Martin is in Darwin this week for work.  That is the longest I have had to look after Nina on my own.  I feel a little bit overwhelmed by the task when I think about a whole week without Martin so I am trying to just take it one day at a time and thus far it has been fine.  Again it reminds me how blessed I am to have Martin and family around to help me.  I really think people raising kids on their own are amazing.

After almost 6 months back in Alice we finally have internet at home.  I was almost used to it but now we have it I don’t know how I survived so long with out it.  It’s so exciting.  Maybe now I’ll blog more.

In other exciting news I found out that I now have another six month contract at work.  My current one ends on June 30th and it was starting to look like there wasn’t going to be funding for another one so I was pretty happy when my boss told me last week that the funding had come through. I really like my job and the organisation I am working for so it is good news indeed.  I will be working 4 days as of July.  It’s only one more day than I am currently working but it feels like a big deal as 4 days now means I am at work more days than at home for the first time since Nina was born.  I would prefer three days but part time work is pretty hard to find and it’s exactly what I want to be doing and what I am qualified to be doing so I feel pretty blessed.

Martin is also now working 3 days (plus teaching motor bike riding a few weekends per month) so it will mean Nina is in care for two days but I think she is ready for that.  Martin has a job with a program that offers scholarships to high school students from lower socio economic back grounds that helps to develop path ways into tertiary education.  It is not exactly what he wants to be doing but it’s a good for now as it’s part time and very flexible so he can be around for Nina and it’s at the university so will certainly help build connections in the area he does want to be in.

All in all I feel like we are abundantly blessed.   I feel our whole life together we have made decisions to do things or go places we feel called to, never with any certainty of what will happen, but it has always worked out.  So despite neither of us currently having permanent jobs (or having had them for almost all of Nina’s life) I feel totally at peace that all will be well, that we can trust totally in God.

As you all know Nina is quite cross eyed.  This isn’t the official name for what she has though, it is really called Strabismus.  Nina has strabismus in both her eyes, meaning that they take turns turning inward.  When the eye is turned in she is not actually seeing out of it, thus she is only ever seeing out of one eye.  This obviously effects her vision significantly, particularly her depth perception.

Over the last 6 months we have seen an optometrist, then an ophthalmologist and finally a paediatric ophthalmologist and it has finally been decided that they will operate on her eyes.  The operation is on the 17th June.  As Nina has it in both eyes, both eyes have actually worked (just no together) so they say results should be good.

I am pleased she is having surgery, it will be great for her to be able to see a bit better and should improve her fine motor skills in particular.  There is also a cosmetic element to it.  I hardly notice it anymore and when I do I think it is quite cute but I know others notice.  Other kids will often ask, “what’s wrong with her eyes” so I am sure as she grows she will be pleased we did it.  None the less I can’t help feeling a little anxious about it.  The idea of my little girl having a general anaesthetic and then having an incision in her eye is not a nice thought for me. Apparently, though strabismus occurs in 3 in 100 people so the surgery is quite common and very low risk.  It will only take one hour and pain should be minimal after.  The ophthalmologist here is very well regarded too and really kind.  He assures me we are going to be good friends, in that follow up will be required for most of her childhood and likely another surgery.  But really I should just be grateful that she can have this surgery.  Grateful too that she is in every other way healthy.  We really are blessed.

On the weekend Nina went on her second camping trip.  But she was only about 8 months on the first one so this was the first one where she was really able to engage the experience.  We went to Ruby Gap.  It’s an amazing place.

I was a bit worried about the drive out as it is a pretty long and full on bumpy four wheel drive trip.  I thought she would be pretty over it by the end but she loved bumping along and Keith made especially good sound effects for a long time to keep her giggling.  We even let her sit in the back of the ute for a bit and when it was over she kept wanting to get back in.

We had a pretty great campsite.

Nina loved setting up the tent and then we played in it for ages.

We had a pretty nice view from the tent too.

Nina also loved collecting firewood for the fire and sitting on an esky.  She really is a little camper.

We went my grandparents who really wanted to see Ruby Gap.  They are both over 80 so I reckon it was a pretty impressive effort to get there and back, it’s a pretty full on trip and camping is a lot of work too.  It was a blessed time with them for us.

Nina an mum had a swim in the waterhole.

I thought it was too cold but I enjoyed the spot.

We had a beautiful Central Australian sunset too.

The other day I got a call from one of those people doing research.  The topic was the cost of living in Australia.  They ask your income bracket and then ask if you think the cost of living is too high, if it is going up etc etc.  I answered no to most of the questions.

Firstly, while I do think cost of living in Australia is high I don’t think it’s too high because mostly it is expensive because we have such ridiculously luxourious lives.  In Chulucanas sure life is cheaper for people because they don’t have cars, they don’t have running water all day or have air con, fridges, big screen TV’s, DVD’s etc etc, they shop at markets instead of massive supermarkets with endless variety, they travel less, the list goes on.

Secondly, while I do notice that I am spending more at the shops etc there was a guy on the news the other day who has actually researched this topic and he showed that cost of living is going up slower than our incomes.  There are a few hikes here and there but if you look at the general trend incomes are increasing faster than the cost of living so we’ve never had it better.

Thirdly, I confess while sometimes I do worry about money and can’t believe how fast it goes here I also recognise that even though Martin and I are currently living off one part time income and a small percentage of the parenting payment we are still wealthier than most of the world. The woman who was calling me had a very strong Indian accent, it is posible that she was living in Australia but I imagine she was actually calling from a call centre in India (which I don’t have a problem with this by the way).  I was so embarassed by the idea that this woman and her colleagues earning I imagine very little (as that is why the call centres are there) and whose working and living conditions would be far less than most of ours woulld have to sit there day in day out and listen to rich Australians complain about how hard their life is.

Just to clarify, I am not saying life isn’t hard for many people here in Australia.  People here struggle with lots of things such as illness, sexual asault and other trauma, disability, domestic violence, depression, anxiety and other mental illness, social isolation and exclusion, racism and injustice, never feeling like their enough and not that it really compares but I have been struggling with my own brokeness a lot lately.  However, I don’t think cost of living is why we are suffering so I feel like instead of trying to ease cost of living we should be trying to tackle the above isues.  I acknowledge for people living solely on the pension here in Australia, life would be pretty difficult financially but the answer to that is not middle class Australians complaining about the cost of living but simply raising the pension.

10 years since meeting Martin
9 years of blogging
8 years married.

Thanks be to God for the many, many blessings of these years including the challenges that have grown me.

I put some photos of Nina on Facebook today but here are a few for people, mainly Gem, who aren’t on Facebook. Mainly, just cause she’s so cute.

This one is for my grandparents.  Learning to ride the scooter has been slow but we seem to finally be making some progress.  Thanks.

This is Nina with Clayton.  Clayton and Nina can be very exhausting together but super cute.  It is really lovely wacthing her develop probably her first real friendship.  She really is very caring of him.

And finally, my fave pic of late, Nina with Martin taken on our 8th wedding anniversarry.  I keep looking at this photo and feeling very blessed to have these two wonderful people in my life.

Last year I wrote about how I often find it hard over the Easter long weekend to really connect to the story of Jesus crucifixion and ressurection.  I always really want to but everything always feels a little empty.  This year I had a good year.

On Good Friday I went to the Stations of the Cross ran by the Aboriginal Catholic Church.  It was a really special and reflective time.  We walked along the river with people carrying the cross. We stopped every few metres beside an Aborignal artwork depicting part of the story of the crucifixion, we read that part of the story and prayed.  Much of it was Arrenrte.

On Easter Sunday I went to my home church.  We read the story and talked about it what it meant to us. After I faciliatated a communion.  I used one of the liturgies I used to love when attending St John’s Glebe.  Breaking bread and sharing wine with people to remember Jesus really is very powerful for me.

On the block we had a big Easter lunch and the kids had an Easter Egg hunt.  Having kids around to do those sorts of things is really great.

I’m at work waiting for students to arrive. I don’t really know who or when people may come from day to day. As a teacher I like to be very
planned and organised (who am I kidding as a person I like to be planned and organised) so this job really is out of my comfort zone but I guess that is a good thing. I hope I am learning something.

Anyway, to fill the time I have been looking at all the Scavenger hunt photo. Great photos everyone and really looks like lots of fun. Thanks. Hopefully one day I’ll feel in a space to take part.

People keep asking if we have settled back into life in Alice yet.  I think I can say we have.  I still have stabbing longings for Chulucanas sometimes but I suppose that is fairly normal.

I am working three days per week at Batchelor Institute.  It’s okay but unfortunately I haven’t got many students.  The organisation that we have partnered with who were in charge of recruiting students and picking them up for class and dropping them home for the program have done nothing.  For the first two weeks when we had no students come I asked them what they have done, were doing to get students.  They basically ignored my phone calls and emails until I finally caught them and basically their answer was waiting for people to contact them about it, which would be difficult as most people don’t know about.  They hadn’t even contacted previous students which I tried to do and a couple were interested in coming back but needed help getting kids to childcare which they won’t do and I don’t have a car to do.  By week three I had found one student who has come every class.  We get on great.  She seems to enjoy the classes and tells me lots of stories too.  They had found two.  One a nineteen year old girl who came once.  When I asked her why she had come and what she might like to do here she said she came because she they made her and she didn’t what to do anything.  Then she sat down and put her head on the table for almost all the class.  The other woman has come to two (of five) classes.  She is 35 weeks pregnant now so does find it hard to get here and will be finishing up soon for obvious reasons.  Anyway, point is both totally inappropriate for the course. It’s all so frustrating and makes one realise why it is so hard to engage Aboriginal people in education.

I spend the other days looking after Nina.  Mum or Libby help out for a bit on Friday so I can shop, clean, have a swim and rest etc.  Nina and I go to a great playgroup on Thursdays called Kwatja Etatha (waters living) at the Lutheran Church.  It’s got great toys and activities and so multicultural.

Martin and I are still attending the Quaker meetings on Sunday.  Ryan kindly looks after Nina so we can go to that and I even get a swim in before which is very healing and rejuvenating on a Sunday before the start of a new week.  I am also attending a home church.  They meet every second Sunday mornings to talk faith, social justice, the Bible etc and the other week we meet in the park to engage with the community.   I do that so Nina can come too and I really like that it, great people to live life here with, but being part of two faith communities is a bit of a stretch so we’ll see I guess.

We have caught up with most of our friends here.  That’s been nice especially if they have kids and we can see how the kids have grown.  Not that we have that many but I think more and more I am becoming an introvert so with all the social stuff that happens on the block, work, playgroup, church I don’t really feel I need any more.

Martin is looking after Nina on Mondays and Tuesdays and they enjoy baby rhyme time at the library and going to the pool a lot.  It its still pretty hot here.  On Wednesdays Nina goes to a family day care.  It was tough the first few weeks but we slowly built it up and she likes it now.  Martin works on the block for Keith that day, brush cutting, bush regenerating, gardening etc.  It sure is a lot of work.  He is also trying to help John and Malley get some tours up and running and an Arrenrte class that will be starting this week with them that we will be attending.  He has also got back into soccer and it studying his cert IV in training and assessment so he can become a trainer in horticulture or bush regeneration or something similiar which I think he will be great at.  The community garden has asked him to run some workshops there so that will be good practise.

We also just found out that he got the job as a motorbike rider instructor.  It will be weekend work, Fri night, all day Sat and Sun morn which is great as we won’t need to get more childcare.  We don’t really know yet how many weekends it will be as he starts next month but hopefully every second one.

Okay that’s us settling back into life here.  It’s good really.  I also really like knowing it’s a long term thing.  It feels settled and like you can really get into things and take your time as you won’t be leaving.  I often look at houses and properties and we talk to our friends about buying but really we don’t have money yet so that is definitely a long term thing.  For now still trying to be present to now.