Queensland Flood Relief

The great folk at Nuffnang came up with a great way to raise funds to donate to the Queensland flood relief. Bloggers were invited to contribute something to be auctioned off, with all money going to the Premier’s Flood Relief Fund.

You can see the full details HERE

I’m donating one of my hand-made crocheted water bottle holders – made to order in any colour or size requested (up to 1.5L spring water bottle size) of the kind my friend and I are modelling

As Littletree would say, they’re ‘super-stylin’ and practical too. Never get caught without good drinking water.

You can see the full details of the eBay auction HERE

You can also donate direct to the flood relief fund HERE

Rainbow Adventure

We’ve been out at the Australian Rainbow Gathering on and off for the last week and a half – well, to be more accurate, Purple was there on and off, Littletree was there for the whole time, and I just popped in for a day.

Purple and Littletree went out the weekend before last, just planning to stay two days. They had a great time (while I stayed home waiting on a client due to start her birthing process any day now).

But when it came time to go home, Littletree was having such a great time, she didn’t want to leave. Some very good friends of ours offered to take care of her for a few days till Purple and I could come back the following weekend to pick her up. The site is very conveniently located just a few minutes from a small village with a phone and only 2 hours drive from home, so it was agreed that if there’s any problem someone would call us to come out and get her immediately.

Pretty confronting! I missed my little girl; it was the first time she was without her parents for five days! She did call us twice to say hi and have a chat, both times I asked her if she wanted me to come and get her, both times she insisted she wanted to stay. I knew I could trust the people taking care of her, and there were a lot of parents with unschooled kids out there, as well as several women Littletree knows well from past gatherings and feels connected with, so I surrendered, knowing that she was safe and cared for, following her own path.

As parents, we all know there will come a time when our kids grow up, become more independent and start going out to parties and festivals without us. I knew that day would come… but I didn’t expect it this soon!

Littletree is simply confident and independent. She knows what she needs and can clearly communicate and express herself. I wonder what happened to all those people who said if I breastfeed too long or let her sleep in the bed with me or carry her in a sling all the time she’d end up never learning how to cope on her own and I’d have her clinging to my skirts forever? I guess that will kick in any day now.

In any case, I went out on Friday with Purple to pick her up, and still she wanted to stay, so Purple spent the weekend at rainbow with Littletree, I just spent a day out there and came home.

Twas lovely to see everyone, and feel the energy, however briefly.

And now Littletree is home again, we’re spending lots of time together, just hanging out. :)

A Call for Healing

My friends Earth Mama and Autumn’s little boy, Jallahyn, who was born into my hands, and is dear to all our hearts, is gravely ill.

He has developed septic arthritis in his left hip joint, which is spreading down his thigh bone. Today he is scheduled for his third surgery at the Mater hospital in Brisbane to try to clear this out.

Please send healing energy, prayers and blessings to all the family.

This Stick was made for walking

All this rain has brought the oddest things out of the bush. The other day at a client’s house this little guy wandered onto the driveway

He’s quite well camouflaged on the gravel, but as you can see, he’s as long as a man’s forearm. A thing of beauty, with big blue thorn-like spikes and wings, he was quite friendly.

 

Flexibility

Purple and Littletree went to the Australian Rainbow Gathering this weekend… and yes, I’m still at home.

It’s the first time ever either of them have gone to rainbow without me. I have a client due to birth any day now, so I’m staying home. Littletree was so excited to go to rainbow and see her friends, she didn’t really mind that I wasn’t going too.

It’s all about being flexible. On one hand, I so much want to keep my child at my side and protect her from everything, on the other hand, I do trust her, and she needs to know that I support her while at the same time she has her freedom.

Anyway, she’s there with Purple, so I shouldn’t worry! And I am a tad wishing I was at the rainbow too, though to be honest, I’m also glad to be out of the rain and mud and keeping myself healthy.

Before they left, Littletree was doing some acrobatics and showing off her circus skills, and I asked her if she can stand on her head. This was the reply:

 

LOL! She’s always been very flexible from her fingers to her toes

Keeping Our Heads Above Water

Unless you’ve been living in a cave (one on very high ground), no doubt you’ve heard about the flooding that’s going on now in Australia.

I’ve gotten a lot of messages from concerned folk – first of all, let me say: yes, we are fine, safe and above the flood level.

The waters are rising all around us, we’re quite trapped in our little area, which has become an island in a sea of torrents. Our home is on top of a very steep hill, so although many of our neighbours are flooded under, and we couldn’t leave our village or get very far up the road for a while, our home is out of the water.

I went to the supermarket while I could and stocked up – the place was packed full of people getting cases of tinned food. One of my friends said she got to her local town after being cut off for days, only to find the town was running out of food.

Many of our neighbours haven’t been so lucky, and people living around here, many thousands of people, have lost their homes. The area flooded is massive. It’s hard to really conceive of it, a week ago the news report was an area of Queensland the size of Germany and France combined. This week parts of New South Wales, a town to the south of us, Grafton – a town I used to live in and have many friends and people I call family in – flooded. That adds enough area to the flood-devastated region to throw in Spain as well.

I send my prayers and blessings to all those affected. I can’t imagine, really, even though I can see the raging waters, I can’t quite wrap my brain around the magnitude of this flood, and the ferocity of nature, ripping everything clean.

I think of the people who managed to get out, evacuate in time with their loved ones and valuables, expecting to come back to water damage, but still have their home, only to find that their roof was ripped off by passing cars rushing through the torrent.

Whole cities, whole communities are under water. And still it continues to rain.

Chemistry Obsession

Littletree has been really getting into the chemistry and physics kit she got for Yule from her wonderful godmother Poly Nucleotide.

It was her favourite gift and exactly what she wanted for a long time, it also goes well with the microscope she got a while back.

First off we sat and read through the instructions together. Littletree took the safety precautions *very* seriously and wore all the included safety equipment diligently. She was even nervous that I was supervising her and I didn’t have protective goggles on.

She got to learn about a few different compounds and polymers, and practice using equipment like pipettes and test tubes for measuring

She made lots of cool stuff, including rubber putty and glow-in-the-dark bouncy balls, and a bunch of stuff that explains a few concepts in physics

The funny thing is the kit is labelled “For ages 10+”, apparently Poly didn’t manage to find anything labelled for younger kids – it seems 7 year olds aren’t supposed to be “ready” for chemistry and physics at any serious level. Littletree read that label and we thought it odd; the kit is really a bit basic for a 10 year old, but we remembered that at 10, most kids in school haven’t been really introduced to chemistry or physics, so maybe it does make sense. LOL

Another Trip Around the Sun

The end of another year, at least by some calculations. I hope everyone had a great year! Sending out lots of blessings for the coming year, I hope it’s healing and rejuvenating.

My sister Chicky came up for the weekend with her fiancée River. It’s great to have a quick catch-up with Chicky, and really great to get to meet River for the first time, especially since we wont see them again till the wedding, which is in just four weeks.

Littletree is super excited to see her Aunt, and even more excited that she’s going to be a flower girl at their wedding.

 

Happy 2011!