The Cobden Christmas Tree

There is a naked Christmas tree on Bright St - the street that leads into Cobden.  Naked of decorations not pine needles - it has a healthy covering of those.  It's tied very securely to a lamp post waiting for the firing squad.  Every time I walk past it I feel like I should whip out a pair of wire cutters and set it free.  Maybe I should hang some decorations on it instead.

Endurance, Craft Fair and a Birthday

Mark is an English freind of mine who is super fit, and I mean exceptionally fit - run all day and then some fit - with and over dose of determination,  recently tore his calf muscle 17 hours into a 24 hour run up hills and through ice and snow.   Now I don't aspire to this kind of endurance.  I have what I consider a healthy dose of pain avoidance.  But I have been thinking about Mark on my dinky little 30 minute runs down to the beach - and it has helped me to feel energetic when I might otherwise feel quite pooped.  The whole 'oh God it's hot and my legs are quite tired' notion seems to evaporate if I pretend I've been running for hours and hours and this is just the last little bit.   I noticed after only a month or two of running that I ALWAYS have enough energy to speed up for the last minute - even if part way through I was close to giving up.  Even though I am constantly presented with evidence of my own suggestability I am still suprised by it.  It doesn't make sense that legs that were telling me they couldn't possibly do this can now go Faster when the only thing that has changed is me knowing I'm nearly there.   If I could access that energy earlier in my run would  it still be available later? 

Had a fun evening at the Christmas Craft Fair.  Sold lots of little bits and pieces which was a real ego booster - now I'm going online browsing to see what glam fabrics I can add to my wish list :-)

Today was Oscar's 3rd birthday.   One of my best friends had her baby on the same day (and also has a matching 6 year old) so we got them all together for cake and ice cream.  I love how few kids it takes to make a party!!  Here is a photo of his cake - I didn't make it - I won it at the cake auction at the Grey Main School Gala (it's been in the freezer).   The kid who make this cake has major talent!!

And here's the birthday boy blowing out his candles with a spoon- straw

Crafting up a storm

Today has been all about getting things organised for the Christmas Craft Fair in Hokitika being organised by 'my2monsters'.  O.k not 'all' - I also took Oscar swimming, baked stained glass biscuits with a group of 6 6 year olds in Leo's class, made dinner etc. etc.  I'm quite pleased with my mad little pile of crafts and interested to see if anyone will want to buy anything.  I am also completely undecided about pricing and am about to surf some crafting sites for tips.  Here's a sample of my stash - not all made today (obviously!).

A range of table napkins and place mats

Some dinky little zippered pouches

Some toys.....

And some Christmas decorations - had the most fun with these...

The tree-men are made of lebkuchen - a very hard german biscuit (very yummy!) and have LOADS of honey in them.  They last for absolutely ages - but they might need little raincoats to wear on NZ xmas trees to keep the summer flies off.

Righto, bring on the market :-)

We have boots!

Awesome op-shop score this week.  Tramping boots for Leo, real tramping boots - needs three layers of socks but loves them.  We got some boots (also from op shop) for Oscar a while back which he calls his 'clod hoppers' - so now we are all kitted out. 

So to test them out we all bush bashed up the ridge from behind our house up to the Cobden Cross.  It's a good feeling to start a walk by climbing over the back fence :-)
I realised (while carrying Oscar up hill through gorse) that Leo was a similar age the first time he did this walk - it's now a retrospective tradition for boys in our family to make the treck before their third birthday.   Here is Leo after his first mission, and then today with his wee bro.

Furpy didn't come with us this time - must have found a particularly good patch of sun. 

Tension and tipples

Definitely well into the silly season now.   Workplace has had it's drinks and overeating, every child-related activity has had or is about to have a visit from Him (that would be Santa) and I'm recovering from over-indulgance with a spot of panicing about the flurry of summer activity and about work next year (already!).   Technically this is going to be the cruisiest summer we've had for a while because we are not travelling North.  The Grannies are both coming to visit - as is one of the Grampas (with the relevant Granny obviously) and my sis in her role as a very significant Aunty.
I've been having lots of lovely end of year drinks with different groups of people - the most fun tonight with mummy-friends drinking cocktails :-)  For the next three days I am going to concentrate of finishing things for the Christmas Craft Fair in Hokitika on Wednesday night.  I have some more funky Christmas fabric for table napkins and am half way through a bunch of  'Change(the world)Purses.  I'm really looking forward to it - mainly because I'm sharing a table with an awesome craftster I met in my Te Reo class............ but also trying to prepare myself for the 'no sales' scenario, while also hoping for lots of sales so I can go crazy buying Japanese linen on etsy - dreams are free!!  I'm so lucky 'scottiedogtrotters' a.k.a Sarah invited me to share her stall I don't think I would have had the courage to set up all on my lonesome.
Some multitasking will be required as MIL is arriving on the same day as the Craft Fair and Oscar is turning three the following day.  We will be celebrating with one friend for each boy (Oscar's friend is turning three the same day and comes with big Sis who is Leo's friend and their Mum is one of my best friends so all cruisy and fun for all on that front), and cake, ice cream and lollies.  Hopefully it will be a sunny day and we can send them out to play with Oscar's present (water related ).

running, spending and the naughty place

Last week I ran my first ever 10k.  It was fantastic.  I enjoyed the run, felt great afterwards and the next day I only felt very slightly sore.  Nothing compared to my first run earlier this year, that hurt for a week.  I even repeated the experience a few days later and thought I was ready to up my regular 5k runs into 10k runs.  Totally taking advantage of having hubby at home to mind the boys.  Reality has dawned,  despite my current time-rich status 10 k runs are not going to make it into the daily or even most days category.  I have also been disheartened to note that my 5 k runs have not magically become easy now that I know I can do 10.  I know my fitness has improved, and my runs have become a very enjoyable and important part of my routine.  I have also learned - or re-learned how suggestable I am.  I always have more energy on the return leg of a run, even when pushing the boundaries of my capabilities. 

I have being trying to get my head around the way 'working' and 'non working' people are treated in our community.  When hubby stopped working we lost our 'working for families' income.  That seems obvious given the name of the benefit, but it still seems insane to me.  We lose our main income - so we also lose our 'reward' for supporting the NZ economy?   I was talking to a doctor friend last week who pointed out that a person who suffers from a repetitive strain injury who is employed gets many benefits from doctors bills, paid time off work and rehab.  A stay at home parent suffering the same injury gets nothing.  
We are stressed about money, there is no denying that - but not in the way that many people surrounding us are.   We are not on the bread line, but we can see it from here (who said that?).     Aside from the obvious financial disadvantages of unemployment we have found our family life has benefited immensely.   Two parents can give two children a lot of extra one on one.  One of us can go on school trips with L while the other hangs with O.   We haven't got the balance right (unless we win lotto) but it's very hard to see why everything is so clearly geared to encouraging parents to leave their kids and dive into full time work - except for the economy.  Don't buy it!!!

We have been alarmed to note that O one week shy of his 3rd birthday has launched a campaign to loosen the impact of the naughty place - dumb name I know, but until now it worked (a boring spot on the hall).  Tonight, not wanting to go to bed he requested the naughty place - took himself there - sat peacefully and then when parentally returned to bed  he screamed to return to the naughty place.  sheesh.

Little boys

Took Master L and a friend of his out for a fluffy after the Santa Parade this afternoon.  Little Friend said "can we get hot chips as well?"  Me: "no just fluffies" LF: "why?" Me: "because I'm mean".  LF (to Master L): "is your Mum mean?"  Master L: "even if she bought us chips she would just be fattening us up for the kill"   WHERE DOES THIS COME FROM?   Who hearing that would think we are in fact mild mannered mostly vegetarians?????  That and his little brother whose favourite phase at the moment is "I'm going to cut your head off"......................................

On a completely different note I've been talking with some amazing folk about what our community needs - to support those with the highest needs and break cycles of poverty, poor health, low literacy and all that goes along with that.   So far we have come up with:
- intergenerational upskilling centre
- cooking / nutrition skills
- literacy / numeracy / home work help
- parenting skills across all development stages from teeth brushing to internet safety, teething to tough love
- budgeting
- self care
- accessible medical / dental / midwifery care
- to share food some of us have grown, some of us have cooked and some of us have served.
The Cobden Community Hub is making some great steps towards these goals............. what's next?

The silly season - managing the silliness

It's December!  I'm very proud of the advent calendar I made for the boys this year - and even more proud that having spent a ludicrous amount of time making it back in September I remembered to dig it out, hang it up last night!  Last year we had 24 xmas coloured socks collected from the op shop over the year (don't worry I washed them) with numbers written on them with fabric paint.  I filled the socks with little treats for each day - mostly two roses chocolates - one for each boy - in each sock.  This year I'm only going to fill each pocket the night before as the calendar hangs in the lounge well within reach of prying little fingers.  I am going to try to limit the tooth ravaging treats this year and started as I meant to continue last night with a note for the boys about all the things we have planned for December and some animal picture cards - Master O can prattle on about them, and Master L can play snap.  One down, twenty three to go!

 It's been  very kid-focused day with Master L's end of term 'dress rehearsal for parents' of The Little Prince.  They had planned a week of intensive rehearsals followed by three nights of performances for the paying public - but as with all things in Greymouth since the mine explosion it was put on hold (all church space and all head space booked out indefinitely).  Master L was a volcano on the Little Prince's planet, as far as I understand it his decision to sit down part way through the scene was a failure to stay in role. I didn't get to see much as I was Master O wrangling out the back.  Master L was left with a very positive ending to the year though - the 'shared feast' as he calls all pot luck events was a great success.  Tomorrow the whole town is pushing pause for the memorial service for our miners, a particular pause anyway.


Day 8 of the advent calander.  My best success thus far has been a note telling the boys they can have a hot chocolate drink with breakfast (success as measured by the delight expressed by the boys- especially for Leo who is new to deciphering anything other than a school reader,  but also it was essentially free and did not involve the accumulation of clutter).   My epic failure - urgh!  broke all the no-crap rules - I think sweets would have been better.  It was late and I grabbed my box of random crap from birthday parties etc. and popped in a little parachute man for Leo and a mini-car for Oscar.   Leo managed to break the parachute string and get it hopelessly tangled while unfolding it, Oscar took his car to the bathroom for a potty visit and left it there, where I stood on it - it didn't stand a chance.   So - plastic heading to the rubbish bin and two unhappy chappies.  Lesson learned.