Our 'Freestyle' Life

Christmas...and lots of rain....

2009-12-30T13:17:00.020+10:00

Christmas days are over and only 2 more days and a new year starts.
We have had great weather over the last week, loooots of rain, overflowing tanks, rivers/streams in our garden, mud to play and dance in, and such downpours at night, that they wake us up and keep us awake in awe of the power of nature. So, no draught here at the moment :).

The kids got lots of dress up stuff for Christmas and it has been lots of fun. Matti also got a snorkel and goggles, which he loved using for one day, until the snorkel broke. What was most amazing about this Christmas was, I think every item was made in China and when opening up, there was an incredibly smell coming from all toys and dress ups etc. I've never been so aware of it as this Christmas. Needless to say too, a lot of it has broken already.

We started our Christmas on Christmas Eve at lunch time and opened the presents from the Australian Grandparents, as they had arrived by mail and were keenly awaited to be opened by Matti. Then we put a few things into the tree every morning until today and have thus had it all nicely spread out.

Lucille has been dancing lots in her fairy dress gifts, with the singing Santa in her hand often. She has taken to a doll we found in an OP shop and carries her around hugging and tapping her head. It's so cute how she does BodyTalk on the dolls and also on our plants.

We have been swimming lots and also walked in the rain a few times. I did a big Highland walk with Lucille, walking barefoot in a little stream. There was no one up there and it was sooo peaceful and beautiful.

It was a quiet and very lovely Christmas time, so nice now with 2 little children. The village was quiet and when I went to the beach with Lucille once, I was stunned about the fullest car park I've ever seen here...I didn't even find one and left quickly again...We'll go back when it's empty again :).

Yesterday afternoon it was raining so much that the kids and I walked through the garden naked and in our bathers....it was great to feel the rain and to be barefoot in the mud.

We found a highchair in the OP shop yesterday and Lucille has liked sitting in it today.

Justin has almost finished the whole front garden bit, under the Yoga Studio, and has started building some shelves for the garage. He is working today, for 24 hours and will be back tomorrow morning for another weeks holiday.

We went to friends for dinnner last night and had a great time. Tomorrow morning we are at our neighbours 1 year birthday party and in the late afternoon we will start celebrating new years eve at the Community centre with other village families, having a BBQ, swim, the Pizza oven on and just enjoying the last day of the year.

This morning Wayne came by with 2 horses, Bob and Sunny, and Matti had a great ride in front of our house (on the greenway and empty blocks). It was wonderful and he felt sooo proud.

I read the Red Tent over the last 2 days (over 300 pages)...couldn't stop until I was through, as it was a fascinating read. Have also been reading 'Magical Parent, Magical Child', which has been very interesting, as it talks a lot about children's brain development at certain stages, the importance of play, of a save environment, nurturing, and the damaging effect of early reading, praise and punishments, and HOW children really best learn.

Ok, lots of photos today, which speek mostly for themselves.
We are off to the pool now. Until next year :)! May the new year bring you lots of joy, happiness, wellbeing and abundance!

pheeew.....

2009-12-23T18:36:00.020+10:00

what a past 2 weeks it has been....
Lucille was quite unwell last week, had blisters on her tongue and in her mouth, for a day on her nose, and one over her lip...her gums were also swollen, and she didn't eat or drink, just breastfed. She was in quite some pain and cried a lot, was in arms most of the day, had a fever for a few days. It's call 'mouth rot', and a kind of viral disease. I found a lot on it in German, but not in English. She got over it all totally in 7 days, where the average child has it for 12-15 days...so that's good :). The photos of her dancing to Justin drumming, were from the night before she fell ill...maybe she danced too hard ;-).
It was quite exhausting, as I was on my own, also had to make food for Matti and myself, meet several other needs, besides caring for her with my everything... and hardly got some sleep. Anyway, we made it, and I'm sure I will catch up again at some point...haven't yet, and have been feeling quite tired, stressed and 'on the edge'....Had a beautiful and very interesting BodyTalk session last Friday with a Practitioner I haven't had one yet, which should help us all....
Well, last weekend we had our first family day since we have been home in July, all weekend days had been filled with gardening etc.
We will take it slower with the landscaping now and at least Justin has 18 days off from tomorrow lunchtime...before next year having to go away with work every month for around 2 weeks. The kids, especially Matti (who is so used to seeing him every day), really miss him and being apart all week has been taking its toll on all of us.

Ok, what have we been doing? What are the kids up to?
We went to a housewarming on Sunday, of another homeschooling family, who have just moved to the village, and on Saturday we had a little Christmas get together with our neighbours (all of our hamlet/4 families).

We had cooking and christmas craft activities at the community centre, which was fun.

We have been dancing - Lucille LOOOOVES dancing, whenever she hears music, she starts moving :-), in the car seat: her head from side to side, otherwise she jumps, runs, turns around, and lifts her arms up and down quite quickly. She loves to put hats on as well, and sometimes she gets our underpants out of the drawers and puts one around her neck :-)...not sure where that comes from :-).

We went to an OP shop and found a few fun dress up heads and clothes...Matti has a queen dress, which will be Lucille's in a little while, got some glasses, a hat with a pony tail and the same one without (looks funny when they both have one of them on) etc.
Got lots of other dress up things for Matti and Lucille for Christmas, which should give them a nice variety for playing.

We baked Christmas cookies...it's already over two weeks ago, and they are all gone by now, but Lucille had her first go in the Learning Tower, so she was high up with us, and it was her first baking session.

She has been doing lots, drawing, painting, a few big piece puzzles etc. Also her understanding has soo gone up - when I help her dress, she lifts one of her feets off the floor, then the other, to make it easier for me...when I say, let's have a shower, she walks to the shower...when she sees a baby, she goes very close and then starts to tap on his/her head (doing BodyTalk)...she also taps herself often, and our plants. She doesn't pull other children's hair anymore, which is a relief.
She comes to us all the time to give us kisses and hugs, and she loves to climb onto the sofa (Matti's previous domain ;-) ), and just stretch out there, sitting completely relaxed like and adult :-).... She has started to copy me, when I hang the washing up, or when I take stuff out of the washing basket to wash, she puts it back in...or when I have filled the washing machine, she takes clothes back out again ;-)....She has also copied me dusting, cleaning the windows, vacuuming etc....Wow, I might be lucky and soon have another cleaner here....(well, Matti used to help me too, but that enthusiasm has gone a little bit...he still does, but not as keenly as he used to when he was 2....). She is pointing to things, that she wants, and she is using more and more words. When she wants to breastfeed, she claps her lips really loudly and comes to me. Amazing, how they let you know what they want, I mean from birth, but it just becomes clearer and clearer.

We have been at the pool a lot. Matti is practicing freestyle a lot, and it's getting better with every time we go. Just yesterday, I was amazed at his swimming.

Another german mum has just moved here. She is married to an English guy and they have one daughter, who is 4. We get along really well. Amazing how many Germans are actually in the village here. Martina is her name, and she came for a visit last Saturday with Etienne, her daughter and 3 other girls, so Matti had a full Harem here :-). They played really 'nice' and had lots of fun. On the way back, one of the girls fell off her bike, face first onto the gravel :(. Her tooth got a bit loose and they went to hospital to get her chin glued together again.

We built our Christmas tree up, and Lucille was very excited about it, Matti too of course. It has a very interesting Deco this year, a stuffed snake, wings, naked barbie dolls, two beautiful glass balls with photos of Lucille and Matti (thanks Mary :-) ), and some pine cones...plus a few presents...much less than last year, as Matti can't handle it and wants to open them all. The ones in it now, he saw in the mail, so couldn't hide them...and he has sneaked into them already. Oh well, I asked him, how he would feel now, as we think, that it will be spoiled for him at Christmas then...but it hasn't. He is happy now, that he kind of knows what's in them, and he is very excited for Christmas to come.
Tomorrow is already Christmas eve, so we will open some presents then, some Christmas morning, and some maybe the following days....It's nice to spread it out a bit, so it's not that much at ones.Oh yes, and most of our Christmas deco has been blown over, as we have so much cross ventilation :)...had to move the tree a few times before it lasted.

Just looked up the weather forcast for the next week, and yeeah, looks like mild, mid twenties, which is fantastic. Lots said that Christmas is usually sooo hot here, so it's looking good...am feeling much better in less hot weather.

Oh, just saw this link a friend had posted, with some great research confirming how successfull and especially much more happy homeschoolers, who are now adults, are:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/13/home-schooling-socialization-not-problem/

Health and Dis-Ease....links

2009-12-08T11:59:00.004+10:00

http://nurturenewyork.com/index.html
What a fantastic Health Centre to empower and nuture people!
Would be nice to create something like it here one day.

http://nurturenewyork.com/resources/btinterview/btinterview.html
- listen to this fantastic interview!

And another great link of a movie trailer:
http://www.futureofmedicine.com/trailer.php
"We're going beyond just treating symptoms; it's an awakening process that helps you release the friction in your life that's causing your Dis-Ease!"

The consciousness of health and dis-ease is slowly shifting, which movies and centres like the above prove, as well as some fantastic modalities that become more and more known.

I can feel the time when people will just know BodyTalk for example, and will want to have sessions, plus also treat themselves with Access and simple Cortices tapping regularly...when they can feel their incredible self healing abilities, which are 'hiding' in all of us and become independent of pills, doctors etc...
Chiropractic was once as unknown and unfamiliar to most, as BodyTalk is still for many people, and look at it today....

Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food" - Hippocrates..

2009-12-08T11:52:00.003+10:00

Great website http://immunitrition.com/default.html
you can sign up for a free newsletter!

village days...(without a car or bikes...)

2009-12-07T18:53:00.016+10:00

We just had a week without car and what do I do? Leave my keys in the garage again yesterday, Justin locked the garage, and we are once more without car and bikes....oh well, I wonder what it is telling me - walk more? stay home? think more about your keys and where you put or leave them????? :-)

We stayed home a lot and went to the pool. It was also quite cloudy and cool one day, which was great for a walk. We spent lots of time with Tanya, from Canada (living in France at the moment), and her children. Matti has been getting along very well with her girls (6 and 3) and Lucille and her little boy are doing a bit of parellel play :-). We also visited them one morning and had a swim in 'their'pool, which was nice. A man and a woman were passing by, riding horses, and having the horses foles with them...their first walk. They were only 6 weeks old, sooo cute. They stopped frequently to nurse, which was beautiful to see. We had a chat to them and I asked if he does some horseriding for children. He said he owns he pony, which he would bring up, so Matti can have a ride. How awesome. We have seen him and his horse many times in the village. The woman was actually from Germany as well, Muenchen. What a nice surprise...it always pays off to have a chat to people :-).

Matti practices swimming in clothes a lot last week...as you can see on the photos, he went in his (my very old) nighty into our pool :-). And the other time he had his raincoat on and cord pants :-). The girls thought it was a bit weird, asking their Mum, why Matti wears clothes in the water....I said he is a firefighter who needs to practice rescuing people in his clothes :-), which was accepted :-).

Lucille has been very much into shoes. I put an old pair of Matti's on her and she was walking like a duck through the house, admiring her shoes and how she can walk in them, very funny :-). I also had a singlet on her that Matti wore when he was her age and she so locked like him.

They practiced their dancing again in their fairy dresses, which was very delightful :-).

Speaking of fairy dresses - kids so love to dress up. Where the girls stay, they have a huge dress up box, with masks, guns, swords, dresses etc. and they all had a ball, dressing up and playing. Interesting too, how different boys play to girls.
Matti has been asking me to go back to their house because of the box, like he has before when someone had great dress up things. We don't yet have a lot, so I went a little bit crazy on ebay today, as I found one seller and thus saved on postage... So at least I got Christmas presents for Matti and Lucille and they will probably bring lots of fun to them - well, they better do ;-).

The garden design meeting went well on Friday. It lasted around 3 hours and we were all quite exhausted afterwards, but achieved a great outcome. Matti also listened a lot and drew his own garden plan along Martin. Great lesson. Would be good if one day we could all work together - Justin designing, Matti the garden labouror, I do PlantTalk and Lucille (we shall see ;-) )....

Justin worked a lot in the garden over the weekend. It's so great that he has 3 days off now and we have a long weekend together and he is home 4 nights. Still, this is the hardest we have ever done....We hardly see each other, when we are together, there is so much gardening/landscaping to do, the kids are often more in the way, so I go somewhere with them, we are then not together, but want to be...and when we are we are quite exhausted. Anyway, we just got to do that now and then we will have the beauty around us and hopefully more time. One of our spider lillies at the front entrance flowered over the weekend, it was soo beautiful. Our Casavas have also grown heaps and we cut some leaves off today and put in a soup, very nutritious and so yummy.

We had a great day today at home. I cleaned and I always love the feeling of a clean house/well floor, a full clean house is probably not achievable. Not that it lasts long either, with 2 little ones :-). Matti got the yoga mats out and we played Yoga class. He had some great ideas for postures and we had a very relaxing time. We also did Ladder Games while Lucille slept and went for 2 little walks. One was up the hill behind our house - great breeze today and always awesome view into the whole valley. Then in the afternoon we went over to Louise's and Sally's greenway, said hello to all their chooks, had a look at their gardens, the two new houses and the fruit trees. Then Sally got home and Matti stayed at her house for an hour or so, playing with little Asia (7 months). Lucille was tired and I went home with her and had dinner, which I had cooked earlier. She is getting another tooth I think, as she has been tweezing us, cried a bit last night and has been waking up lots again. Matti is great with the little ones, so gentle and he loves being with them. He gives them toys and talks to them. When we went for a walk earlier, he took his doll and a hip carrier and played daddy. When I was watering with Lucille, and she did something that I didn't like, he said, she is a baby, babies need to explore :-) (mmmh, whose words are these ?! ;-) ). As rough as he can be, he is such a gentle, sweet soul and loves her dearly.

Speaking of rough. I was watching a docu about Lions with him on the weekend and when I saw how the cubs acted, it dawned on me, that Matti IS those lions. He has watched lions so often and in his mind, he often is one and he moves just like they do and he also plays with Lucille like the cubs to with each other. Funny, heh?! It was a good realisation as it makes me understand more.

Lucille has been making her way off our decks a lot. She just walks off and has only eyes for what lies in front of her. Very adventurous and keeps me on my feet as well. Lucky that I have Matti who also often runs to get her back.

The photos show the beautiful front bit, near our entrance, that Justin has been working on and mulching, with newspaper (so weeds don't come through) and chickpoo (to 'kill'the grass) underneath. We had to laugh, as he did it so virgo like in perfect rows and alignments :-).

We went to the beach on Saturday evening. Just as we had arrived, the clouds started to come in and it was freezing with the wind blowing. We had a tiny storm later on, but it didn't bring a lot of rain. Everything is very dry at the moment.

Ok, off to bed now, to catch some precious sleep.

2009-12-03T10:57:00.008+10:00

A quick update, as my mind is VERY occupied with our garden and I don't get a lot of quiet minutes at the moment.

Had a great weekend - our friends from Ipswich region came down on Sunday. We went to the Currumbin Valley market together, had a look at the rock pools, which were absolutely crowded, due to the heat. We only stayed for a few minutes and then spent the rest of the day at our village pool.

The kids and I locked ourselves out on Tuesday. We had gone for a cycle and coming home, we went out of the garage, the door locked and our keys inside...luckily one flyscreen was not locked and we could get in through a window...phew. We just had no car or bikes yesterday and today.

The last week and weekend were very hot and luckily yesterday it was clouded all day and quite cool (low twenties), so great for a walk. A french family is just housesitting here, the mum's name is also Tanja and they have three children. We spent all day with them yesterday, which was great. They are staying at the only house with a pool in the village and the kids had a lovely swim. A Kookabarra visited later and on our way home we saw 12 kangaroos on one block.

Lots of photos attached....

Lucille had some more milestones, if she wants something, she points to it and really goes aahhhh..... she does some signals, for hot for example and mouth signs, exactly what i do. She copied some oga postures today. She found a fridge letter magnet and brought it to the fridge.....she has the steps down sussed totally and is flying down now...she goes all on her own into our garden space to be now and it spins me out when I suddenly see her somewhere I hadn't expected her :-).
She also loves to give hugs and kisses, steps into everybody's shoes at the moment and finally also likes to have a hat on.

Ok, everyone's awake and we are going swimming now.

And these are some of the questions we are still pondering over until meeting tomorrow morning (Martin is helping us now to get up and going. With the other two designers and landscapers, we have been missing some things and the plan they have come up with is not that crash hot, as it makes us dependent on getting them in to help us...costing then lots of money, whereas we want to do most ourselves...also, most of the questions below hadn't been considered or offered to us by them...so, a new road again, and unfortunately a bit of an expensive learning experience....), to give you an idea, of what is involved in designing a permaculture garden and why my brain is sooo full :). (Have been reading 'Smart Permaculture Design'by Jenny Allen - great book!!! and started 'Secret Life of Plants'...I had never known how alive and aware plants are...why don't we all know this???? Why would we ever think that plants don't feel our emotions or thoughts???
Have also been listening to a recording of a BodyTalk course I did last year May with John Veltheim, of which PlantTalk was a part...great to hear it again, with a different perspective now and I had forgotten many things from it.)

so, here we go:
Garden Design List

Must consider:

Visual corridors for neighbourhood watch
Social connectivity
Drainage (tank overflows etc)
Services (power,water,recycled water,gas)
Height for solar access
Safety – fire, universal design, planting too close to the path.
Environmental factors (sun paths, angles, prevailing winds, fire risk etc)

May consider:

Maintenance
How much time do you have to garden?

Access
Resource ecosystem
How self sufficient in productivity (food, resources)do you want to be?

Sustainability.
Do you prefer native landscaping?

Do you prefer productive landscaping?

Suggestion list (tick boxes): Do you envisage your garden having…

o Threshold or entry arches trailed with fruiting and flowering vines

o Gates

o Interesting or unique forms for entrance ways – create a welcoming ambience, provide form, colour, and/or shade (entrance to the home, entrance to greenway)

o Signature feature trees or plants

o Favourite plants with striking foliage or unusual seed-pods for colour and interest

o Permanent bike accommodation

o Visitors bike accommodation

o A big shade tree over an outdoor table setting

o Relaxing swing seat

o Hammock under a deciduous tree

o Sheltered meditation area surrounded with fragrant plants

o Sunny seating areas for winter

o Fire circle

o An outdoor roofed day bed

o Outside shower

o Garden drinking water tap

o Fenced area to secure little children

o Kid’s snack track

o Giant outside drafts or chessboard

o Sand pit

o Grassy patch for playing (kids and adults)

o Special tent spot for camping sleepovers

o Big climbing trees for children

o

Vege Garden

o Raised vege bed,

o rotation system,

o incorporate poultry

o ‘Chicken tractors’ – can be moved around to help mow and weed the gardens

o Compost heap/ worm farm

o Ducks

o Guinea pigs

o Goat

o Fish farm/pond

o Potting area

o Propagation/seedling area

Themed gardens or garden areas

o (Asian inspired,

o Mediterranean,

o Medicinal/healing garden

o Bush tucker/ bush food trail

o Tropical

o Rainforest

o Herb Garden

o Herb spiral

o Mandala garden

o Night blooming and/or heavily scented plants outside or beneath bedroom windows or in feature areas like entries.

o An aphrodisiac garden with scented trees, flowers and herbs

o Fruit tree orchard

o Trellis trailing with fruiting and/or flowering vines

o Food producing wetland

o Water pond

o Water fountain

o Lotus or water chestnut pond

o A story or poem garden

o A bowl on a plinth for floating flowers and candles

o Sculptures or a sculpture garden

o Rock stacks (consider safety)

o Feature rock walls

o Outdoor dining and entertaining spaces

o Community meeting place

o A secret garden area to retreat to

o Yoga or stretching areas

o Love seat

Habitat areas –

o frog breeding pond

o bird attracting plants

o butterfly attracting plants,

o honey bee hive

o native bee hive

Paths. What is your preference?

o Gravel

o Grass

o Wood mulch

o Stones

o Concrete

o Wood

o Wide enough paths for wheelbarrows

o Meandering ‘hidden’ pathways lined with aromatic plants and sections of stepping stones

o Close your eyes and imagine you are in your future garden. How does it feel to be there? Describe the look and feel of your future garden.

Plant list: Do you currently eat?

o Blackberry

o Blueberry:

o Currants:

o Tree tomatoes/ Tamarillos

o Pepino

o Brazil Cherry

o Grumichama

o Jaboticaba

o Panama Berry

o Lilly Pillys

o Native Raspberry

o Passionfruit

o Jamaica Berry

o Barbados Cherry

o Grapes

o Kerriberry

o Cape Gooseberry

o Raspberry
o Strawberries

o Elderberry

o Blueberry

o Fruit trees:
o Abiu

o Acerola

o Apple (tropical)

o Banana:

o Black Sapote

o Casimiroa

o Carob

o Carambolla /Five corner fruit

o Citrus

o Chinese Raisin tree

o Custard Apple family (Rollinia, Pink Mammoth, Cherimoya)

o Feijoa

o Fig

o Grapefruit

o Guava (indian)

o Guava (cherry)

o Jackfruit

o Kumquat

o Lemon

o Lemonade

o Lime

o Lychee

o Longan:

o Loquat

o Mango

o Mangosteen

o Mamey Sapote

o Mandarin

o Monstero deliciosa

o Mulberry

o Nashi Pear

o Nectarine

o Olive

o Orange

o Plum (tropical)

o Peach

o Pear (Tropical)

o Persimmon:

o Pomegranite

o Plum:

o Pawpaw

o Pummelo:

o Rose Apple/ Jambos:

o Sapodilla:

o Soursop:

o Tangerine:

o Tangelo:

o Wax Jambu

new milestones

2009-11-26T15:31:00.007+10:00

We've been at the pool and beach a lot and in the water every day.
Matti swam his first lap 2 days ago, and did 3 of them, with a break. He can also dive down and get everything off the ground.
He has been practicing freestyle and backstroke as well and is advancing every day. With so many people from the community at the pool whom he knows, he watches how they all swim and learns from it.

Lucille is "talking" more and more, and playing more and more. Another tooth is just breaking through, so she has 4 at the top and the third just coming out at the bottom.

We were at the beach this morning from 8-10, and I'm quite burned, Lucille a little bit and Matti not at all. He is most of the time
without a top, so his skin has a nice natural protection.
It was beautiful this morning, with a nice pool at the beach (see photos). We met another Mum who homeschools, with 2 girls. It's interesting to see how different most girls play - the mum was sitting with them, quietly building a sandcastle, while Matti was running around, digging, playing crocodile with me, chasing seagulls etc...
Then I met another interesting woman, they had bought land here in the village, when it first started, but then went to New Zealand. She is also a Yoga Instructor and originally from Hawaii and California. We had lots in common...that's why I got burned, as I chatted too much :-). Have been covered in Silicea since then, so it should be fine again soon. Better no swimming pool today.

It has been a week of meeting lots of new people. There is a couple from France here in the village at the moment, housesitting. The Mum is originally from Canada and the husband works for an American company from 'home'...home can then be anywhere, as he can work from his laptop...great! They have 3 children, and they also came to the park with us on Wednesday.

2009-11-23T18:11:00.013+10:00

We have had a Thermomix Demonstration on Thursday and today at our house, to which some village members came. It's always such a joy to see people who have never heard about it, see how it works and that such a fantastic machine exists. At each we had little babies, which Matti loved. He kissed them, stroked them over the head, held one up so that she could see the truck bringing us mulch better and he brought the baskets for them (which Lucille took fancy too and a new game developped - see photos :-) ). After today's one, he wanted to have the Ergo on him and put his doll in it. He then played that it was his baby, he breastfed her, played that he fell asleep, then went quickly to get it, then he got his second doll and played that he had two babies, that he had to feed, hold and eat with them. It was soo cute and it was so interesting to see that he did exactly with them what I do with Lucille :-) (and also him).

We had a busy weekend with gardening and a community forum on Saturday, plus a swim and pizza oven dinner at the community centre on Sunday. The weekend seemed so long with Justin already being home on Thursday night. It was great and we all loved it, especially the children. When Justin got home on Thursday, Lucille said something that sounded like: How's it going? We all heard it, it was incredible.

The photos show how Matti was building his workbench back together today, Lucille climbed up onto the chair and Matti dressed up as a police man ;-)...ready to catch baddies ;-).

The sleep photos I felt like taking, as they looked so cute and so alike. I've been talking to Matti for a few minutes every night, while he is asleep, so his subconscious can really take things in, telling him how much we all love him etc., to help work on our connection and help him cope with all the new circumstances (daddy not home every night especially....). It seems to have been helping quite a lot.

From one of the animal movies he has been watching, and Bindi the Jungle Girl, he got inspired to be wanting to build a house right by the water when he is older, and one in the jungle on a tree. I'll be allowed to live there too, lucky me :)!

our first permaculture garden - the beginning

2009-11-18T17:59:00.008+10:00

Andrew and Donovan, the 2 permaculture gardeners, who are helping us creating our garden, where here today and Matti and I (and Lucille on my back a lot) worked with them. We lay planted Lamandras, lay out wet newspaper and mulched over. It was great fun. Luckily after yesterday's 35 degrees, it was overcast and very comfortable today. Otherwise I would probably not have lasted with Lucille on my back. Matti had a great time, he was so keen to help them, all day long, he tried out their tools, asked them lots of questions and helped lots.
The day ended, as photos show, with Matti and Lucille being absolutely covered in mud and sand, and myself half wet (as Matti hosed me :-)....) and also quite muddy from Lucille's hands and body. Matti hardly ate anything all day, besides oranges and several apples, and he was kind of out of control at the end...so I was glad when we were all under the shower and peace returned ;-).
It will be great that Justin has Fridays off from now on (working longer the other days), so we have some more time as a family...I'm sure it will ease how Matti has been feeling as well.

Off to bed now :)...yay, have been up since 4.30, so a long day.

Oh, regarding Lucille, she managed to climb onto the sofa today - there goes Matti's 'safe haven'...as he likes to watch dvds on there with his little portable dvd player.
She is a little warrior...outside today she kept running towards the plovers, who flew up, getting all worked up and trying to swoop us. She was running straight to their eggs, and over and over I had to get her back...she didn't mind how they flew over and down to us.
I wonder if we can relocate them, as we can't be outside to play ball etc.,as they are so protective of their eggs. They have been doing taking our greenway over the last few months, I wonder why....
Lucille also climbed on top of the roadbase pile on her own today.
It's fascinating to see her character develop and come out more and more.

2009-11-17T10:55:00.007+10:00

We got some roadbase and little rocks yesterday, for our paths. Matti carried Lucille down there with him and when I looked out, they were both on top of the hill :-). It was so cute and peaceful, as they don't yet often play together. Lucille was 'working' like Matti and enjoyed herself immensely.

Lucille has gone up a new level, it seems that she is learning and grasping things at an incredible rate now...not that she hadn't before, but just in a different way. When I played piano today, she put her hands out and said:up'! Well, it's easier than 'hoch', so she is probably doing the same as Matti did, picking the easier of German and English first. She also has been saying Mama heaps and she comes often close to me just to give me kisses.
When Matti and I played our pushover game (he stands on the bed, we hug and kiss and then I give him a little push to fall over), she did exactly the same thing and joined in, hugging and kissing me and then waiting for me to fall her over. This morning I sorted washing, and she went to Matti's wardrobe, grabbed clothes and threw them on the pile as well. And you can just see in her eyes, that she understands everything.

One of her favourite things to do is walking through the house, pulling everything she can get her hands on onto the floor...or in her hands and then drops it somewhere else :-). I had forgotten how little ones do that...So, it's futile to try and keep the house neat, which is a bit hard for me, as I like to have some order around me. She is just asleep on my back and I have cleaned up, dusted and vaccuumed, which feels so nice...I better enjoy the little time it stays clean and neat...and then I'll enjoy her joy in exploring :). (you can see on the photo how our floor looks like at peak times :-) ). I want to have a clean out to get rid of more clutter. Children definitely help you realise what is important in life and what is not....neatness isn't, connection is, stuff isn't, love is.

The plovers are having babies again, same spot, same procedure....the last 4 all died, so they are having a new try. It still spins me out, how they nest in the middle of an empty block...some say even in the middle of a road. The Mum screeches out for the dad to come, as soon as we move out onto the verandah....or even more so when we are on the lawn or greenway...then the Dad flies, trying to swoop us.
The caretaker mowed the lawn around her yesterday, as you can see on the photo, her sitting still on the long grass.

We saw a big gecko yesterday on our lawn. It has been around 34 degrees yesterday and today, and I think he was lookg for some shade and food...He was very quick.

Lucille

2009-11-16T14:13:00.011+10:00

Lucille had us laughing in stiches yesterday night...we haven't had such a good laugh for ages. We all did a bit of music, at first she was sitting on my lap when I played piano, jumping up and down with joy. Then Matti and Justin played guitarre. She had never heard Justin play guitarre, as he had put it away so it wouldn't get 'damaged', but thus hasn't used it for a year or so. He played and sung the song we created and sung all the time when I was pregnant with Matti. She was looking at him, jumping up and down, her eyes wiiiide open, her whole body vibrating of joy, she was yelling and laughing and squeaking. She actually was the music. It was absolutely amazing and I've never seen a little person react to music like she did. Her mouth was often open too, and just how she wiggled up and down, doing some 'Michael Jackson'impressions in between ;-), it was just hilariously cute.
Some photos are attached, but they don't really bring across how it was. She was exhausted afterwards and also today had a massive sleep and wanted to be on my arms all the time.
She has been saying Mama as well :-).
And Matti is Daddi too :-).

She has been doing lots of new things - she can go down backwards on her own our four steps now. She still calls me, but then I wait at the bottom and she does it all herself, feeling very pleased about it :-).
She has also been throwing everything that she can find and that fits through the railings, off our decks.

I bought her her own drinking bottle today, and she loves it.

We have been up since 5, said goodbye to Justin, and then went to the beach. It's a very hot day today, so it's great we got a nice morning outside in. It's breezy in the house and quite lovely. The beach was great. We collected lots of rocks, stones and shells for our garden, and found some obviously unloved items left at the beach, which we took home. One of it was a buggy board (or however they are called :-) ), which helped me to pull all the rocks to the car :). It's a bit broken, but still usable, and it was just lying there. We also found some shorts, some thongs, burried in the sand, and some little baby crocs....I thought about taking it home or not, but no one looking for them was in view, and they were so 'hiding' that they had probably been there for quite a while. So, abundance for us today :).
Lucille didn't feel very confident today and was mainly on my arm. She had a very short night, as we were only in bed by 9 and up already at 5.

She has also been saying some new things and speaking more 'gobble di gobble' in kind of long sentences, instead of just words :-)...if that makes sense?!

She has been climbing into our cubboard and looking a bit like 'Haensel in the cage' in there :-).

Ok, back to the weekend. Justin continued 'pathing', the gardeners were here on Saturday to finalise our plan and they will start mulching this Wednesday.

Saturday night was Acknoledgement Night at the Community Centre...just a get together, pot luck dinners, and some hangouts of who has been acknowledged for what. Matti had fun playing in the sand, we all had a nice dinner and it was a great sense of community.

Justin gave me a Neurokinetics Treatment early Friday evening, and I felt quite washed out all weekend from it and extremely tired. I hurt my back a bit when I gave the treatments last weekend, as in the hurry we went down there, my table had been too low and I hadn't taken the time to bring it up until half way through. Probably not the only reason, as I've just been feeling a bit overwhelmed last week, we did too much, I didn't stay centred enough and everything just seemed 'too much':-)...Anyway, back to wellbeing, happiness and appreciating whatever comes.

I just read a post by my friend, and found TheGardenDiet.com - have only read a few lines on there, but I resonate with it and I'm planning ones we have grown our own food, I think I do want to become mainly rawvegan as well (still eating eggs, milk, cheese, some meat though...and still cooking a bit....:)...mmmh, I think I will reconsider and not plan and just see how I go ;-) ), just eating what we grow. I want to stop thinking about food, what to cook etc. and just go out in the garden when we are hungry...plus also create yummy things out of what we will grow.
Having tasted some veggies out of garden here, I think we have forgotten how food should taste. Why would we need sauces, etc., to make food palatable, if it wouldn't be dead food.
Ok, that's probably why I have been exhausted, as I've been contemplating like crazy, how many crazy things are going on in our society and are viewed and accepted as 'NORMAL'. But I've done that now, so I can go back to just being :-).

2009-11-13T10:49:00.007+10:00

We had quite a busy 'play' week.
Monday we had our ecovillage Mum and Baby meeting, afterwards two of Matti's friends came to our house for the rest of the day.

On Tuesday we met our old Unschooling group from Brisbane area in Tullebudgera and spent a lovely day at the beach. The weather was fantastic, cloudy, sunny and not too hot, just perfect. Matti played in the sand all day long, only stopped for a little bite to eat. The photos I took almost just before we were leaving, so he was quite tired by then, and played out, just watching what the others were doing - which he has always very much enjoyed anyway, watching other children playing and only joining in later...well, here it was the other way around, he played first and watched after :-).
Lucille also had a great time. She was in exploring mode and just wandered off all the time. Matti had always stayed at my side, at her age not even walking, so I have to get used to actually keep watching her, as she just walks and walks, feeling very safe and not missing me.

Then on Wednesday it was park day again, and afterwards his friend Nicholas came with us to play here.
It was Matti's first experience of feeling a bit rejected by other children at the park. He wanted to play with just one, but that one wanted to play with someone else...because we have had such a full on week and Matti was quite tired anyway, he took it quite hard and was grumpy most of the time we were there. Anyway, just before we left and then here, all was well again.

Yesterday we went to the community centre and pool in the afternoon and had a swim, plus play in the sand. In the evening one of our village members, who is a naturopath with ayurvedic knowledge, did a little cow dung with ghee burning ceremony at sunset at the bali hut, which was quite interesting.

We have a lot of gardening ahead of us on the weekend and also a few village activities.

We have finally found our family tree, the beautiful DELONIX (The Flamboyant or Poinciana). It originates from Madagascar and has often been hailed as the showiest flowering tree in the world. It can only grow within a radius of 30 degrees north and south of the equator. Delonix comes from the Greek delos, meaning obvious, as it is hard to miss. When it does condescend to blossom, it is just like a fireworks display, as the whole tree drops its foliage and lights up literally overnight into a canopy of bright scarlet flowers, each about the size of a rose.
We have chosen it as well for its spreading branches, giving great shade.
It has been tricky to find one, suitable for the area we need it for, all having pros and cons....but I think this is IT now...
Some photos I took off some are attaches. They are in flower here at the moment and just stunning looking.

Lucille has been waking up loooots every night this week, feeding much and I'm very tired, so looking forward to hopefully some naps with her over the weekend.

creating our garden....

2009-11-09T20:37:00.002+10:00

...what trees do we plant? what kind of family tree do we choose? what kind of herbs do I want to put in? what veggies do we want to grow? how do we create our living fence (hedge) around our borders?....so many questions to be solved.

It's a very exciting project and we are well on our way.
There is tons to learn, as I don't have any experience in gardening...I think I have never dug up anything in my whole life, nor planted anything :(...quite sad, heh?! So, definitely time to start it and also for our children to grow up with it.

The last few weeks, as I mentioned in a previous post on here, I've been reading the Ringing Cedars of Russia sequel. The books (or more Anastasia) talk about Man's purpose in life. About how if everyone living on the Earth took a hectare of land and created a corner of Paradise on it, the whole Earth would be transformed into Paradise. The books explain this so simply and convincingly, it has been mindblowing. The book I've just finished, number 7, also sheds further light on the forgotten pages of humanity's history, on religion, on the roots of inter-racial and inter-religious conflict, on ideal nutrition and shows a new way of thinking and a lifestyle in true harmony with Nature, which can lead to happiness and solve personal and societal problems of crime, corruption, misery, conflict, war and violence. My eyes have been opened and my awareness has increased from all this new knowledge. I've been immersed in this info over the last weeks and still need to process it and find ways to incorporate and make it applicable to our life.
Creating a garden, our space of love, is a huge part of it. My main question: How can we really live sustainable and free? All of us together? Without the family being apart for most of the time due to work...which especially children just find so painful. (Today was another Monday morning with Matti blues, as Daddy not home anymore after 4 days and a whole week ahead of him until he sees him again....Also Lucille says Daddyyyy all day long, but he is not here :(....- have to put our thoughts to the days that he will be and put out to find a solution for the near future....)
Anyway, no time to muse about this now, I have to go to sleep and also keep planning what we will plant etc.
Just a quick update where my mind has been....:-)

BodyTalk at Bike Race

2009-11-09T18:02:00.003+10:00

On Sunday we had a bike race from Byron Bay finishing in our village. Around 430 riders took part and it was a great event. In the morning I had thought: Oh, I should have maybe offered BodyTalk sessions to them, as I have heard from a few BodyTalkers who have done Access Treatments on Marathon runners or other sports people at certain events. I had only heard about this race during the week and because we had been sick hadn't put any more thought into it. Anyway, the kids and I went down there on our bikes and another woman from our village was just setting up her table for Kahuna Massages. After talking to her, I felt very drawn to put my previous idea into fruition, so cycled back home with Lucille on my back and Matti on his bike, asked Justin, who was working and sweating away in the garden, to please help me, get our treatment table, drive us down there and help look after the children. I got some brochures as well, and some minutes later we were back down and set up right in time for the first racers cycling in.
We were then busy for over 3 hours, Karen doing Kahuna Massages and me giving BodyTalk Access Treatments to many very appreciative, very exhausted and dehydrated riders. It was great fun, very exciting to be using it for my first time in a setting like this and also earning some money while having fun and helping people.
Lucille had a sleep in the Ergo on Justin and it all worked out quite well.
Would really like to do this more often...

Lucille's first whipper snippering

2009-11-09T17:04:00.004+10:00

Lucille had her first go on Justin's back while he whipper snipped...and Matti had his wooden whipper snipper. She loved it and watched down her side highly concentrated the whole time, kind of in awe of what was happening.

beach visit

2009-11-06T08:18:00.007+10:00

These photos are from one of our beach visits early one morning this week. Lucille and I went swimming as well and it was lovely.

The remaining photos speak for themselves :-).

Both Justin and I had a bit of a headcold this week...has been some interesting months with being a bit sick on and off, first the kids, then myself, then well again, then sick again...oh well, we shall come out of it stronger ;-). Justin was sent home on Thursday morning as he wasn't well, so at least some benefits to it, by having some extra family time.

Consciousness Based Healthcare

2009-11-02T19:24:00.004+10:00

I have copied and pasted the following article, as it explains the concept of consciousness based healthcare very well, and I couldn't do it better in my words (and time I have to write :-) ).
BodyTalk has been explained as energy medicine for a long time, but this does not describe it very well and turns some people off. What it actually really is, is:

Consciousness Based Healthcare
(and the explanation is in this article :) ):

By Tim Hall, CBP, LMT, ACE-CPT, RYT, Scottsdale, AZ, USA.

We say that we facilitate the body’s own natural ability to heal itself. The body-mind’s own innate wisdom guides the process and the disease or problem gives way to health and well-being. What really is this disease (or problem) that befalls us in the first place? If innate wisdom can heal from its own level without an outside factor, then shouldn’t it be smart enough to avoid the causal factors in the first place, or at least not allow its healing process to be thwarted? In other words, what are we fighting against? What is the body at war with?
There are many ways of dividing and categorizing. We can divide the cosmos into light and dark and we can divide ourselves into health and disease. Some part of us is in health and another part in disease. What is the nature of disease and how can we be divided within our own self?
We can learn about disease by comparing it to darkness. Darkness has no substance. It is not a thing and cannot be measured. It is only the absence of light. You cannot scoop up darkness and throw it away nor can you add more dark to create a darker level of darkness. Yet we experience darkness and cannot deny that.
Our ability to experience is so comprehensive that we can experience reality (that which exists) and we can experience illusion (that which does not exist). Philosophically, the unchanging factor underlying all human experience is existence itself.
When we understand the nature of light, it is self-evident how to deal with darkness – simply turn on the light. Although darkness is not a thing, we know and experience its effects. To stumble through a room with perfectly good vision but no visual experience, it’s obvious that this is due to darkness. If we throw our hands in the air and proclaim that the darkness is not real, then we’ve resigned ourselves to not needing a reason to seek out light, which is foolishness.

The old model of disease is slowly shifting away from that of a thing that needs to be fought against. However, if it swings too far in the other direction it will be unfairly dismissed, and denial will be its substitute.
Light does not cause darkness and since darkness is not substantial, it can’t cause itself. There is no cause for darkness. There is no cause for disease and that is why investigating the factors of disease is like stumbling in darkness.
Health, like light, is the only solution. Introduce health and the body-mind rises to a higher level of awareness and life improves. It is the increase in awareness that brings the mental satisfaction we all crave and not the elimination of symptoms. Our suffering was not due to the symptoms. Suffering is the sign that we are not fully aware, which is why a person can appear healthy and wealthy and still be suffering greatly.
This shows us that although health is the solution to disease, the ultimate goal and source of our newfound happiness is the increase in awareness. Health and disease are not at war and although opposites, they are not-two. They work together to bring out the essential nature, which is pure existence beyond health and disease.
Although we are not concerned with our disease history as a badge of honor, the process does leave its’ mark. We are scarred, as to say that everyone who wrestles with higher consciousness walks with a limp. This scarring contributes to our uniqueness in the same way that the chip on the knee of Michelangelo’s David makes it a masterpiece.
By continually exposing darkness and introducing light, we move more and more into the light. By this process, we reach a point where the quality of fullness dominates, and we become illuminated by pure awareness (the Transcendental Light) that we essentially are. This does not eliminate darkness, it reveals its true nature.
This is the process BodyTalk facilitates. It is a consciousness-based deepening of understanding and experience which we call a shift in perspective – from ignorance to truth; from suffering to awareness; from non-self to Self. None of this discounts the value of medicine, nutrition, trauma care or common sense.
We do not deny the experience of disease or any problem in life, we simply recognize it for what it is – the gaining of a new awareness, higher-consciousness and deeper experience. Living life fully requires a perspective capable of standing in the gap to see and appreciate 100% light and 100% darkness.
Transcend health and disease by practicing or having regular consciousness-based BodyTalk sessions or BreakThrough steps. What eases all suffering in life is the bliss and power inherent in higher consciousness that comes with greater awareness. Don’t sell out for a static state of symptom-free health when the consciousness of the cosmos and pure awareness of existence itself is at your fingertips. This is your birthright. Claim it.

******************************************************************

It's mainly our believe systems, our fight against our own bodies, that creates 'dis-ease'....as I wrote in my previous post about supplements as well. There can be no health without disease and all of us have some symptoms all the time...and there we go again, it comes to acceptance, gratefulness, grace and to 'not fight against'...

I'll leave you and myself with that for now :)...

"I have to poison myself to be healthy"....

2009-11-02T19:01:00.002+10:00

I just read the following, which I found very interesting and it really made sense to me:

A study was recently conducted in New Zealand showing the Healthy People who take consistant supplements are...killing themselves.
In the study healthy people were told to go off these supplements for weeks and have their blood levels of vitamins measured before and after study.

Conclusion was still high levels of Vit A, E etc stored in tissues and organs like the liver and over time creating disasterous effects.

(I don't know enough about the study either pro or con, but the end result struck me)

It comes basically down to the believe system :I HAVE TO POISON MYSELF TO BE HEALTHY.

Why are "healthy people " supplementing?

Why am I looking outside myself for solutions...which is an aspect of which potion/poison can help me?

I have also taken supplements for a few years, and have tried to talk Justin into taking them, my Mum etc...and now I think: Oh my goodness....luckily Justin never took to them, his innate new better...I will not ever want to advice anybody what to eat, what to take, what to do anymore (Oh, I shouldn't write that here in black and white, as I'm a master of telling others what not to consume :-)....)

Anyway, it all comes down to acceptance, grace and gratefulness again...and it's fascniting, how I'm reading a book, or have just finished reading it, and then the messages keep popping up at me everywhere.
I've just read 'Freedom is'by Brandon Bay, which I so enjoyed. A quote ouf of it: Effortless being is the sublime presence that suffuses all fragrances of grace. It is whole, free and completely at ease - and it requires nothing.
Just let yourself relax...trust...open...and gracefully fall into effortless being."
The main thing I got from the book is that we are all trying sooo hard, trying soo hard to change what is, to achieve happiness, health etc...and by trying sooo hard, we are pushing it away, and we don't see what is there already. Everything we seek is inside of us already...it is just there...we would see it if we would stop trying so hard to control, change and not accept everything as it is. That's why we would take supplements...to achieve the super health, that the companies marketing it are promising. How can one supplement be good for everyone?? We are all sooo different....
Why don't we trust in our bodies abilities to be strong and absorb everything we need?? Sooo many questions...which I will stop asking, as I do just want to be :).

I just wanted to write about this, as I so related to it.
I love the parable of the little wave, who heard about something called the ocean...it kept searching for the ocean, asking dolphins, fishes, bigger waves, if they would know the ocean...then the big, older wave, and the little one, are looking for the ocean together, until they slash up onto the coast and back into the ocean and they realise, that they have actually been part of the ocean all the time along...just never realised it as they were sooo busy searching the ocean.

How can we find health and wellbeing, if we keep trying everything out there to be the healthiest, fittest, skinniest, oldest but youngest looking, fastest, wealthiest, funniest...etc iest :-).....we should just BEEEEEEEEEEEEE :-)....
along with getting back to nature, growing our own food, holding our own chicken, living sustainable in all ways (not just housedesign wise....)....permaculture is really the answer to a lot as well - Check out the book "The holistic life" Sustainability through Permaculture, by Ian Lillington! ...and it ALL comes down to conscious living - and my next post will be about conscious health care :).

rainforest walk and breathtaking lookout

2009-11-02T17:45:00.007+10:00

Last Friday we did a gorgeous rainforest walk, which is only around 15 minutes away from our house by car. We walked for around 1 hour and the view from the top was just stunning...as the photos show.
I just felt sooo lucky and soooo grateful to be living where we are. There are sooo many beautiful nature things around us, which are just waiting to be explored. It is really heaven living here.
Lucille was in the Ergo a lot, but wanted to walk heaps herself. We had the stroller as well, for the backpack and as another option.
The last week, she has been yelling out in frustration a loooot, I think she sees what Matti does and at times she gets a bit angry that she can't yet keep up...even though she does her very best to and is doing a pretty good job of it :-). As happy as she is most of the time, as angry she can get if she is frustrated...throwing herself onto the floor, screeming...I remember that when I was pregnant with her, I felt a lot of anger, frustration, at times....
mmmhhh.....anyway, we are learning to accept our anger and just move through it....will write a bit more about this in another post.We went to the beach afterwards and the children loved it. Lucille was sooo happy in the sand and water...very much a beach baby :-).

planting, duck visit, more rain....

2009-11-02T14:40:00.014+10:00

We've had very busy days and not much time to post here, so mainly lots of new photos and a quick short update on what we have been doing.

We got lots of free plants for our front, close to the entrance and below the yoga room, lots of yuccas and some type of Lillies. Justin planted and Lucille liked to put her bottom into the freshly undug holes :-). There have been lots of kangaroos around our house all the time, which the kids love to watch (and me too :-) ).
We had looots more rain and our tanks are almost full again - you beauty :).
Also one evening a huge duck came to us, had a drink, a feed and spent the night on our deck....leaving it covered in poo. She would have made a nice pet, but too much work, cleaning up after it (being a poo machine like that...). A great experience for the children though.
Lucille has been very adventurous, walking off very long ways from me (today at the playground she walked off to the way other side, looking at people, exploring their picnics....- I think she will be moving out in a few years, going on a round the world trip ;-) ), getting into everything she can get her hands on, and has started to point to things she finds interesting, saying daaadaaaa. Matti put his fairy dress on her, and she loved it, as the photos show, she was walking through the house in it, not wanting to take it off.
Her and Matti have been playing more, catch me and so on... and she has been enjoying the swing and slide on the playground. She also loves to climb up somewhere, on our little bench or up our stairs and then yelling out to us to come and get her...over and over again :-).

Matti has just been painting with watercolours and as usual, they didn't stay on paper long, but ended up on his body...and Lucille's :).

busy days :-)

2009-10-22T15:12:00.010+10:00

Have been very quiet here lately as I haven't had a lot of sleep, very tired and also Lucille has been so much more interactive, that I didn't get a lot of time to write and download photos.
So, just briefly and lots of photos - we had some lovely rain on the weekend, the water rushing into our tanks, Lucille playing with the rain drops and in the puddles....We got another little garden bed done, with 'birds of paradise'(Strelitzien) and some other little plants, below our bedroom deck.

Matti painted himself one day like a 'monster'....and looked veeeery wild :-).

Lucille playing in the sandpit here in the village with some older children.

We went to a playground this week, which had a a tiny set of stairs and slide, and Lucille loved it, up the stairs, down the slide and Matti catching here, they had so much fun.

Right now she is sitting in a pile of Leggos, licking them, touching them, putting them on top of each other and making lots of "chook' (Huehnchen) noises.

This morning we went to the beach and it was beautiful, feeling the sun and breeze on our skin, stepping into the ocean, playing in the sand. All three of us were soo happy and relaxed there. Matti swam all the way to a sandbank, Lucille also crawled right into the water, without any fear, as far as she felt safe and then crawled back onto the sand. She played heaps in the sand as well, we kicked a ball and did a little walk. Such beautiful places around us that we can visit, it is really like paradise living here.

Lucille has been loving our homemade icecream, especially when it's on a stick and there is no chance anyone can take it off her :-).
She can almost run now and mainly walks everywhere. She has also managed to get down a single step, so she can get into the garden etc. She signs clearly now for poos, blowing her lips loudly, also for wees, she stands very still before she does them, and if I have missed, she calls me, so I can clean it and she doesn't slip. She touches her ear all the time to signal for it.
So in tune, it's great to see.
She is very aware, after she has hurt herself somewhere, it hasn't happened again, like with drawers, or slipping in wee....she remembers and then is careful to avoid it next time.

Ok, this is all for today. The weekend is ahead and we are meeting a permaculture landscaper and designer on Saturday...We are very excited about starting our garden and growing our own food.

Tomorrow we will go for a walk in the Mt Cougal National Park.

Lucille is just trying to grab Matti's navel and is laughing out loudly while doing it :-).

When Justin is on the phone she always says "daaddaaa dadadadad.....". She knows his voice...and often also says it when she sees his photo on the fridge.

Ok, that's it for today :-).

How to create a healing Garden

2009-10-17T12:04:00.002+10:00

http://anastasiagroups.org/
I copied and pasted the following from the above website, as I would like to share it with everyone who reads this blog, and after I mentioned the Anastasia books yesterday, here are her guidelines on how to plant a healing garden. You don't need a huge are, even if you just have a balcony you can do it.

Anastasia stated:

“Every seed you plant contains within itself an enormous amount of information about the Universe. Through the help of these data the seed knows the exact time, down to the millisecond, when it is to come alive, grow – what juices it is to take from the Earth, how to make use of the rays of the celestial bodies – the Sun, Moon and stars, what it is to grow into, what fruit to bring forth. These fruits are designed to sustain Man’s life. More powerfully and effectively than any manufactured drugs of the present or future, these fruits are capable of counteracting and withstanding any disease of the human body. But to this end the seed must know about the human condition. So that during the maturation process it can satiate its fruit with the right correlation of substances to heal a specific individual of his disease, if indeed he has it or is prone to it.”

Anastasia describes a process to ‘imbue’ or ‘load’ information into a seed and communicate more consciously with plants;

*** IMPORTANT NOTE

Please make sure to use only organic seeds. Store bought commercial varieties can be sprayed with poisons and make you sick. Buy the highest quality heirloom, organic varieties from reputable sources or better yet, produce the seeds yourself.

The following steps should be taken with a variety of plant species in the garden-plot. It is not necessary to cultivate more than a few of each kind of plant.

“Before planting, put into your mouth one or more little seeds, hold them in your mouth, under the tongue, for at least nine minutes.

“Then place the seed between the palms of your hands and hold it there for about thirty seconds. During this time it is important that you be standing barefoot on the spot of earth where you will later be planting it.

“Open your hands, and carefully raise the seed which you are holding to your mouth. Then blow on it lightly, warming it with your breath, and the wee little seed will know everything that is within you.

“Then you need to hold it with your hands open another thirty seconds, presenting the seed to the celestial bodies. And the seed will determine the moment of its awakening. The planets will all help it! And will give the sprouts the light they need to produce fruit especially for you.

“After that you may plant the seed in the ground. In no case should you water it right off, so as not to wash away the saliva which is now covering it, along with other information about you that the seed will take in. It can be watered three days after planting.

“The planting must be done on days appropriate to each vegetable (people already know this, from the lunar calendar). In the absence of watering, a premature planting is not as harmful as an overdue planting.

“It is not a good idea to pull up all the weeds growing in the vicinity of the sprouts. At least one of each kind should be left in place. The weeds can be cut back…”

According to Anastasia, the seed is able to take in information about the person who plants it, and then as it grows its fruit it receives from the universe the optimum blend of energies needed for a given Man. The weeds serve another function and should not be rid of completely. Some weeds protect the plant from disease and others give the plant supplemental information. During the time the plants are growing it is crucial to communicate – and meditate with the plant at least once, but preferably more. It is also desirable to meditate and touch the plants during a full moon.

Anastasia says that plants cultivated from seeds germinated and planted in this manner and eaten by the person who has grown them is capable of curing him of “any diseases of the flesh whatsoever but also of significantly retarding the aging process, rescuing him from harmful habits, tremendously increasing his mental abilities and giving him a sense of inner peace.”

The fruits must be eaten no later than three days after harvesting to be most effective.

When the plants are grown like this they will be different from other plants of the same species. They will not only differ in taste but will also be different in their makeup and the substances they contain.

When planting seedlings (trees) it is important to use ones fingers and bare toes to soften the dirt where planting. This is because toxic substances are excreted through the bottoms of the feet containing information about a person and any diseases they suffer from. The seedlings take in this information, which in turn transmits it to the fruit.

Anastasia recommends walking around the garden plot and wherever the seedlings are planted barefoot from time to time.

When asked what kind of plants to cultivate she says to plant the same kind of things that are found in most gardens. One can plant raspberries, currants, gooseberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, wild strawberries, any kind of apple tree, sweet and sour cherries and flowers. It doesn’t matter how many plants there are or how big the garden plot is.

She says there are a few “definites” that need to be planted in order to have a “full energy micro-climate”. There should be at least one sunflower plant and about two square meters of cereal grains such as rye or wheat (for making special bread later), and an “island” of wild growing herbs that grow there naturally and already. If there are no wild plants and weeds growing in the area then you can bring some turf in from the nearby forest.

When asked about planting these (what she called) ‘definites’ (plants that ‘definitely’ need to be in the garden) she responded that it is not just the variety of plants that is important, but also how they are planted. They need to be planted in such a way that they can take in the information they need. The main thing is to infuse the garden with information about yourself. If this is done correctly then the plants will be much more effective at healing. She says that “nature really is not wild, it is just unfamiliar to you – there are a great many plants that can help us cure all – and I mean all – existing diseases. These plants have been designed for that purpose, but Man has lost, or almost lost, the ability to identify them”.

The “chief physician” is our own body. From the beginning it knows what plants and herbs should be used for healing and when they should be used. Our body knows how to eat, drink and breathe and is capable of preventing dis-ease even before any physical signs are present. Nothing can do this better than your own body, for it is your own personal physician given to you by God.

“If you make connections with the plants in your garden-plot, they will take care of you and cure you. They will make the right diagnoses all by themselves and prepare the most effective medicine especially designed for you.” (Anastasia – book one - pp 77-81)

Anastasia tells Vladimir that the society he is living in can learn a lot about communication with plants from the dachniks and their dacha plots. The dachas know every plant personally in their garden. They feel better and act kinder when they are in working in their gardens. They live longer and are healthier. It is the dachniks who can show us the path towards becoming aware of how destructive the technocratic path can be. (Anastasia – book one - pp 73)

Anastasia describes a morning routine where a person wakes up at sunrise, walks barefoot out to the garden and visit your plants. She says to be sure and touch them. They love human contact. This does not have to be done everyday, and not even at the same time, but try to do it as much as possible. It should be done as one feels moved to. One thing that is important is to be sure and not wash or shower before visiting the plants. The plants sense the fragrances of the substances emitted by a persons body through the pores of the skin during the night.

If the morning is warm then find a small grassy patch (very helpful to have nearby) and lie down and stretch out for a few minutes. If some bug or insect crawls on your body don’t chase it away. The bugs can open up the pores causing toxins to be expelled and healing to happen.

If there is a river, lake or pond nearby then wash yourself in it. Or pour water over yourself as you stand barefoot close to the plants and garden, or you can stand in between the beds if possible. It is a good idea to alternate places in the garden where you wash off with water. Do not dry off with a towel. Use your hands and shake the water from your body off onto the garden. After this a person can bathe or shower.

At nighttime it is good to wash your feet with pure water before going to bed. You can use some saltbrush plant or nettles or combine them together, but don’t use any soap or shampoo. Pour the water you have just washed with out on the plants. This will allow toxins to be removed through the pores of the feet and the water that is poured over the garden will give supplemental information to the plants. We must follow this routine as much as possible in order to give the environment a chance to help us heal. (Anastasia – book one - pp 86-87

Last week - diverse....

2009-10-16T07:17:00.007+10:00

We had a very cold and rainy Sunday, 18 degrees or less, and it was bliss. So nice and cosy for a change, to be able to wrap up and just enjoy a 'dark'day :-), our tanks filling up a little and the earth just soaking in the rain.
It didn't last long, only a day, and the next day it was back to our usual sunny gorgous day. You definitely get used to all the bright days and one cloudy day is sufficient for a 'break'.
We had friends from Karana Downs visiting us on Sunday and it was great catching up again.

Justin took Monday and Tuesday carers leave, as I've been just so exhausted and tired, and it gave me the chance to take long naps with Lucille and just charge up again.
She has been sleeping much more sound, only waking twice or so the last nights, so am just catching up myself now to recover from all the many night wakings between both Matti and Lucille.
Have been feeling a abit weak and tired...Anyway, it will pass soon, just have to be gentle on myself and get as much rest as possible. Have been going to bed with them around 8ish as well.

An update about EC, over the last few nights Lucille has actually wanted me to wee her over the potty, so we have completely dry nights. Great to see the change coming. She is so aware of when she has to go to the 'toilet'now, it's beautiful to see.

We have also planted our palm trees, around the border to the greenway. We want to create a permaculture garden, but don't know a lot about it yet. Yesterday there were 2 flyers of permaculture garden designers and landscapers in our letterbox - maybe that's an answer to our inner call for help. I'm longing to grow our own food, especially since reading Anastasia and her advice on gardening. Speaking of Anastasia, the books are called 'The Ringing Cedars of Russia', 9 books so far. I don't have time to go into them right now, but please google them, they are an amazing read, with so many insights on how we can improve our lifes...health, relationships, our earth...and one of the main things is creating our 'Space of Love', our house, our garden, growing our own food, to be self sufficient, and to pass this on to our children. The books span dozens of subjects from child-rearing to gardening, from adventure to the meaning of human life, from megalithic science to breastfeeding and from sexuality to religion, they reassert the limitless creative potential hidden in each of us and present and incredibly beautiful and equally practicable vision of humanity's spiritual connection to Nature that helps us understand ourselves and heal our Earth.
Reading them has stirred me up a lot and has made me question the way we life etc. At least we are at the right place, in an ecovillage, in a community, about to create our garden and the rest will just follow. Going to a shopping centre now and seeing all the useless gadgeds for sale, all the advertising, enticing people to buy stuff, and stuff and stuff and stuff...our houses are filled with them...even clothes....how many clothes do we really need?...(it would be so much nicer to not wear any anyway....), especially for children. We have become mostly OP shoppers and hardly buy anything new anymore. And hopefully once we have our garden, some chooks etc, the kids will mainly play out there and won't need all these artificial toys.
No wonder most of us are not feeling 100% wellbeing...how can we, if we don't grow our own food and spend our lifes living by how we get told to live (what to buy, what to wear, when and what to eat ....).
Anyway, they are the most amazing books I've ever read, and they are truly life changing. The concepts of them fit very well to the BodyTalk and also Yoga Philosophy and many things I've heard in different courses...but, the way the book is written, in the poetic form, just makes it sink in, in a different way.
Probably lots of shifts happening, as the awareness of whoever reads the books increases so much, and no wonder I've been feeling so tired.

The photos are of the kids playing, us planting, Matti helping Justin unload the ute in a little hail storm, Matti and Lucille playing in the hole for the tree, Lucille eating beans and her watching 'the boys'(as Matti likes to call himself and Daddy ;-) ).

Rock Pools

2009-10-09T17:51:00.007+10:00

We went to the Rock Pools today, which are aprox. 10 minutes away. It was a beautiful nature spot, but unfortunately quite littered by rubbish, broken glass etc. We still had a lovely time and the children had lots of space to run around, explore, climb and just be their wild thelves :-). Lucille seemed more grown up today, running with the older ones further away and just kind of looked older than yesterday. She loves tasting everyone's food :-), giving kisses on the heads, and played peekaboo, lifting her shirt above her head and then down again :-). The boys also had fun playing cricket and fighting with sticks...lots of big sticks around there. And a very tired girl at the end, falling asleep a few minutes after we left...

Jaccarandahs

2009-10-08T21:05:00.003+10:00

I love the purple Jaccarandah trees, who have begun to flower here in Queensland already.
They always remind me of when I met Justin, as he was sweeping the purple flowers off the deck he was building at Gavin's house. The tree turned purple in December in Perth and also in Adelaide.
Matti and I always search for them when we drive in the car at the time they are in blossom and when one of us sees one we go: Jaccarandaaah!!! He really likes them too.

Lucille's first birthday

2009-10-08T19:14:00.010+10:00

Lucille turned one today. The day began with a very loud: GOOD MORNING, by Matti, waking Lucille and myself up...Then he said: I got to go to work. I want nam nam and then I have to go, I'm running out of time. :-). (He works at the airforce :-) ...and he brushes his hair to go there :-) ).
We then sang Happy Birthday, which Lucille loved. She swayed with the song from side to side (as she does to music), and started clapping her hands. We got up and Matti had some Apple Pie for breakfast. I didn't even get to eating, as the phone kept rining -
Mum on the phone is not a great idea ;-), and it was quite franatic here.

We spent the day at our favourite park, Laguna Park, with our friends, and it was a beautiful day, nice and windy, low twenties and just very comfy, not too warm and not too cold - perfect Tanja
weather :-).

Lucille received some lovely presents, had a little play with them, and then was off exploring with the older children. Her walking speed has quite increased and she is not often crawling anymore.
Matti also had a great time, playing mostly with Nicholas and they both were said when the day ended and just wanted to keep going.
'When I'm older, I can play all evening and night'....Matti says a lot of the time at the moment: "When I'm older, I can...."...Mmmmh, wonder if someone has said to him: When you are older you can.... Yes, probably, as they are such sponges.
At some point today he stormed out of the room with a huff and a puff, and I got a real shock as I just saw a little mirror of myself :-)...Wow, it gets more clearly with every day, how our children copy everything we say and do...the words we use, in which way we use them, how we speak etc. It's almost a bit scary, as so often we act the way we have been conditioned ourselves...Anyway, my awareness is there and I read something very fitting to this week just before:

"Raging at others is an act of war, not peace. To say otherwise is a
rationalization to protect our habits. If peace is desired, outward raging has to stop. Period. The peaceful habit to choose is to FEEL our emotionalfeelings instead of sliming our beloved family and friends with them.

Expressing our negative feelings toward others does not "get to the bottom" of the feeling at all. Instead it discharges the energy of that feeling into the environment. Zap. Like lightning. Boom. It's a very superficial and dramatic way to handle feelings. It says, "I'm scared, I can't handle this, I'm not response-able, so I have to dissipate it, discharge it." Discharging our feelings outward is done from a position of victimhood, of powerlessness. It avoids getting "to the bottom" by short-circuiting the energy before it becomes too intense. We have many many habits to discharge
feelings, habits that we learned from our parents and society.

Negative feelings are "For Internal Use Only." Put that warning label on them, write it on the back of your hand if you need to, and honor it. STOP sharing those feelings with others. If you're a rager, someone who "has a temper", commit for one day to spend your precious negative emotional energy inward. Give loving attention and acceptance to the feeling. Peace is here." - I really like this and needed to read this, as I have not been responding this week as I want to and have felt like a rager, whom I don't know...

So, from tomorrow on I have to practice this- it has been challening, as I haven't been very centred due to extreme tiredness, the children picking up on it etc....I don't want to go into it, as said above, it would just discharge it more and not help it. A new day tomorrow :-). Children are our biggest teachers, that's for sure.

Ok, one more thing to Lucille's play: she is trying to put little things into bigger things now. You can see that on one of the photos as well. She also new by tonight, when Justin rang, that he would sing Happy Birthday, as she said something that sounded almost like Birthday (BD or so...), and swayed from side to side.
She held on a bit to the phone and then gave it to me.
It puts me into awe, seeing her developing more and more. Children are innately sooo smart and aware, it is amazing.

Ok, and one last quote I just came upon, which is also very fitting and saying exactly how I've been feeling this week:

"Motherhood brings as much joy
as ever, but it still brings boredom,
exhaustion, and sorrow too.
Nothing else ever will make you as
happy or as sad, as proud or as
tired, for nothing is quite as hard
as helping a person develop his
own individuality especially while
you struggle to keep your own."
-- Marguerite Kelly and Elia Parsons

...and double that for two children ;-)

So, all is good and it's kind of funny that this is all under 'Lucille's Birthday' blog entry....Maybe kind of to summerize the year :-).

Lucille's first trampoline jumps

2009-10-06T16:56:00.004+10:00

Matti helped her jump and she laughed out very loudly. :-)

Matti on lawnmower

2009-10-06T13:57:00.002+10:00

Matti was lucky and got a ride on the lawnmower in the village today. As you can see, he very much enjoyed it.

our new three feathered friends

2009-10-06T13:17:00.006+10:00

Our neighbours are on holidays for a week and we are in charge of their chooks. They are three, which we bring our food scraps every morning and feed them with seeds morning and afternoon. We let them out to roam a little and then get them back into their cage. I think I would like to have some as well. The kids love them and playing with them, and I can see some running around in our garden (to be) as well. Plus it's a great way to get rid of our scrubs, plus we would have free eggs. A lot of benefits.... The only issue with them might be attracting rats, foxes and along with them snakes...But a lot of people here have them, so I'm sure there is a safe we for us to also hold chooks.
Lucille had a little tick (Zecke) yesterday. I was lying down with her, feeding her to sleep and I saw this tiny spot, thought it was a crumb, but it was a tick, which just started to eat itself into her skin. I got it out though...It was probably from the chicken area....
Ok, lots of photos from the feeding and being with them today and they can say more than my words :-).

Weekend

2009-10-05T15:05:00.011+10:00

Another Monday and this week, Lucille will turn 1 already. The year has flown in some ways, but also not as a looot has happened. Her birthday is also the day our building started. We have been so happy living here, it is just paradise, especially for the children.
The beautiful dress on the photo is a birthday present from her grandparents from Torquay. We opened it on the weekend, as Justin won't be here on Thursday. It looks gorgeous on her. So here is a little preview of the coming up birthday girl :-).

- Lucille just climbed up the stairs, then yelled out to me, when I came she crawled into the bathroom, and I thought I just see if she needs a wee and held her offer her potty- and voila, she really did :-). So, the signaling gets better and better.
She is walking most of the time now, very proud of herself and her new skill, sticking her belly out and most of the time carrying something to us, which she couldn't do crawling. It's still quite new to hear her little tap tap feet coming and seeing her up all the time :-). She sways a lot, squats heaps and is building up lots of balance and strength.

We had a great weekend. On Friday evening Matti, Lucille and I did a nightwalk. It was beautiful as the full moon was so bright.
Dvds from our visit in Germany arrived, and on one of the photos you can see Matti watching it, talking on the phone to Mutti and waving with one hand to people waving on the dvd in a parade in our village :-).
He hasn't been watching them again, which is alright, as I feel it takes him a bit out of being here and his mind is then partly back in Germany...making him feel sad a bit as he is missing playing with his Oma...which can 'disrupt'our harmony a little...

On Saturday Justin continued building the path next to our garage. Matti found it too hot and he quickly came inside again (it got up to 35 degrees....). Our friends came for a visit and Nicholas stayed on to play with Matti. They get along great and had a ball. At some point we had 2 Ballerinas dancing (stomping ;-) ) through the house. We ended the day with a cool swim at the community pool, a play in the sand and then a communal tree planting around the centre, with lots of members being there, having a chat and a good time. The beauty of community life :-).

In case you wonder why I always have a lot of kangaroo photos on here...I still very much love them, being German :-), especially how close they come to our house. They are such characters and I love watching how they act and jump around. Lucille also gets mesmerised by them.

On Sunday morning Matti and Justin went yabbing at the little pond behind our house. They didn't catch any yabbies, but an eel. We let it go again though, as we felt sorry for him an didn't want to eat him. Justin's beloved hat fell into the water as well, and he could practice his catching skills ;-), by fishing it out again...and what a surprise, it was wet and dripped when he put it on ;-)).

In the afternoon we went to a 'roof warming'of some friends. They are building in the creek hamlets and their roof has just come on, so many people from the village gathered there to have a little celebration...there were lots of children and they all ran around over the lawns and down to the creek, playing.
I thought this week how great it is, anywhere we go in the village, we always meet some people and the kids just get to know familiar faces and this will add so much to them feeling really safe here.

playground

2009-10-01T16:15:00.007+10:00

We had a great day yesterday meeting our friends at a playground. As the photos tell, there is a huge selection there for the kids to explore - lots of climbing facilities (even though it says on them: NO Climbing - What the??? ;-) ), a pirate ship, a trail with 'bikes'on it, that they can ride etc. It's a very nice location as well, right by a lake. It was Lucille's first time walking there, and she loved it.
It's funny, that it's not that she has started walking, but she suddenly seems to have a different as well. She was mesmerised with a seagull and chased it for a very long time, eyes totally focused on it. She also trodded off to be with the other children, to taste some of everyone's food, to pull some hair of sweet little Jedd and had a great time.
On a sidenote, also in the house, walking, her perspective has changed and she is into all new things...into everything :-)...opening up every drawer and cupboard, climbing onto things, pulling on cables etc. Wonderful world waiting to be explored :-).

Matti had a 'bad'night, snotty from Tuesday evening on, to the point that he couldn't breeze during the night, and woke up lots and already at 5am. He was tired all day and also cut his feet open when he was in the lake, just before we went home, as he wanted to catch fish. At some point he gave me a lesson again in that connection is the main ingredient to 'happy'parenting/family life...A switch had suddenly flicked in him and he was in a very down mood, lashing out at me, demanding things that I didn't have...and I was about to let myself be drawn into it, reacting and wanting to say useless things like:stop this, or we are going home...which wouldn't have achieved anything, as he didn't want to go home, I wouldn't have known what upset him and we all would have been miserable. So, I got up, walked around, started to be a bit playful, but stayed at a distance, as he was still grumpy. Then I went onto the pirate ship and just started to play that I was a pirate, I called him (we played Seeraeuber Hauptmann Fabian und Messerjocke :-) ), and it was a joy to see his face light up again, and suddenly we were connected again. We played for a while, and also talked how busy the playground was and other reasons that had upset him a little.
I have been remembering more often lately to open my heart and work on our connection instead of reacting - which can be very challenging when I'm sleep deprived, which I have been much too much in the last few months. This has improved our relationship a lot and more to come :-).
I also have to remember that I use Lucille's sleep time to do something with him alone...again, it can be so hard when I'm tired, but when I do it, it's sooo worth it. I love him so much, and I also sometimes miss our one on one time...so, better create more one on one times then :-). The joy of multitasking and making sure everyone's needs are met :-).

I did a full BodyTalk session on him yesterday and Access several times, plus our falling asleep meditation, which I have been telling him for the last few nights. I had a hard time doing my meditations and going into my 'workshop', mostly falling asleep when trying to get in...so I thought, why not use this as a good night story, get my own needs for it met, teach Matti in this way how to use it and also to help him be more calm. It has been great...we go into the nature scene and do lots of fun things, and continue in our workshop...do swimming, horseriding, jumping on a huge trampoline, go to a healing room, have a sauna inhaling eucalyptus to free up his nose, eat and drink some healthy things, go out of it and travel to wherever we want to....
Matti has been enjoying it soo much and falling asleep so happily, eager to go to bed to listen to me and waking up much more refreshed. His snot was gone today and he only had a tiny cough.
I'm so glad that I have some tools to help ourselves so that we can heal quicker...BodyTalk is so very much part of sustainable living and wellbeing, as we don't need anything for it.

We went to the library today and got some more dvds out and heaps of books on gardening, rhinos, dinosaurs, snakes, cockroaches and insects. Matti said he wanted to get something about spiders as he wanted to learn how to kill redback spiders. He also got a computer game about building out, saying: I want to learn about building. You are not allowed to talk a lot while I do it ;-)! Heeeh??? Me?? I don't talk a lot ;-)!!!!
He helped me carry all the books and we had a great time.
At home he watched a dvd about lions and we watched one together about mountain climbing in the Alps (which he chose as well).

It's a wonderful journey to see the children develop and learning all the time. Every day they know new things, do new things, say new things...it's amazing. I feel so blessed to be with them all the time instead of having them raised by someone else and missing out on this beautiful journey.

When Lucille had a sleep today, Matti wanted to have his baby. He wanted her in the sling, then he sang to her, breastfed her and put her down to sleep after, as he found her a bit too heavy. It was soo cute to see how gentle he was. One day he will probably be a wonderful dad :-) ( a long time away :-) ).

Tonight we went for a bike ride, picked up our mail, had a chat down there to some village members, rode on to collect our milk and then home. Matti can ride so much further now.

Also this afternoon we went over to our neighbours, as we will be taking care of their chooks while they are away on holidays.
When we left Matti said: Have a great trip!
He is really developing his 'social talking', as he says often when he meets someone: Hi ... how are you going? or 'How have you been? What have you been up to? and things like wishing them a good journey, day or so....Also great to see, and if someone things that children who don't go to school miss out on socialisation, they just have to listen to them, and they will see the opposite.

Ok, enough for today, Friday already tomorrow. We have a lot of palm trees here, that need to find a place over the weekend. Planning the garden is exciting, but also quite daunting, as I know so little about it.

Elimination Communication

2009-10-01T12:40:00.005+10:00

If you have met us or seen our photos, you know that Lucille and also Matti as a baby, have been mostly naked, 'bottom less', wearing split pants or fleece pants,which are called One Wet Pants.
We have been practicing the ancient art of Elimination Communication (In a nutshell, Elimination Communication is about the Communication.It is about helping your baby to go 'to the toilet' somewhere other than a nappy.)and have used nappies minimally, as a tool, not an essential...We can even still count them, a packet of new born nappies, which we never finished, and around 20, when we were in Germany, travelling and doing a course, when I just wanted to be 'slack':-)...(over 25hours cars/airport/plane/airport/plane/car on my own with 2 children - nappies were a gift - but afterwards it was blissful to have my nappyfree baby back :-).)

I read about EC when I was pregnant with Matti and it made so much sense to me, that I decided to definitely give it a go. We left him nappy free from around 1 months on and Lucille right from birth.
With every child being sooo unique and having different body rhythms, this has been a totally different journey than it was with Matti.

So, I just wanted to give a little overview of what EC is, how we started, how we have been going and where we are at now, that Lucille is turning almost 1.

Well, I will start with where she is at now - she is highly aware of when she needs to go, wee and poo. She signals to us now, by touching or pulling her ear, by yelling out loud (which a stranger wouldn't understand, but I hear: I need to wee...), by touching the floor in between her legs, if she is sitting, by jumping up and down, sitting on the floor and also yelling quite loud....when she needs to poo, she is 'ratty', also jumps up and down, comes to me, wants up, but then down, then up again....but mainly she does her poos straight after getting up, over a little potty (mixing bowl), in front of the bathroom mirror, while playing with something (my toothbrush preferably...), looking at me, looking outside the window, sometimes seeing kangaroos...she also blows her lips, which I have done to her in the mirror, while she had a poo, so this has become an adopted signal, which I first heard last week, when I held her over the sink after a sleep, so she could wee, and then she blowed her lips, so I could hear, there is more to come, and it really did. Since then she has been blowing her lips to tell me she needs to poo.
She never has nappies on anymore, when we are out, she wears the one wet pants, which we have had for Matti already (so very cheap, when I consider the use we have gotten out of them, and we are not adding more rubbish to the landfills), split pants when out in nature, or she is just naked or bottom less.
We catch many wees, but we also miss a few, especially when we are occupied or she has a major learning curve (like learning to crawl, walk, teething etc.).
When I wear her in the Ergo, she jiggles up and down, to tell me she needs to get out, or touches her ear.
The nights have been 'funny', she hardly ever wants to be held to wee. I know when she needs to go, as she is then restless and wiggles around until she got it out, but she prefers to just do it lying down, which doesn't matter, as I have her on waterproof cover and towels. So, I have learned to just respect her wish and not force it. Early in the morning, it's all different again, and she just wees over the potty.
And who knows, tonight, it might be all different, as it's just stages.

Our main aim/goal? - there isn't one, the journey is really the destination. We LOOVE that she is not soiling herself, learning to use her pants/nappies as her toilet, being exposed to toxic chemicals in nappies, having a wound bottom, not learning something, that she has to unlearn in a few years, that she keeps her dignity, that she is aware of her eliminations, that she feels respected and cared for, because we respond to her and hear her, even though she doesn't speak words yet...we love that we don't have the hassle of buying or washing nappies, the one wets just go into the washing machine with the rest, and there are never many anyway, we save a lot of money, and we don't have to take a nappy bag anywhere.
I have a portable potty system, which consists of a tiny mixing bowl and a glass jar with lid. You can imagine how this works. It lives in my backpack. And of course there are lots of bushes everywhere and other great places to have wees.

I'm in awe of Elimination Communication, if we even have to label it :-), as it is such a gentle way to deal with their wees and poos, compared to changing dirty nappies and pulling yucky faces while doing it, giving them issues about their bodily functions. Ok, this is funny, maybe not to some, but to me it is - while I have just written the above, she did a wee on the floor, played in it with her hands and had just put her mouth down to drink of it. I know when Justin reads this or would have seen it, he would have gone: oh noooooooooooooo :-)...and we all would have laughed. But hey, it's her wee, and if you would be a baby, come on, wouldn't you want to try it...also loving to play in water, wouldn't you play in it like in a puddle of water??

There are some things that really turn some people off of it, they think naked baby bottoms are growth, they think that babies shouldn't touch themselves, they think it's dirty to not have pants on and they couldn't bear the thought of having any of it on their floors. Well, I have written above why we love it. We also have wooden floors and concrete, and little towles, that used to lie under her as a baby, now act as wipe ups, so no drama, no dirt, just a happy nappyfree baby :-).

Oh and because she is a girl, dresses work fantastically, especially now that she is walking.

Not using nappies also goes along our other autonomous parenting philosophies...someone told me when Matti was little: you won't be doing it with your second, as you won't have time....well, it's a way of parenting and I can't imagine not doing it this way, no matter how many children we'd have.

If you want to know more, check out www.tribalbaby.org - a fantastic website about EC. Charndra is a friend of mine from Adelaide and her son was born a bit after Matti. We met at a Yoga Class and talked heaps about Elimination Communication, to which we were both new then.

birdwatching, landscaping, walking :-)

2009-09-28T21:04:00.007+10:00

We went birdwatching yesterday, to "The Armchair Twitch™", which is a competition to observe the most species of birds from a fixed location anywhere in Australia. It is designed to promote birdwatching as a relaxing pastime & to raise money for the conservation of wild birds. It is suitable for all ages and all members of the community including those with limited mobility.-
It was at two locations here in the village and quite fun. We took our binoculars and Matti loved looking out for birds.
What a great way to get to know the wildlife around us - a life biology class :-).

Matti and Justin also continued to landscape our entrance, putting down little rocks for drainage purposes (see photos). Today they continued to dig out a path from our back verandah.

Lucille has been practicing her walking. It looked almost as if she was surfing :-).

Grand Final Day and Lucille's first big walks

2009-09-26T19:58:00.007+10:00

We had a beautiful birthday yesterday...Matti had a little sleep in and I did some yoga with Lucille...when Matti woke up, he put a birthday cd on and we had a dance, then we ate some Krumeluse tablets (Goji Berries :-) ) saying that we always want to stay little...but then Matti decided that he wants to get older, so he can drive etc. :-). We went to the community centre and met our friends Annette, Summer, Aj and Nicholas there and at the same time Justin drove in, which was a huge surprise, as I had just talked to him before and hadn't expected to see him that early.

This morning Lucille took some more steps, 4 or 5. We all got very excited and so did she. Very gently and a bit wanky she walks forward and then when she has enough carefully sinks back down, either into downward dog or squatting. It's sooo amazing to see them go from crawling to walking and what coordination it actually requires.
We went to watch the Grand Final at someones house here in the village. It was really nice, lots of village members, nice food and fun atmosphere. Matti played with 2 children until they left at half time. It was a very exciting game and the Saints were in front almost the whole way, only to loose at the end :(. It would be nice if they could just both win and there wouldn't be a winner and a looser. Poor Gavin, he is probably devestated....
Lucille got right into the atmosphere and started consiously clapping her hands for the first time. It was too cute...she clapped at such appropriate times, it was very funny.
When she went to sleep before, she even clapped in the sling, and when she was lying in bed, she also started clapping again :-). So, a full day for her of new things. She also started walking heaps when we were there, the first time, with a bottle in her hand, she walked towards the tv, almost 7 steps, and then outside with Matti, who thought it was so very exciting as well. She started to walk the most secure in the last minutes of the game, so most of our attention was on her.
We had a lovely bike ride home, it was almost dark and the Kookaburras were laughing everywhere.
Off to bed now as we are doing birdwatching in the morning.