Category Archives: kids
Our artsy attempt at a Family Purpose Statement
This vision you see before you is the result of a family bonding event gone this past weekend.
Let me start by being honest: things can get pretty nuts around here. I know this is true of pretty much every family household I know, so I’m certainly not pleading special circumstances, but just with the added factor of Mummy dearest to-ing and fro-ing all over the countryside for performances and such, well yes…I’m pleading special circumstances.
And with more performances coming up this year than ever before in our family’s history, I’ve recently realised more than ever how much we are in dire need of some help in:
a) making our time together really, REALLY TRULY count; and
b) getting more organised in terms of practicalities. (Oh dear HEAVENS when we can finally afford professional help with that I will consider that my moment of having “made it”. You have it in writing.)
So, I headed for the first place any approaching-overwhelm mother would in such circumstances: an all-you-can-drink buffet a helpful e-book. After seeing it plugged on another blog, I opted in for this one: One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler.
Thus far, I’ve checked off a couple of these projects, much to my delight (hello morning routine! Menu planning! IS THERE NOTHING I CANNOT CONQUER?!) and last night, the five of us gathered together to nut out one of these tasks as a family: crafting our Family Purpose Statement. A little cheesy? Sure. But those of you who know me well know how I love to embrace the dairy in life.
We each contributed ideas to the kind of family we want to be, even littlest (whose contribution of a Buzz Lightyear quote: “I come in peace!” was included on the grounds that:
a) we wanted everybody in the family to be a part of the statement; and
b) once we adapted it to “we”, it actually is rather cool indeed. WE COME IN PEACE, YO!
Then today, we set about emblazoning it in gold. Only that didn’t work out, so we opted for the next best thing: a mixed media collage.
It now has prime position in our kitchen. And I kinda love it. Now I finally have something to stare dreamily at when I find my happy place.
Note: I have already uttered the phrase today (that’s right, on DAY ZERO):
“Where does it say “hit each other!” on the family purpose statement? WHERE?!?!?!”
I am not proud.
And yet…I am.
“The Bum and I.”
This pic taken inside a funky West End cafe. If there's a connection between this image and this story, it's probably cos you made it.
I was reminded of a moment from my past today, upon reading this gorgeous post at Edenland.
I responded in the comments so thought I’d share the story with you.
I was living in Sydney and had just found out I was pregnant that week, completely out of the blue and in far from ideal circumstances. Broke. Single. Jobless. It had been a rollercoaster ride of a few days, calling my sister, my friends, my ex-fiance, counsellors, asking for advice, mulling it over, drowning in hormonal angst…then that Saturday, I did something that took me completely by surprise: I made the decision to have the baby.
I was walking down the street with my friend when this homeless guy sitting there asked for some spare change. I said “sorry mate,” but then stopped and went back to him. “I don’t have any money, but…do you smoke?”
“Yeah!” he said.
“Here.” I handed him my near-full packet of tobacco, rolling papers, filters and a lighter as he thanked me.
My friend piped in: “She’s just found out she’s pregnant.”
“Aw!” he said, smiling up at me. “CONGRATULATIONS!”
He was the first person to actually respond to the news in any positive manner whatsoever.
And I’ll never forget it.
Things To Do With Kids in Brisbane: Get Thee To The Abbey Museum!
My little girl in a low budget ad for stranger danger? WRONG, silly! We're at the Abbey Museum! Oh YOU!
Though my grandma always tells me not to tell people, lest I be suddenly the subject of some sort of medieval ages type prejudice from the sins of the forefathers, apparently our family is in possession of Viking blood.
Perhaps that – or just a fondness for headwear with horns – was behind my immediate compulsion to take the kids to the Abbey Museum when I saw their advertised “Family Fun Viking Week!” Yes! If nothing else is gonna make me feel like Mother of the Millennium, it’s blowing an ivory horn while wearing shiny stuff!
I decided to surprise the kids, not telling them where we were going, so as to spring the amazing awesome on them for maximum effect.
We turned into the museum.
“WHAT?” they groaned. “A museum?” Insert enough whining to make Mummy start staring at the array of blunt axes with a dangerous glint in her eye.
That is, until we walked into the actual museum itself, where shortly after being christened with their new names…
Rechristened for the day!
I took great pleasure in pronouncing this all day with a rolling "R"!
…the kids were handed weapons.
TURNING POINT.
Awww...Holger's first axe. Bless.
I love how he looks actually sliced in half in this one!
Suddenly, Mummy’s lame idea turned into the MOST. COMPLETELY. AWESOME. THING. EVER.
The Abbey Museum, as it turns out, makes a real effort to not just be a museum of the “come in and stare at shizz” variety, but of the “come and interact with things, do stuff, handle bits, dress up, make props, get into it!” kind that pint-sized (and not-so-pint-sized) tikes really do love.
For a day, they became knights. Archers. Shield makers. Archeologists.
Being instructed in the art of archaeology!
Sifting up a storm.
Receiving sage-like instruction from the local village wise man.
Sigrunn Hood
They don't mess around here. The kids take aim at an ACTUAL KNIGHT!
Even Mister 7 got into the beading: I proudly wear this necklace of lovely from my Viking offspring.
Painting their shields. I was overtaken by a desire to come up with a family crest.
And ultimately, they became Mummy fans.
As we drove away, I turned to Mister 7.
“See?” I said. “I told you you’d like it!”
“I didn’t like it,” he said.
“Huh?” I said.
“I LOVED it!”
This viking Mama was just a little bit chuffed.
*This is not a sponsored post. We simply rocked up and did it and loved it. Note that these activities were part of a special Family Fun Viking Week, for deets on what else is going on week to week at the Abbey Museum you’d be best to check their website. I do know they have a rocking Medieval Festival mid-year, preceded by a special one-day festival event focused on the kiddies which we will almost certainly be at!
Jekyll and Hyde (Or “Parenting and Performing”) plus Links of the Week
Show poster for Adelaide Fringe season; I noticed quite a lot of posters for other fringe shows up around the place when I was down there, I need to get my act into gear!
Parenting during the day. Fighting crime Performing at night.
I really do feel like I live in two worlds a lot of the time. There’s the world of strutting the stage, having the attention of a group of people (sometimes I wonder if this is indeed, the reason I do this: “Oh dear heavens, I am actually being LISTENED TO!”) and then having nice things said to you afterwards…then there’s the world of flouncing around a kitchen filled with stains you couldn’t even explain if you wanted to, trying desperately to capture the attention of anybody without using the words “who wants an (insert bribe here)” and if you’re lucky, having something coherent said to you afterwards.
I’m not meaning to be a martyr and it really ain’t all that bad all of the time, but aye carumba. Sometimes I just feel like a ping pong ball. One that plays music, but a ping pong ball nonetheless.
School hols are rapidly fading away, along with my hopes of ever actually being on top of any housework. Unless you mean literally on top of it, smothering myself in whipped cream and singing “where is the love?” at the top of my lungs. Of that scenario occurring, my hopes are exceedingly high.
I do have a few bits of juicy gossip to share (if your version of “juicy gossip” happens to be “self-promotional slather mixed with non-me related web links”):
- it looks like I might be back in Adelaide even sooner than I thought, to do a bit of cabaret performing, baby! As I type this, I am flipping my hair with the mystery of an Emo onstage at the Moulin Rouge…deets to follow!
- I have become just a little bit obsessed with the Aussie dramedy Spirited. Henry Mallet. Mmmmmmmmmmmm….
- the video of the German portion of my performance at the Cabaret Summer School Showcase (which, by the way, you can read all about with a very lovely write-up about yours truly, over at Cabaret Confessional), is shortly to be online! I’m planning to send it out in the inter webs on Monday morning with a terrific send-off which may or may not involve me smashing a bottle of champagne over my computer as I hit send.
- LURVE this, as does a fair portion of the interwebs: Feminist Ryan Gosling.
- a podcast interview with AU Review I did at Woodford Folk Fest is now online. I don’t know what the heck I was on at the time, other than Woodford air, but I’d love to know how many words per minute I’m speaking at, cos I’m pretty sure it’s just a little bit impressive.
- Don’t know if I’ve ever told you this but I am mildly enchanted with small homes. The studio I worked on in the Banff Centre was such a place and even then I felt I could quite happily live out the rest of my days there…were those days not filled with my gorgeous yet extraordinarily loud family! Still, one can dream…
Dawn French on Being Apart From Her Daughter
I have had to stop writing here to have a little self-indulgent weep, as I allow the significance of your easy forgiveness for my absence, and the sheer warmth of your appreciation, to flood through me. I should be with you today. I don’t feel guilt about it, I just feel the pain of separation, which confirms of me how connected we are.”
Dawn French in “Dear Fatty”.
Things to Do With Kids in Brisbane: Get Thee and Thy Brood to GOMA!
Mmmm. Colour. Sugar.
In an effort to be at least mildly useful in this here life, I’m gonna occasionally be posting some stuff about, as the title suggests, “Things To Do with Kids in Brisbane.”
I might as well call it “Things I Do With Kids in Brisbane.” Or rather, “Things I Have Just Done With Kids and Photographed The Living Bejinkers Out Of In Brisbane”. Or, just “Instagram. Dawwwg.”
Anyhoo, in case I haven’t already told you, the might fine folks at the Queensland Art Gallery and GOMA recruit me, on occasion, to help out with some of their incredible kids’ programs. I have been doing this for many years now and I love it with a deep passion I would normally only reserve for anything smothered in dark chocolate.
As a result, all of my kids have spent much time enjoying the incredible array of visual and other sensory delights on offer at both galleries. This past weekend I was presenting some kids’ tours of “Yayoi Kusama’s Look Now, See Forever” which is just…well. Mind-blowing. If giant balloons and infinite layers of polka-dots don’t float your boat then please stop reading because clearly we cannot be friends.
A polka dotted PIANO? PIANO?!?!???!! I am weeping with joy right now.
You can play it AND smother it with dots! Is there nothing impossible in this world?
Part of the Yayoi Kusama exhibition is the room in which the above pictured piano is in. It is called “The Obliteration Room” and as you go in, you are handed a sheet of polka dots to do with as you like. Coat them on the mirrors, on the couches, on the floor…plus I believe there is a camera taking time lapse footage of the entire thing, which should look GAAAAHHHHMMMAAAZZING! So much fun, my daughter and I battled it out for the title of “She Who Is Most Enamoured.”
You must GO!!! Deets on the amazing kids’ programs are over here.
Any suggestions on adventures in Brisvegas (or indeed, other places, us being the occasionally travelling brood that we are!) to have with kid lets that I should embark on, photograph and post about? Shoot em through!
I Don’t Know How She Does It: A Review. (Or: “Meh.”)
Image courtesy of Hollywood Blurbs.
I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this movie, namely cos I’d already read a lot of bad about it. Sometimes I find this works to a film’s benefit. Walk in not asking for much, be pleasantly surprised.
So, to be clear, I wasn’t expecting much, but was hoping for a little.
Also, it is worth noting that these days it takes a lot for me to hate a film.
Firstly because I appreciate just having a night with my hands free of children and instead full of popcorn, shoved at a possibly dangerous rate down my helpless throat before my gullet has a chance to reject it.
Secondly because…actually, no, there’s really only the first.
My auntie, the wise.
The above summation from my auntie pretty much accurately sums things up.
I didn’t hate the movie. I didn’t love the movie. It was just a bit…meh. OBVIOUS.
Lady looks like she can do it all.
Lady actually can’t do it all.
Lady realises this.
Lady spends a lot of time with a co-worker.
Lady very quickly snaps out of any notions of that shizz.
Lady smiles adoringly at her family while snowflakes fall.
I mean, come on. Who hasn’t had THAT?!
As I said, I didn’t hate it. But, in the words of Carrie Bradshaw, “I couldn’t help but wonder…”
Couldn’t they have dug a leeeetle bit deeper?
Then again, as complacency incarnate at times, perhaps I can really learn from this.
Here’s hopin.
Now can somebody please throw rice at me and I can pretend it’s snow?
Tittilating adventures in toilet training!
Image courtesy of younglovin.blogspot.com
I’m posting this pic as:
a) it represents what has been taking up a majority of this week’s activity, as opposed to much work, blogging or otherwise. Call me crazy but I don’t like to mix bodily fluids with keyboards if I can help it.
b) it makes me feel a lot better about how our toilet training is actually going.
Hope all’s well in your world!
x
The first Comic Mummy DIY: Cape Up Your Batman!
Your materials.
I do love me a good DIY. Oh, if I had a penny for every DIY I’ve ever read (and never actually completed) I would have me enough pennies to think about making a damn fine penny-mosaic.
As such, I thought it high time I brought a little DIY magic onboard club Comic Mummy. This one’s a little bit of awesome I cracked out the other day, when Mister 7 approached me with the manners of a Deportment School graduate* (*may be code for whingeing) and asked whether I, his darling and extremely crafty mummy, might be able to conjure up a cape of sorts for his Batman figurine.
Child. Say no more.
The results were, I believe you could say, STUNNING.
And being the selfless crafty-mistress that I am, I couldn’t keep such resourcefulness to myself. So here it is. Instructions on how to achieve such lofty heights of brilliance yourself.
You will need:
- 1 Batman figurine (or insert your figurine of choice.)
- 1 Cape (either robbed from another figurine or bought. Or, if you are really desperate, just cut off a bit of tea-towel.)
- Stickytape.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR CAPED BATMAN:
Step 1: Take above-mentioned materials.
Step 2: Tape that mo-fo.
And voila!
Note: there is an optional Step 3, should cape tear off, which it occasionally* (*might mean regularly) will. In this case:
Step 3: return to Step 1.
If Step 3 recurs, then go to Step 4.
Step 4: hit your head against a wall. Then go to step 5.
Step 5: write a blog post.
Melbourne Fringe: Touring with a Toddler Installment 10: Home Again, Home Again!
Notice the typo? Hehe. I kinda love it.
And it’s done.
WOW! What a rollercoaster. Thank you so much for reading along and sharing the wild ride. This mad adventure started strong, wound its way through a “keeping the faith” crisis of small crowds (a very common issue among the fringe fest overall this year so I’m told) and finally, finished strong.
The final show was beautiful indeed. As it was being taped, I went for it 110% emotionally (those of you who’ve seen the show will understand what I mean by that). Which is probably why when, at the end of the show, the audience stood up and threw freaking ROSES AT ME…I completely dissolved into a puddly mess of tears. I couldn’t stop. I think it was just the overwhelm of the entire show, the highs, the lows…the da da da da…UNEXPECTED VARIETY SHOW of it all! The wonderful folks at Revolt then whisked me backstage where they had laid out flowers, wine, glasses and beautiful people for a little post-run toast and celebration. More tears. My make-up melted.
A little shameless plug for Allan's, but what the heck. They were my knight in shining armour. They deserve it!
Went home to be suitably spoiled (YET AGAIN) by my wonderful house-hosts John and Sandy. These guys really came onboard team “Unexpected” in too many ways to count, but suffice to say they felt like a family to come home to each night, sharing in the journey, complete with its downs (of which there were several) and luckily, the final HIGH! Which we celebrated with food, glorious food, topped off with this:
Are you slobbering? Cos I am.
I am such a lucky gal.
Faretheewell, Melbourne. I miss you already. From your wondrous trams…
Mister 2 showing "Little Miss Plastic" the sights on a Melbourne tram.
…to your gorgeous coffee…
Coiffee!
…to your marvellous marvels.
I can't decide if window-shopping with no money is clever or torturous.
It’s a wonder I left at all. Oh yeah, hang on. I have a family to come home to.
Who are the most wondrous, gorgeous and marvellous marvel of all. (I can say that with certainty cos I’ve got the rose-coloured glasses that come with having a break. Can’t you tell?)
The girlies back together.
