I am pretty excited about my blog’s new look. It is much more me I reckon. Mostly done by Ryan as usual so big thanks to him.
Anyway, the thing I am most excited about is that I can now put photos on my blog. To get started I thought I’d put a recent one of our little trip to the beautiful Litchfield National Park in the Top End and one of my gorgeous girl on her new toy
Nina is not a very happy little one at the moment. I guess you can never fully know but I am pretty sur she is teeting, there is lots of drooling and a slightly funny smell in her mouth which the good old internet assures me is normal for teething babies. She also doesn’t want to eat very much at all especially anything that is a little bit acidy. For example she usually loves strawberries and pears but now she cries whenever they go into her mouth. I guess it stings. Anyway, it’s pretty tiring as she’s not sleeping that well. She seems to wake every hour or two and whimpers for awhile. It’s pretty sad to listen to. We go and sit with her but there doesn’t seem to be much else we can do. We gave her some pandol for the first time the other night as she just wouldn’t settle at all.
Thankfully when she is not eating or sleeping she seems to be able to distract herself from it by exploring everything. Her favourite game is picking somthing up and giving it to you. Then you say thank you and give it back. We are very excited because now when we sing, “if you’re happy and you know clap our hands” she claps her hands. Not always in the right spot but getting there. She also has one of those toys in which you put the rings on the pole. She learned to take them off pretty quickly but recently she has learned to put them on. Funny the things you get excited about these days.
I heard a statistic on the radio the other day that said 52% of Christians are not anti gay marriage. I don’t have any statistics but I think that is probably about the same as the general population. While I would like to think that Christians would be less judgemental than the average population and more supoortive of marginalised communities and people entering long term committed relationships I thought at least that is better than all the horrendous comments made by Chritsians at last weeks rallies in Canberra.
I’m exhausted! The last 10 days have been pretty huge for me. It started on Tuesday night. Martin left for Darwin at 5pm. I was at work as I always am on Tuesday night and knocked off at 9pm. I was tired and hoping Nina would have a good night as I was going to have to get up to her the next day as Martin was away. She didn’t. She was up at three times and then wanted to get up at 5.40. I brought her in to bed with me to try to sleep some more but was up not long after 6 none the less.
I left Nina with Ryan and Libby at 8am and went to work. I came home at 12.30 to spend the arvo with her and then back to work til 9pm again. On my way home my doula client called to tell me she was in labour. So I went home had some dinner and a shower and at 11pm after an hour nap went to the hospital to be with her. At 6.20am on Thursday morning she gave birth. Another totally awe inspiring experience that I felt so blessed to be a part of but I could barely keep my eyes open. Lucky the amazing Libby and Ryan who had already spent the night with Nina agreed to look after her till 10am so I could get a little nap.
That night I did manage to get a much need 11 hours sleep although there was three wakes up in between. Then off to Darwin to meet Martin for the wedding. Martin wasn’t really able to help much though as he was the best man so Nina and I were on our own. It was a pretty nice wedding though and we had a lovely room looking over the water in Darwin.
On Saturday we headed down to Litchfield National Park. We were lucky enough to have some friends who live their as he works as the ranger. They have a little boy who is one month older than Nina and pretty gorgeous. It was fun watching him and Nina suss each other out. It was also a beautiful place to visit with it’s amazing crystal clear water and waterfalls. Although it is hard to get crocs out of your head. Also, impossible to get a much needed sleep in with two babies around.
Back to Alice on Monday evening and then back to work on Tuesday morning with an 8am start and 9pm finish on both Tues and Wed. Thursday was just 8.20 to 12.20 but then today was 8.20 to 4.30. Thankfully, it hasn’t been a bad week at work. The teacher I work with has a very different philosophy about teaching to me which can make it pretty heavy going but I get along pretty well with the students.
Anyway, it’s good to be home tonight and I am planning to go to bed now and sleep all weekend. Well as much as Nina will allow.
I have my second doula client. The only problem is that she is due to have her baby next Tuesday and we are going to be in Darwin from Friday until Monday. I guess I just have to hope that she is like most firrst time mother’s and goes into labour late rather than early.
After our meeting like week she sent me an email that really made me even more certain about why I think doulas are important and why I want to be one. This is part of it.
“Since meeting you I sleep much better. I am much more confident about the birth and my perception of the pain I am going to experience changed totally… I am looking forward to it!”
Isn’t that great!! Makes me certain that even if she does come early and I don’t make it to her birth she will have a much better birth because she is feeling excited and confident in her abilities to birth her baby.
THe NT has this great public holiday called Picnic Day. Don’t you think that is great a day set aside for picnics? Anyway, yesterday was picnic day and so we had a picnic. It was a wonderful picnic in the riverbed opposite our house. There were lots of kids and dogs and good food to be enjoyed. As well as a really good dose of lazing around. It made me really happy.
The other thing we did for the long weekend was take Nina on her first camping experience. It went pretty well really. She loved it – being outdoors is definitely her thing. Although there was a bit of hard work for us making sure she didn’t choke on rocks or consume too much sand. Not to mention night feeds and early mornings in a tent are pretty cold.
Recently Martin and I have switched roles. He is Nina’s main caregiver and I am the main worker. I think it’s good for Nina and I get a bit of a break from each otehr and for Martin to spend more time with her. it’s a bit full on though. I am working at the a school tutoring teh ESL students Mon – Fri 8.20am -12.20pm. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday night I am teaching at AMEP which is 4pm-9pm including some preparation time. And then on Friday I work from 12.30 to 4.30 doing admin stuff for the AMEP enrollment etc. Not to mention there is still caring for Nina in between times and getting up to her once or twice a night. Lucky there are so many great people around to help.
A Hidden Wholeness by Parker Palmer
A few months ago a Quaker from Adelaide came up to Alice to speak to our group about different Quaker practices, thoughts etc. In our group everyone is pretty new to it so it was quite a helpful weekend. Anyway, he spoke a lot about Parker Palmer as he is a bit of a Quaker guru so I thought I would read this book. He talks a lot about how most of live fairly divided lives in that who we are publicly and who we are privately is often quite different. What we actually do is often at odds with who we are or what we really believe. He believes that many of us have lost touch with our souls. This book is about how to create spaces to listen to your soul, your inner teacher and/or God when wrestling with life’s question or callings. Doing this will obviously be of benefit to us personally but he also talks about the implications of doing this on social issues. One of my favourite bits was about learning to sit with tension, learning to sit in what he called “the tragic gap” between reality and our deepest hopes eg the reality of war versus our hopes for peace. There was a lot in it about a particular process called “circles of trust” in which people are enabled to do this and I found some of that a bit tedious at times in its detail but there were some really gem thoughts in there as well that I am still pondering. I would like to feel less divided.
Waterhole of Hope by Annie Patterson.
This book is about Sue Woods. Sue Woods is a friend of mine in Alice who started the House of Prayer in Goulbourn and now runs Campfire in the Heart in Alice Springs. To be honest I didn’t think I would be that into this book but I picked it up a month or two ago and I have really enjoyed it. It is a story of a faith, about a woman who had tried to live every day according to what she believes God is calling her to. It is a story of the ups and downs of doing this. It is a story of a very ordinary woman who followed her vision and has done some pretty amazing things. Although, there were some slow bits I found it pretty inspiring.
I haven’t really listened to that much of the whole carbon tax coverage, I just find it all pretty depressing. Not because I have a problem with paying the tax but because it continues to highlight how hard by Australians think they are when we are so privileged. So I could be wrong in my next statement and correct me if I am but I haven’t heard anyone say, “this will not cost you anything if you decide to use less carbon”. They keep going over and over the figure of about $10 a week increase in cost of living expenses and how they are going to compensate it but no has made any suggestion for how people can use less. For example put on jumper instead of a heater, get rid of your electric blanket, turn off the TV or computer, ride a bike instead of drive, don’t eat meat etc etc. We have to remember that these things are actually privileges not rights.
And while I am having a rant I watched a documentary the other night about an island in Italy called Lampedusa. As a result of the current conflicts in the middle east they had more refugees come to their island in a week than Australia has got all year. It really showed the fear mongering here for what it was.
Nina is the coolest dancer ever. She just loves dancing and she is so cute when she does it. Sometimes she tries to sing along as well. Her other new love is creating chaos, she just loves to pull everything she can down from the shelf, out of the cupboard or out of the box but she hasn’t learnt to put it back yet. She has even discovered how to pull everything out of my wallet, interestingly enough the money and the credit card always come first. She also likes going to the park and crawling around on the grass or having a little swing. She has totally mastered crawling now although she continues to prefer to pull herself up. She really is an inquisitive little person and I love her so so much.