Tick

Mailswap letters out. Tick
Wardrobes moves out into the garage for sale. Tick
Whole family almost over flu. Tick (Still lots of coughing and snot and misery)
Many boxes of non-essential stuff packed. Tick. (And many more to go)
Many boxes of stuff chucked or in the garage sale pile for the weekend. Tick

So much more to do....

Our boring packing aside, for various reasons I have been thinking about community. Claire found the most lovely thing on building community recently. My misbehaving computer won't let me make this any larger so I hope you can read it.

So many of those points speak to me and I am definitely guilty of hiding in my hidey hole and keeping to myself but there's certainly a community thing happening around me that is really inspiring me to change.

Our neighbours kindly offered us the use of their trailer on the weekend and on discovering that our towbar was not compatible, offered their car as well. Then they also offered to babysit.

Another neighbour, who has an affinity with our ailing cat, offered to take him to the vet as she knew we're in a bit of a tizz with the move. She took him over, paid for it, refused repayment and is currently nursing him back to health.

I have a friend coming over tomorrow who is planning to put her babe down for her megasnooze here and take my non-snoozing children for a walk so I can get some quality sorting done. And there's 2 more of my golden girlfriends planning to do the same.

So you can see why I've been thinking about community. My only problem is in wondering how on Earth I can repay these generous people. (So far I'm thinking along the lines of lavish picnics at our new place once the snow thaws!)

P.S It's not snowing there yet but after the icy chill I experienced there the other day, I know it will!
P.P.S Here's another inspiring community-minded person.

Connections

Today I discovered a new tier of female bonding. A girlfriend of mine with kids of the same age and I occasionally skype each other when we can't cross town for a proper catch up. This stems from her time living in London when real catch ups were few and far between.

Today, around lunchtime we connected on skype, had a chat, fed our babes in their highchairs in view of each other, toddled off at times to do various jobs with the connection still running, with one kid napping on the couch (we could see) and another kid drawing in front of the monitor (mine).

Tonight I'm pondering on this form of technology assisted connection. Is it a little voyeuristic? Lazy? False? Nah...

Or just another way of feeling closer to our peeps? I reckon if I can keep a sense of connection with my friends of gold once we move, I'll be a happy lady, and any fears of missing the city will be alaid.

On the Packathon 2009 front, we were set back a few days by a dramatic stomach flu that had the whole family competing for the toilet bowl. Ew. All feeling much better now so the pack or chuck continues in a different sense. Ahem.

BTW, the picture above is the view from my soon to be loungeroom. We look so subdued in front of the 'sold' sign below but believe me, we're absolutely wetting ourselves with excitement!

Thursday Thankful (after getting a good whinge off my chest).

Mmm. Today was better. Consisted of getting out of the house early and good company. Might just be the secret to this caper. Avoid being home = home doesn't get so feral. Helps that the sun was a little bit shiny today too.

I've been meaning to show some sewing awesomeness that unfortunately was not crafted by me. My talented aunty 'whipped them up' and popped them in the post for Willow just because.



The little tunic is reversible, which is fortunate because if Willow smothers one side in something unsightly, I can whip it off her, turn it around and voila! A new, clean frock! (Well no one else has to know!)

Included with the wonder tunic were matching pants (not shown here) and this sweet little vest.

I'm still struggling with the pathetic scarf that I started knitting last year so such handy knitting skills are greatly admired. Maybe if I keep practising I'll have the skillz by the time this girl has her own kids.

The Scream (or Wednesday Whinge)

It's a cold, cold day in Melbourne today. There's a temporary lull in the house which has resembled that of Victoria's place yesterday. Hence the title of this post. I'm less likely to cry than to scream (on the inside) and feel very much like the fella in Munch painting.

The house is waaay out of control. Stickiness and dustbunnies abound. The pilot light in our heater keeps going out so I'm trying to dry loads of laundry in front of a small column heater. A brutal fight just broke out between two possums in the ceiling and I am now typing one-handed because my baby thinks that my hip is the only place she can be today without crying. She also believes that the only way to eat food is to smear it from head to toe. My big girl is on the couch giving her (loud) voice a rest by drawing in a picture book - I can't even summon up the energy to tell her to find some paper to draw on.

Luckily there's a big apple pie in the oven which will be ready in about 15 minutes to keep us all happy for a little while...

Lately...

I've been...

playing with lego
washing and folding
nature walking
fretting
dreaming
baking zucchini slice
posting
kid-wrangling
photographing
making soup
snuggling

and buying a house!