2009 - the year of.....

Hello everyone,

Forgive me for indulging in a bit of sentimentality. I have been pondering about 2009 and what I have learned this year. I have often found that my greatest moments of learning often come when I ponder on the sadder parts of my life.

Regular readers of this blog would know that towards the end of 2008, I separated from my husband. 2009 was the year of recovery for me. In many ways, that recovery is not yet over, but if there is one thing that I've learned, it is that I am quite resilient and that despite experiencing lows I have never experienced before, I am relieved to find that, I can still see life as a wonderful adventure.

And having discovered that, I am slowly coming to the realisation that I do not have to be scared of what the future holds for me.

For those who have found 2009 a year of discovery and recovery, I wish to share with you this song. Its one of very few songs that have touched me deeply and I hope you enjoy it too.



I hope you've had a fulfilling 2009 and I wish you well for 2010.

Rhythmns...

Hello everyone!

As I am writing this post, its gently raining outside. Here at the ONC*, we've all experienced a wonderful Christmas present - rain! Gentle summer rain that is sorely needed. Everyone's gardens and lawns have been so parched and dry.

The rains have been a double edged present though. While we at the ONC have been enjoying the gentle rain, many people further north to us are in the thick of the massive storm and they are experiencing floods. To all my friends and readers up Bathurst, Orange, Parkes, Dubbo way - I hope you are well and the floods have not created too much damage to your homes and gardens.

Aside from rain, I have had a wonderful Christmas day with my children, family and friends. In what's becoming a tradition in my family, we spent the day playing with my children, eating seafood, playing with my children, watching my dad nap on the sofa and playing with my children. There's something rhythmic about a Christmas spent with people you have known all your life or in turn all of their lives.

I have noticed that.

This morning (boxing day), some friends and I spent the morning having breakfast and shopping (well, they shopped - as usual, I made a poor attempt at it). And once again, I noticed the familiar rhythmns of our talk. These are friends I've had since childhood. We have grown up together and have known each other for more than half our lives.

And the rhythmns are gentle - comforting.

I realised, that in my last bah-humbug Christmas post, I was wrong. We do have a mutually recognised way of showing our connection with others. But unlike the ads, the movies or the tv, this mutual recognition is not blatant and cliche. Its there in the way we talk to each other and the way we move from one activity to the next. Underneath all the talk and activities, there is that subtle and mutual recognition that these rhythmns are how we celebrate our complex connections with each other.

As I now embark on new adventures and the new year, its comforting to know that these rhythmns will be there - quietly celebrating.



ONC= "Our Nation's Capital"

Aaah.... revisiting a wonderful childhood activity.

Hello everyone!

This morning, my son and I went to the Mt Stromlo Forest Park. For those not in the ONC*, the park is dedicated bicycle and equestrian park set on some 20 acres of land. The trails are wonderful - from really easy (bitumen or hard packed dirt) to very difficult.

My son and I were riding on one of the easier trails when suddenly the sprinklers came on. Sprinklers in the ONC is a rarity. To use sprinklers requires special permission.We are now nearing our 5th year of water restrictions. My son is 5 years old. He's never truly seen sprinklers before. My son and I (along with other riders on the trail) stopped to marvel at the sprinklers when an old childhood memory hit me.

I turned to my son, "Hey do you want to do something I used to do when I was a child?"

Him: "Yep!"

And to his shock I got off my bike, took off my bike helmet and started running through the sprinklers. The other young riders (aged between 8 to 10 years) on their bikes soon followed suit. My son laughed his head off but at first wouldn't go in. Finally he was coaxed in by one of the other younger boys.

We spent the next few mins shrieking with laughter, streaking in and out of the sprinklers.

After 15 mins, the sprinklers were turned off. And all of us stood there thoroughly soaked, shivering slightly in the breeze with huge grins on our faces.

Eventually our fellow sprinkler mates got back on their bikes and rode off to tell their parents of their adventure. My son and I slowly pedalled back to the car and let the warm sun dry our clothes.

I felt truly blessed that I was able to give my son this one experience from my childhood.

(Note: I tried to find an Australian photo of people running or playing through sprinklers**...but I couldn't - with thousands of creative commons licenced photos at my finger tips, there was not a single photo of Aussie kids playing through sprinklers.....I guess its that much of a rarity these days. If there's ever a next time, I'll be sure to take a photo. :) )

*ONC - Our Nation's Capital
** All photos used on this blog have a creative commons general attribution licence - ie they can be used freely provided I attribute the photographer.

Doing what I love...(and finally answering Ryan's question)

Hello everyone!

Firstly a big big thank you to everyone who commented in my last post about Christams gift giving. Thank you for your empathy, your advice and sharing your viewpoints. Your comments (and this blog) have been a big part of my journey to simplifying my life and I am truly grateful for it.

On another note, my 2009 wrap-up post has gotten me thinking and I suddenly realised....I am doing what I love!

I have always had this idealised image of people who are living the life they wanted. For some reason, I imagined that these people are perpetually and ecstatically happy.

But of course that's totally unrealistic. Not only is ecstatic happiness tiring, but also...well, surely it would get boring!

That aside, I am starting to realise that my life this year has been an amazing balance of challenges, self-discovery and triumphs. I am continuing to simplify my life. I no longer bear any resemblance to the shopaholic me of only 3 years ago. I have found my creativeness - something that had been buried by years of consumption habits that told me that I did not have it in me to make anything and needed to buy.

Anyway, before I get too soppy, I thought I'd better answer Ryan's question about what I meant about fabric strips on top of my curtains. (Sorry Ryan for taking so long.)

Just to refresh your memory, in my post about my free sustainability house inspection, I learned that insulation works by trapping air. The more "air tight" this trap is, the better the insulation is.

Anyway, during my post about my subsidised ceiling insulation, Ryan asked me what I meant about placing a fabric strip on top of my curtains.

The fabric strip is simply that, a fabric strip placed on top of my curtains to make my curtains work better as an insulator. I hope my drawing below explains it a bit better.



I placed heavy fabric (curtain offcuts) in between the curtain rod and the window. I sewed velcro on both of the long sides of the fabric and glued velcro on the top sides of the curtain rod and the window sill. The curtain hides this fabric strip so you don't actually see it.

By placing fabric in between the rod and the window, I effectively slow down the rate which air escapes at the top of my curtains, making my curtains more effective in keeping the house cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

Anyway, that's it for me today. Two more Christmas parties to go and that's it for me for the festive season!

I hope you are all having a good week.

Why Gift-Giving at Christmas is HARD

Hi everyone!

Okay, I apologised before about how I can be such a bahhumbugger every Christmas and wrote my Wrap Up for 2009 instead.

...but I'm afraid I just can not resist from going all bahumbuggie again. So here's fair warning to all Christmas lovers out there. Stop reading now.

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Anyway, so let's get back to the purpose of this post. This weekend, I made a concerted effort to crawl out of my Christmas Denial rock. The children and I had a lot of fun putting up the Christmas tree and decorating the house.

Unfortunately, un-denying Christmas inevitably means that now I have to think about Shopping For Christmas Presents (SFCP). Now SFCP is the main reason why I was in my Christmas Denial rock in the place. I took a moment today to ponder on this a bit more. Sure, I can blame the crowds or the noise but the reality is that I cope very well with crowds and noise. I certainly don't let such things bother me on other occassions. So blaming crowds is really just camouflage.

I am beginning to suspect that I have SFCP phobia for a number of reasons . SFCP makes me feel:

- like I have to give because they *might* give to you
- anxious 'cause I have to guess how much money I have to spend for a gift from someone who *might* give me a gift
- anxious that I've "forgotten" someone.
- anxious 'cause I've made some presents and while it cost me a lot of my time, they might not be the sort of people who appreciates that and want the dollar value rather than the time value instead.

Because I live in a world where many relationships are formed on the basis of "stuff", its Christmas that highlight how we do not have mutually recognised way of showing our connection with others EXCEPT through the exchange of presents.

We give to them because they give to us. And inside there is a lingering resentment because the reality is that for many of us, we actually don't feel that the gift giving is actually celebrating our connection with others. In an abundant society, where so many of us have Too Much Stuff, we know that we don't really want or need any more stuff but we feel enormous pressure to go through the motions anyway.

So now I'm wondering....how can I show my appreciation of others at Christmas? And will they understand my expression of appreciation if it came in a form that is NOT a gift?

More things to ponder, I guess.

Anyway, I hope you have all had a good weekend and wishing you all a good week to come.

"Seems to me you lived your life like a shopping bag in the wind" Photo (and title) by Jamelah

Thank goodness no one from my work reads this blog....(craft project for secret santa pressie)

Hi everyone!

I've *just* finished my latest crafting project - a present to a co-worker for my Branch's Christmas party tomorrow. (Yep, I left it to the last minute). Anyway, as no one from my work reads my blog, I figure I'm totally safe showing it off here.

The rules for this year's Secret Santa was $15. The recipient of my present is a co-worker who draws most (if not all) her notes as really cool diagrams. She takes a sketch pad and a pencil into meetings. As a visual person, I really love watching her draw her mind map for the next task or project.

Anyway, I bought her another sketch pad and pencils (brand new of course). I then made a sketch pad cover. The applique in front is yet another "made from scratch" applique....its supposed to be a cat (as she is a cat lover)....do you think it looks like a cat? Anyway, she can reuse the cover over and over again as any A4 sketch pad just slips into it. Then I made a matching pencil roll to hold the pencils.





Oh the pencil roll looks like its wonky...it really isn't. :D (Note to self: must cut off those loose threads as per last pic).

Upon wrapping this present, I realised I had forgotten to get a little card. So I made one using wool, glue and some nice paper left over from my daughter's felt face cards project.



(oh dear, just putting that link in to my daughter's project reminded me of my November well-being goal...um...short update to that... I didn't ask for help *sigh*. I really need to learn how to do that.)

Anyway, that's it! I'll be Christmas partying for the next 3 days (different Christmas parties - my work doesn't allow us to have 3 day parties. :P) so I don't think I'll get to post again until next week.

In the meantime, I hope you are all well!

Life....

Hello everyone,

Oh man, I looked at when I last posted here and realised that almost a week has gone! Yep - December is turning out to be as busy as I had predicted it to be. December is also throwing humungous curve balls at me at the moment and I'm finding myself feeling the need to hide under a rock.

...but...isn't it funny how when life seems to get too challenging, something will come along to change your perspective. Has that ever happened to you?

It happened to me today.

I had been feeling overwhelmed by my current challenges when I passed a shop window and saw this sign:

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass, its about learning to dance in the rain.

"Dance like no one is watching" Photo by HDC Photography

And to me, reading that sign was fortuitous because it served as an important reminder. It was a reminder that I have, in the past, danced in the rain.

I am reminded that the rains have been instrumental in me growing as a person.

I am reminded I can dance in the rain, because I have already learned the skills and have built the support to thrive in whatever conditions I have to live under.

So here's to Life's rainy days and for Fate's hand in reminding me that I do have the choice to dance.