On The Eve of My 40’s

 

 

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I can’t believe this moment has come. The moment when I say good bye to my 30’s and welcome ??? the ‘older woman’ phase 40’s.

Inside I still feel 27. Sometimes I think I am 27 …until I look into a mirror or try on some clothes or run out to rescue the dry clothes from more rain. Then I feel a bit 39ish. My little brother and sister have now turned 27. It seems so, so young to me now. My sister has 2 kidlets and a loving partner. My brother has a long time girl friend of many years, a much loved member of our family she is.

I digress… from what I’m not sure. I don’t even know what I’m wanting to say this evening. I just thought it was important to seize the moment, this leap yeary year {it was a leap year the year I was born} and the one before I turn the big 40. Actually I was almost born on the 29th of February. I only made it by about half an hour and I’m very relieved I did. I’ve always felt annoyed for people born on the 29th of Feb. And to be born on the first day of my favourite season – what a bonus.

Digress again.

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Ramble, ramble. Blah Blah. Nothing much to say that’s prolific or wise or of any great importance what so ever. I am sick though. Did I mention that in this boring old post? Ready for the older woman rant about illness? Woops, must be nearly 40, huh?

The whooping cough, although past the contagious phase thanks to the antibiotics {or so they say, at least}, is debilitating to say the least. Coughing fits are often and big, to the point of almost vomiting. My head pounds like I’ve got a migraine if I cough for too long. Then the head pain brings me to my knees for a little while. Thankfully it passes as long as the coughing does. Bedtime is difficult.  I’m sitting up in bed to sleep. I’ve got my homeopathics, tissue salts and chinese cough medicine on my bedside table ready for the next attack. It helps a little but not enough. I’ve had to cancel my birthday dinner which was to be tomorrow night. I’m feeling flat about it but better than coughing and wetting myself in such a public way, I feel. My sister’s kidlets have also got whooping cough, so too my very dear family friends.

That brings me to the other down side of whooping cough at 39, almost 40. I so wish I had done more pelvic floor exercises. Honestly it’s a nightmare. that’s all I’ll say about that but I know many of you know exactly what I’m sayin. Don’t you?

OK, what else have I got to blab about? Maybe it’s time for a bit of gratefulness {thanks for the lovely thought of gratefulness this past year, Bron x} 

I have definitely been in a whingey whiney, poor me kind of phase – this past year of being 39. I’ve felt what it’s like to be in quite serious financial difficulties. I’ve had to give up a home that I’ve put all of my heart into for the past 6 years. I’ve had to face more relationship troubles and work on ways of making my life less stressful. I’ve had to think about the future in a different way. I’ve had to enter the building phase again and it ’s certainly come with all of the stresses building brings with it.

But, I have a beautiful son who is healthy and happy and who I love with all of my heart. I have sisters and brothers and a dad and a step mother and a Nan and a grandpa and a grandma and aunties and uncles and gorgeous nieces and nephews and beautiful, beautiful friends. I live in a country where I can speak my mind and worship God without fear of stoning or arrest. I get to whinge and whine with the best of them about our political state yet I am very well aware that I need to be grateful for the systems that we have in place here in this country compared to those less fortunate. I am grateful that I get to homeschool my child and can get by, just, on one income. I am thankful that I am relatively healthy and able and have two legs to get my butt to the gym very, very soon.

But mostly I’m grateful to God who has kept me all of these 39 years in His care. He has put me exactly where I need to be. No mistakes about it. I need to trust in that, in Him and keep my mind on the things of the Bible and Christ and not on my worries and whinging. It brings me no good, only crap.

So, I’m cheersing to me, on the ever of my 40’s.

Here goes - May my 40’s be filled with a much more grateful heart. May I be thankful for all things – good and difficult and know that they are there for my good, somehow, whether I understand it or not. May I be a better mother, daughter, sister, grand daughter, step daughter, step sister, aunty, niece, friend. May I be more diligently focussing on the good things in life – on Grace and mercy and not on my whinging and moaning. May I have learnt a little from my past 39 years and know where to go and where not to go. May I forgive more easily. May I be more humble. May I zip my mouth up waaaay more than I have in the past 39 years and think a lot less of the things I want to say and a lot more on the things those around me have to say. May I be quieter and kinder and a better listener to my family and friends. May I live more in the moment and less in the past and worries of the future. May I worry less. May I whinge and murmur less. May I last at the gym. Please?

Happy last night, to me, of being 39. Tomorrow is the start of a fresh new decade. I’m ready. I think.

Kim xx

The Learning is Everywhere! :: Lewi & Ptol’s Blog

 

I almost gave today’s post a miss as I’ve been feeling so under the weather this past week with the dreaded W.C. But a little spurt of excitement had me having to post this really quickly, late as it is.

I just now checked my emails and found a lovely facebook message from Karen, a fellow blogger and unschooling online friend. She had just posted a link to her son’s new blog.

Funny, Lewi and another unschooling friend of his, have just started a shared blog called The Nature Club. Lewi’s really excited about it as he’s  not been too keen on his other blog since blogger wiped it completely awhile back. I need to download all of his old posts but it takes so much time and he hasn’t really been busting at the seams for me to do it. But now he’s got a renewed blogging passion in The Nature Club, being the animal fanatic that he is. Ptolemy, the blog’s co-author {doesn’t that have a nice ring to it?} is also a nature enthusiast so this blog should be fun, fun, fun for the boys.

 

Here’s a sneak peak at what the blog header looks like.

I can’t really post a link just yet as we are not sure whether Ptol wants to go public or private, but I’ll certainly link up if we get the go ahead.

I just love seeing our kids doing things they are passionate about. Unschooling gives Lew the chance to learn about anything he’s interested in. Nature has been something he’s been passionate about since he was 4 years old. It started with sharks and dinosaurs and has grown and grown. He has a way with animals that I’ve not seen in a kid his age. He picks up wild animals like they are his friends – water dragons, blue tongues {huge ones!}, echidnas, turtles, eels, marine animals – nothing phases him. He is gentle and kind and has an activists way of thinking. He often mentions how he’d like to work for Green Peace or work to help ban shark finning. He still won’t eat fish of any description {though he’ll hoe into  chicken and beef and lamb and bacon}.

I love what he’s learnt about his passion over all of these years. The interest has become stronger and stronger as time’s gone on. It’s changed course a little but the basis of ‘nature lover’ has remained the same.

I love that he has friends {Ptolemy and Jacob} who have similar interests. It makes life such fun when you can share what you’ve learnt with someone who’s interested.

Lewi Irwin! {That’s what my Grandma used to call him}.

Happy learning!

Kim xx

Dreaded Isolation & A Homeopathic Plug

 

 

Well, just when I thought our isolation time was all done and dusted, now it’s back.

Lewi got whooping cough and so had to be away from people for the 5 days of immune killer pills antibiotics which ends the contagiousness part of the illness. It was difficult but we had friends who gave the whooping cough to Lew visit as well as our other, virtually-family Racz friends {who now have it!! So sorry!}. So it wasn’t complete isolation, I guess. A few days went by where we were able to be out and about again after the antibiotics where done with. We went to the show, did some shopping, visited friends and family and then…

…I got whooping cough. So now it’s back to isolation again and who knows how many more people we infected on our teensy tiny reappearance in the world {though I wasn’t coughing at the time so hopefully everyone is safe and well???}.

Have you ever had whooping cough? It’s a weird one. It honestly resembles a bad chesty/coughy cold type thing {no real sinusy/stuffy headedness, though}. I would never have had Lew tested for it if we hadn’t had contact with our whooping cough friend because he really didn’t get too bad. I put him straight on some homeopathics {drosera and putussin} and it cleared up really, really well. By the time the results came back I had determined, in my head, that he couldn’t possibly have had whooping cough. He did.

I’ve grappled with the whole vaccination/non-vaccination thing ever since Lew was about 4. I had him, ignorantly, vaccinated when he was little and then, by the age of 4, I started to question it. In the end I did have his booster vaccinations given but since then he’s had no others – no chicken pox, no meningococcal, nothing else. Vaccinations really deplete the body’s immune. They can cause many, many side effects that number a very similar amount to getting the diseases via non-vaccination.

The whooping cough one seems to be the biggest of the worst. So many people still get whooping cough even though they are vaccinated. Not only do they get the disease but their body is compromised at an early age by the vaccine itself.

I feel really annoyed by the whole drug company push to make people feel guilty about considering not having their kids vaccinated. I so get why people don’t do it and if I had my time again, I wouldn’t have vaccinated Lew as a baby.

Homeopathics are such a wonderful way of helping the body heal itself. I’m not into all the woo hood, energy stuff behind the concept of homeopathy but  we’ve treated so much homoeopathically in our nest to make me really see the absolute wonderfulness in it.

We have 2 lovely, lovely homeopaths in our town. We are so very lucky. They are such gorgeous human beings too. They really, really care and are only too happy to make up remedies even when they are not working. I love their passion. It so surpasses most of the doctors, who, by the way, have waiting lists as long as you arms to get to see, treatment of illness.

I had to laugh – out loud too – at the doctor that saw me the other day about this whooping cough thing. He was a lovely guy. New to the valley and new to doctoring, I imagine. I went in to tell him what I had and what I needed {just like I normally do!} and he sat there and wrote me a script without much question at all. He did that only after googling his doctory website that only doctors can look at. The internet was down and so we sat in silence with a few, ‘bloody technology’ comments thrown in here and there, while he waited for the site to load. It didn’t. I think it must have been the day that Telstra had a little melt down thingy. He had to resort to the old fashioned, look  up the book technique, only to find the book was not in his bookshelf. After putting in a quick call to a fellow doctor in the next room he asked if she had the book and could she please look it up to tell him what the antibiotic for pertussis was and also the dosage. I should have brought Lewi’s completed box in, would have been a lot quicker. Then it was $65 buckaroos and see you later.

Agh! They wonder why I rarely go in there.

And on a side note, at least I can still catch up with you guys:)

Kim xx

Changes for Google

 

Oh bugger! Apparently Google change is in the air and I’m not loving it. Any change to do with my computer really freaks me out. Just when I get used to something and feel comfortable using it up flashes an update or a new download required or a cancelation of something I’ve really enjoyed. Google Friend Connect for example.

Melissa over at Suger Coat It has just outed the big change for blog followers using Google Friend Connect and if you pop on over to Danimezza you will get a little more detail about the ins and outs of it all.

I’m a bit of a der brain when it comes to this sort of thing but from my very limited understanding, Google is taking back their ownership role of Google Friend Connect which will mean that it will only be available for Blogger users. My blog is a Blogger one so I’ll still have the Google Connect widget on my blog BUT all of my friends who are wordpress or typepad or anyone other than blogger will be lost!

Agh! So, I’ve done a little bit of snooping around and found Linky Followers, a new followers link that is free and will cater for everyone. I’ve gone and popped it on my side bar, just under the Google Friend Connect one for all of you who are not blogger users to follow with.

So sorry to be a pain but if you are not a Blogger blogger would you mind re-following Feather & Nest again using Linky Followers? I don’t want to lose you guys!

Thanks.

Kim xx

Tea & Toast:: Funky Upcycling Town

 

It’s Tea & Toast time again. Don’t the weeks just fly by?

Today I want to take you on a really fun meander through funky city. Let’s call it Funky Upcycle Town.

Upcycling is an age old concept of reuse. In the old days nothing much was thrown away – people couldn’t afford it. If something broke or wore out, some very creative, thrifty person would turn it into something else just as useful.

I love the idea of this. It sickens me when I think about the waste in the society we live in. Nothing is made to last and any teensy tiny fault in a product renders it useless. So much is simply thrown away for un-biodegradable land fill. Buy another one! Ugh! {and I have to admit that I’ve been guilty of it myself}.

My Dad is one of those thrifty upcyclers. He’s always coming up with uses for discarded bits of wood, old metal table legs, cupboard draws, fence palings. Just last week he made a beautiful cutlery holder, complete with handle, out of an old cupboard draw he found at the tip. I’ve got lots of lovely feathery pieces that Dad has made for me out of old stuff and I treasure them dearly.

So, come on, let’s meander down Funky Upcycle Town and drool at all the possibilities that upcycling offers…

 

For starters, I love this idea for an old bird cage…

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This next idea is more art, in my mind, but so very, very clever, don’t you think? Though I think I could manage a funky ladder creation like that…

 

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And who would’ve though - a cheese grater pencil holder?

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Old packing pallets have become an ultra popular building material lately. Here are a couple of ideas but I’ve seen so many on my googling drool fests that I think another packing crate post is on the cards.

 

I love this next idea. A cupboard made out of mis-matched drawers!

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Cupboard door fronts made out of old signs…

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The next 3 images are pieces made out of recycled scrap wood. The creator, Piet Hein Eek sells them here…

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How about upcycling an old bedside table and turning it into a cute kitchen set for the kidlets? …

 

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And old Pyrex dishes into light fittings? …

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And tea cups into candles? …

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And light bulbs into hanging vases? …

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The ideas are endless!

Have you got any upcycled pieces in your nest?

 

Happy Tuesday!

 

Kim xx

The Learning Is Everywhere! :: Books, Books, Books

 

If I had to pick my absolute favourite thing about unschooling it would be having the freedom to read to my child whenever we like. The connection we have made through sharing stories together has been a priceless gift. One I’ll forever cherish.

Lew has always loved books.  From a tiny baby I would surround him with board books to look at and touch and chew from his little cosy floor rug. He wasn’t long into life {about 6 months old} when we began reading aloud to him {I did read to him as a tiny baby but it did feel like a one way street}. He  took to it like a duck to water. I remember feeling amazed at how focussed on a book such a young baby could be . He’d sit in our arms and happily pour over the books we read to him for as long as we would continue to read. Engrossed, he was.

Engrossed he still is.

Now, at the ripe old age of 12, Lew still loves books. He has piles of them everywhere and he goes from one to the other continually throughout most days. He always has his fad favourites that he’s into ‘right now’ but he continually goes back to his old faithfuls as well, especially his wildlife and drawing books. There is never a car trip, even just a quick duck down the street, that Lew doesn’t take a book or 3 with him.

These are a couple of book piles or splats depending on the moment, that trip us over often in our nest at the moment:

 

Yep, he’s into that dictionary at the moment.

 

This book is the all time favourite at the moment.

 

Doggy facts are continually sprouted from here on a daily basis {multiple times a day!}. People who visit or who we visit are constantly being asked things like: What dog breed is your favourite? What would you have if you could have any breed in the world? What do you think is the ugliest breed of dog? Biggest? Smallest? Most disobedient? Do you know how long your dog will live for? The list goes on.

 

This next book is so fantastic that it should have a blog post done all for itself. 

 

It’s called Wonderstruck and it’s by Brian Selznick {who also wrote The Invention of Hugo Cabret – recently made into a movie}. We got it from here. It is the most fantastic, beautiful book we’ve read for a long time, perhaps even ever.

It’s two stories that beautifully entwine – one is told in picture form done in gorgeous black and white drawings. The other is told in words. The two stories are set 50 years apart – one by Rose, the other by Ben.

Brian Selznick is a magical writer. I don’t know how he does it. The way he tells this story, 2 distinct stories and how they work together to mould and develop and intertwine is so beautiful and so darn clever.

I had worried that Lew may be too old for the story and I ummed and ahhhed over it before Christmas – Will I? Won’t I? But in the end I felt the pull of the book and I knew that he had to have it if only for the inspirational drawings. He wasn’t all that convinced it would be any good. But from the second we opened the first pages we were hooked. The magical journey that Brian Selznick took us on was so good that we never ever wanted it to end. We wanted to savour every page and I kept touching the front of the book, banging it slightly with my hand. It has this amazing movie-book sound to it. It’s the sort of book they would use to record book noises for movies. I think it’s the hard cover combined with the dust jacket paper as well as the size. I feel like Oprah introducing her reading club book every time I hold it. You’ll have to just buy it to really get what I’m talking about.

 

Oh, and this book is very cool as well:

Anything written by Keri Smith is fun, fun, fun. She really gets kids. This one is a whole lot of ideas for exploring our world. Making messes and getting dirty, ripping things up and splatting things all over the place are popular activity bases for Keri Smith books. We are getting a lot of fun out of this one and plan to work through it this year with vigour.

And this one, the Skyrim Guide sits open on the living room floor right near the XBox. It’s a permanent fixture in the living room and has helped Lew through many a Skyrim quest so far. Boys tend to love these gaming guides and Lew’s definitely no exception.

What are you reading at the moment with your kidlets?

Happy Learning. It’s certainly everywhere!

 

Kim xx

Sunday…

 

Baked a butter cake.

Home church.

Marked out shed ready for tomorrow’s concreting.

Swam at the river.

Walked up the river.

Ate blackberries from our block.

Chatted on the phone.

Skyrim. Computer. Blog. Books.

Watched the thunderstorm roll in.

Listened to the rain on the roof.

Thought about a grieving family.

 

Kim xx

The Show

 

Country life on display. Produce. Pavilion. Livestock. Agriculture.  Machinery. Horses. Salt of the earth stuff. Sideshow alley. Rides. Screaming. Dagwood dogs. Buckets of over-priced, barely warm chips. Jam doughnuts. Show bags. Frazzled mums. Old fashioned fun. Childhood memories.

It’s all still there at our local show.

Pet show…

Our lovely friends, winners in the Pet Show… Custard, most well behaved.

Number 123, most fluffy.

 

Animal Nursery…

 

 

Poultry…

 

 

Art Works… Lewi’s,

Rommy won second prize!

 

Jakey  won second prize!

 

Pavilion… scarecrows

 

and lethargic scary crows;)

 

 

Produce…

 

 

Highly interested and enthusiastic, pavilion loving children…

 

 

The dodgems…

 

 

The Cha Cha…of which it took me over an hour to recover from.

 

 

Dangerous entertainment… along with the sword swallower that I couldn’t even watch long enough to snap a photo. Ugh!…

 

 

That was our day at the show.

Do you go to your local show?

Kim xx

Animal Signs & Tracks Adventure

 

Lewi and I often go on Animal Hunt adventures.

This time Lewi grabbed his notebook and pencil and took notes on animals he saw and evidences of animals around {signs, tracks, poo, nests, bones etc}.

 

It’s amazing how much more you can see and hear when you are really, really looking and listening.

 

I love that Lewi’s classroom is not confined to anything at all. And I love even more, that I get to share in it everyday.

Kim xx