Online again :)

Finally!

We got our internet connection back on yesterday afternoon. I feel like throwing a party.
For those who missed it, I did mention our woes with a nasty neighbour and a pair of wire-cutters that resulted in the loss of our phone line.

Naomi's antics only got worse; she unilaterally demarcated an area of the garden we share as "hers" and shouted abuse at us for crossing the line into "her" area. Without any warning, of course. We had no idea that garden paths that we had previously been free to use (not to mention the steps down to the pool) were now out-of-bounds.

anytime we approach her, she starts shouting abuse; swearing in front of the children, and basically being horrid. We've tried talking to her calmly and civilly; she's not interested in any discussion or negotiations.

Though the landlord and the real estate agent were both telling her to re-connect our phone line, she flat-out refused. The landlord agreed to have the phone company come out and install a separate line for us, for which we had to wait 2 weeks. And of course, when they finally got out here, it turned out they can't do it without first having a contractor dig a trench for the cables.

Our landlord ended up coming here from Sydney to sort out the mess. Naomi showed herself in true form; dug herself into quite a deep hole, and showed herself to be very childish and petty, not to mention caught herself out in several lies.

The landlord told her off for cutting our phone line, and insisted that she has no right to do so and must leave the connection as it is until we can find a better solution. She grumbled and complained, but since the Landlord was basically saying that if we can't work it out, then he will evict the lot of us and start with fresh tenants, she caved.

So the landlord went and re-connected our phone line! only we still didn't have internet. There was a big hassle with the service provider, and it took another week to get it back online. I'll bitch about Blitz, the ISP from hell later.

For now, we're online again, Purple can work from home, which is a huge stress of us, and we are connected to the outside world :) Ironically, He leaves for Israel tomorrow.

Homeschooling Group

A few families in our area have gotten a local Homeschooling Group together, we meet up every week and let the kids just hang out. It's been a life saver; Littletree is really coming out of her shell, hanging with other children regularly. They all have a lot of fun, playing, and doing activities.

Lately we started renting one of the halls in the area (at $30 for half the day, with all the facilities, its a great deal, especially split amongst a few families). Most of the families are leaning towards unschooling/ natural learning, and natural living. It's a great network for us.

last week was a great day; The kids got into dress-ups and danced around the hall for ages, and played with Barbies.




It was also the birthday of one of the girls, I made her a vegan chocolate cake, all organic, and unrefined, of course, topped with icing I coloured pink with beetroot juice and fresh fruit. It was a big hit (and I love showing off that healthy nutritious stuff can also be decadent and yummy!)




There was also a horse grazing around the hall, so the kids all had a great time patting it and feeding it apple cores :) Littletree was especially excited abut the horse.

Offline

I'm not online much at the moment.
I know, it's strange. Turns out that Naomi, the woman who lives next door to us, cut our phone line. The line runs through her place, so there's basically nothing we can do about it.
Even after the Landlord called her and told her to re-connect it. Even after the Real Estate agent called and wrote to her, telling her to do it. She just refuses.
so we're out of internet.

When we've tried to talk to her about it, she started shouting abuse. Her stance, basically, is that she wants to get rid of us and she doesn't care what happens.

Interesting that she kicked out every other tenant on the property in the last 2 years she's been there. about 10 people have come and gone in that time. We've lasted the longest. She's really just a totally insane control freak, and a pathological liar. Literally everything she says is a lie, and when we call her on it, she just kind of shrugs.

She once said "I'll do whatever it takes to make sure I stay here and this property stays how I want it, for my family, even if that means I have to be deceptive."

Yep, she's a loon.
we're getting a new phone installed.
in the meantime...

I'll fill in later.

Supplies!!!!

My very good friend, Littletree's godmother (well, one of them), known to me as Littletripper (though she's actually a scientist and not little at all), sent to Little tree a huge parcel full of fantablous art supplies in the mail.

Littletree was so excited she opened the parcel right there on the footpath outside the post office.

Seriously, it's a great lot of art and craft stuff; pencils, paints, glitter, scissors, glue, coloured paper, stickers...

Littletree's been hard at work making amazing works of art ever since, and even taken to writing letters to people.
Here she is with the bag of loot:


The funny thing was that the parcel contained a pack of "Brenex" squares. Coloured paper squares that were the staple of my primary school art classes.

Brenex squares are really awesome; they come in lots of bright colours, in shiny and matt; I remember much of my childhood was spent in cutting and glueing collages with them, cutting out "snowflakes", folding origami... Anyway, this is the first time i've seen them in about 20 years, and I've never seen the label, which I was surprised to note seems to be unchanged throughout the ages. Indeed, it seems the label was originally printed sometime in the late '60s, when "new-fangled" metric measurements were introduced into Australia.

As you can see, 10 inches equalled 4 centimetres back then. LOL

Hooray!!!

I just realised that my last post was the Eleventy-First post!!
And that, my friends, is cause for celebration :)
Not to mention, I'm approaching 10,000 views, and I started getting enough clicks to earn real money from the ads on the side bar (keep those clicks comin ;) )
So! for a limited time only, we're having a Fiesta!
All friends and members of the Majikfaerie Cake Cult are cordially invited :p

The April Resolution.

A few months ago, I was stuck in the dilemma of what to do in April.
It seemed the problem was sorted out when my potential birth client decided to live in Melbourne, and I was asked to midwife for an old friend of mine, at the birth of her Twins!
So, yeah, duh. Attending the birth of twins is way higher on my priorities than a rainbow gathering or going to Israel, which I'll do anyway, just later.

The plan was set; Going to stay in Wollongong (just south of Sydney, about 1000km from home) for a month or so, to attend the twin birth in April, then flying to China in May, for the rainbow. I've been hired to attend a birth in Thailand in June, so then we'll go there, and then, after the babies are born, to Israel in July for a couple of weeks before coming home. I'll still miss the rainbow in Victoria, but that's okay; I probably couldn't go anyway because Putple has to work then.

BUT!!

The mother of the twins just went into labour and was rushed off for an emergency Caesarean section. She is now the proud mother of twin boys, born at just 29 weeks. Thankfully, they are all doing okay, though the babies are in the NICU in Sydney.

Of course, I'm glad they are all fine, and yes, I'm a little disappointed that I missed the birth. But, that leaves us free in April. So, it looks like we'll be going to Israel for Passover after all.

Then off to China for the rainbow in May, to Thailand for a birth in June, and back home in July. Handy, as I have another birth booked in August, and thankfully closer to home.

So, it all seems to work out.

I just bought for myself Anne Frye's Holistic Midwifery Vol I and II, which I'm really excited about. There's also a conference I really want to go to; Preparing for Birth and Parenthood. But it seems like it won't be an option; Purple will be in Israel in March, so there's no way I can go to Sydney for three days without Littletree, and even if I brought her with me, I don't know anyone there to watch her. sigh. There will be other conferences.

All that's left to do now is to find tickets to Israel in April.

What's a Wallaby?

Lately, I realised that most everyone in the world knows what a Kangaroo is; you mention Australia, and the first thing people think of is kangaroos.
But Wallabies, and their smaller counterparts, Pademelons, are almost unheard of.
For the layman, they're basically all just smaller versions of the same thing :)
Yesterday morning we stepped out of the house to this, right outside the door.

Man, I love living in the bush :D

Beetroot Candy

Yesterday we made beetroot candy; quite a fun experiment. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing (as usual), just started out with an idea that seemed like a good one.
Littletree was hassling for some 'sukariyot' (sweeties), and I wasn't super keen on the amounts of food colouring and flavourings and whatnots.

So! I took one beetroot, and chopped it up.

cooked it in water for a whiles

Then strained out the beet chunks and put in about a cup of unrefined organic sugar

I cooked it a while, and added some lemon juice. I'm not really sure why the lemon, but there was half a lemon left over from lunch, and it just seemed to make sense. anyway, it made the flavour a bit tangy and cut the sweetness.

Then I just stirred and simmered it for ages

Eventually it got all bubbly and thick. It was fun to play with, and the colour was spectacular.

Then it started to thicken, like a witches brew :)

I think I cooked it for about 30 seconds too long; it started to caramelise so fast, and Littletree managed to burn her finger right at that moment. Anyway, it didn't quite burn, but it got a bit brown. still tasty though. I poured it into star-shaped moulds, and paper patty cake cups to set. It got really stretchy, and Littletree spent ages pulling strings and eating the floss.

Here you have the finished product:

A successful experiment :D