Sometimes it's the smallest things that make me appreciate how lucky I am to be healthy and to live where I do :-)

Crazy Cave Camping

We finally did it ... we have officially had our first family camping trip!  That's right, we have never before packed up the car (and trailer!) and taken all the kids on a proper camp.  We decided to start small - only two nights.  We also made sure we camped beside a good friend of ours, who is a camping guru in our eyes, so we had someone to call on for advice - and we did, regularly.  I'll bet she was glad to see us leave today.

We didn't get off to the best start .. our five year old severely sprained his ankle the day before we left.  Not to be deterred (and because he was still keen to go), we threw his crutches into the car, along with the dog, and headed off.

We got to the camping ground - which is absolutely beautiful - and parked ourselves right beside our friend, overlooking the local creek with its brilliant swimming hole.  The first job after arriving was to put up our tent (which we'd never done before ... whatever happened to that practice run we planned to do in the backyard?).  Of course, we had the whining children and the dog to deal with too - it turns out a teen boy and pre-teen girl who bicker constantly at home are quite happy to take that behaviour with them to camp.  The five year old kept reminding us he was bored with having to sit and do nothing, because of his ankle injury.  Even the dog looked a bit miffed (probably because she was immediately tied to the nearest tree).  I must say though, the actual "putting up the tent" part went well and didn't take long at all.

Finally, we had our camp set up enough so that we were happy to take ourselves, the children and the dog down to the swimming hole.  This was where the holiday really began ... the kids spent the next three days swimming, kayaking and playing with other kids who were also camping there.  The Caveman and I got to relax and be big kids ourselves.  Even the dog, ten years old and afraid of water since she was a pup, was getting into the creek and swimming alongside us!  

Of course, it wasn't without problems ... the older kids continued to bicker occasionally, the youngest discovered that "time out" still happens even when the only room you can be sent to is a tent and we learnt that we could have been better organised for the trip.  All of that was swept aside though, by the general enjoyment and relaxation we all got from the experience.  We are already planning to do it again soon, without our friend beside us for guidance, and are genuinely looking forward to it!

Oh and that ankle injury?  Apparently almost forgotten in all the fun ;-)