Cleanliness Rebels

I realised today: I actually kind of enjoy other parents looking at me with a mixture of disgust, amazement, and occasionally awe when I allow my children to do something theirs would never be permitted. We're not talking harming animals or talking back to adults. It usually involves dirt. Lots of it. Like today when we were at the playground and a mother was throwing a very verbal wobbly at her maybe 7-year-old. Because he'd taken his shoes off and now his socks were dirty. Well, I understand the despair of the never-ending laundry pile. I really do. I also fight the 'socks-AND-shoes-on or socks-AND-shoes-off' battle. But when all's said and done, they're only socks. I shouldn't comment really... my two were not running on the grubby play equipment and wood chip ground surface in socks. Actually after fifteen minutes we hadn't yet made it past the sprinkler at the entrance. Can you say 'soaked to the skin'?

A Legacy

IT'S so easy to get caught up in all the holiday hype. Even when you try to keep commercialism at bay, gifts, food and house preparation and trying to make everything just perfect can become stressful. This weekend I was moved to tears in two very different ways. Two things that made these little 'stresses' seem so trivial.

The first was attending the memorial service for a friend's two year old daughter. In a very short time, this little girl changed many people's lives.

The second was coming together with a hall full of strangers to sing Handel's Messiah. This work is so full of passion it makes your hair stand on end.

After I'm gone, I don't expect millions of people to celebrate my birth every year. I don't expect people to be inspired by the story of my life, or any of my work to be great enough that it is performed over and over for centuries to come. But I do hope my children remember me as the mama who always had a cuddle, a song, a story or an adventure up my sleeve. That's really more important than one more batch of mince pies and homemade Christmas crackers.

Parent Check

THERE'S nothing like a child to call you out on something you know you should or shouldn't do.
- Sometimes it's really helpful, like "You forgot to strap me in!"
- Sometimes it's guilt-inducing, like when you see a little sad face after you've overreacted to a misdemeanor.
- Sometimes it's that 'you've been caught' feeling, like an innocent "You wear that shirt uhday Mama, same shirt a' yesuhday?"
- Sometimes it's a reminder of double standards, like "You say no chocolate before dinner Mama. You allowed chocolate before dinner?"
- Sometimes it's just plain funny, like at the end of an exhasperating 30 minutes trying to get out the door, when I barked just a little bit louder than necessary: "Sit!" and Emma replied so sweetly: "Emma sit or Basil sit?"

Cut That Impact!

I have just finished reading a parenting magazine. You know the kind - the ones with all the articles that seem to repeat in every edition, and glossy ads and reviews of yet more must-have stuff or the latest packaged food concoction. Excuse me while I rant a little. No child should grow up thinking that consumption is a worthy goal. How about stewardship, resourcefulness and thrift? These values have been cast aside as outdated, last resorts for the poor and uneducated. Enlightened people go instead for the new and shiny! Yay. The Story of Stuff is a frightening reminder of what exactly we are doing to our planet as we forge ahead in our fast-paced, throw-away society. So along with my quest to simplify our family's life, I am taking baby steps to reduce our impact on the earth. I want my children to know that there is not only an alternative to mindless consumption, but that it is becoming more and more urgent to preserve our beautiful earth. Here's what we're doing. Some of these need a little more work on consistency, and there's certainly a whole lot more we could do, but it's a start:

SAVING ENERGY:
- Hanging washing on the line instead of using the dryer
- Washing laundry with cold or warm water instead of hot
- Unplugging appliances when not in use
- Reducing and combining car trips
- Buying locally grown produce

REDUCING WASTE:
- Using cloth nappies instead of disposables
- Learning natural infant hygiene to further reduce need for nappies
- Composting kitchen waste
- Recycling all plastic, metal, glass and paper
- Bulk buying and purchasing items with least packaging
- Using containers for food storage instead of zip bags
- Washing and reusing zip bags
- Using own bags for food shopping, not supermarket plastic bags
- Printing as little as possible and using both sides of paper

SAVING WATER:
- Washing up and washing vegetables in a bowl instead of directly in the sink (less water)
- Flushing less
- Using water we would usually pour down the sink to water plants
- Shorter showers

REDUCING CONSUMPTION:
- Shopping at charity shops and garage sales
- Fixing broken things
- Freecycling
- Using every part of food (vegetable leaves as greens, stock from chicken carcass etc.)
- Making gifts

Loaves of Revelation

WE baked bread and it was a success! I had never done this before, but have wanted to for so long. I would go back and forth between being super-enthusiastic about my new 'project' (wanting to go out and buy a milling machine, for example, so that I could mill my own flour), then overcome with doubt and deciding I should start small with a packet mix of the 'just add water' variety. Then finally yesterday I managed to get past the overthinking and just made it. A little background for those to whom bread baking is no big deal: I have always thought my cooking skills to be quite good, but baking was just never my thing and even homemade cookies frequently end up being donated to the birds. I admit, I have a problem following recipes.

Well the actual act of baking was not especially eventful; Emma had fun transforming Basil into a dalmation by 'raining' on him with handfuls of flour; I was trying to put some elbow grease into kneading the dough - not very easy with a slumbering little bundle suspended on your front in a sling. But when it was finally baked, I even procrastinated cutting into the loaf to see how it turned out. (Ever done that with a letter that you know contains exam or interview results?) When I finally did, half a day later, I was amazed to find that not only was it fully cooked inside, it held up to being sliced thinly, was not too heavy and even tasted good! You can't imagine how clever I felt! Emma and I high-fived all through our bread and cheese lunch.

I do realize this small feat is not exactly comparable to Neil Armstrong's steps on the moon, but to me it was! And that led me to a revelation. Emma likes to dress and undress and redress her dolls in Alexander's clothes oh, maybe thirty times each day. That's great except she can't fasten the snaps (poppers). So guess who gets this job (thirty times each day)? Today she came running to me announcing ecstatically: "I did it up Mama all by myself!" My first instinct was "Thank heavens! About time!" Then I remembered that I baked bread all by myself, and shared her moment of joy.

Mama's Great Healing Powers

Is it not humbling and a little scary to realise what amazing powers your young child thinks you as a parent possess? I do recall a point in my own childhood when it dawned on me that my parents were human and not perfect, but it was not until I was at least pre-teen. Of course a favourite drink or teddy might also have the same great powers, but still, it's nice to be a hero if only to a very small person.

Take for example a dead insect. It can be very dead - squished, petrified, or otherwise beyond redemption. Yet Emma always says "beetle/worm/bug need his Mama. Mama make him feel better." Sometimes the deceased creature only needs a blanket, so she'll drag her own soft woollen blanket Linus-style through all kinds of muck to cover the ex-animal and speed his recovery. Luckily she was content to use an imaginary blanket for the rather putrid roadkill we walked by the other day, and I wasn't required to kiss it better.