Why travel with children?

Easter camping at Freycinet NP is lovely. There are lots of people here but you wouldn't know it - campsites are tucked into the dunes, each with their own sea view or beach access, coastal forest surrounds the campsites, there are walks long and short to be done (if that's your thing) and at least one trendy cafe to get a good coffee. On the whole this is a special place that we've returned to.
But this time I feel exhausted just chasing kids. Camping makes sleep, washing, cooking, hygiene etc... just that little bit more complex and I've found myself asking that question that pops up without really noticing it: Is it worth it?
Pure emotions tell me No! But there must be more to it than that.
So today my gratitude is for the joys of travelling with my little ones.
I'm so thankful today for:
Rosie's love of nature and the outdoors
Games of scrabble with grandparents
Bethany walking in her cute shoes
Spelling lessons on the beach
A call from my love from a yacht out to sea
The sweet delights of hiding Easter eggs ready to be discovered tomorrow morning :-)

Why do I travel?

We're travelling again. Visiting places new and old in Tasmania while Ian does the Three Peaks race again.
After a mad day yesterday on the boat over (up early, still driving late, a car and camper trailer on the boat over Bass Strait) we had another exciting day dropping Ian off on his team's yacht for the race, driving through Tassie's beautiful scenery, then finally putting up said camper trailer near the most beautiful beach setting you could imagine.
During all these comings and goings I've questioned my motives for travelling. You see, I like home. Home is where I feel safe and able to have more control over my environment. It's where I've hidden in times of need and where I can knit and sew and garden and otherwise lead a creative life.
And yet, travelling is something I've done quite a bit of over the years and its something that I've always looked forward too. Only now, with children and post natal depression, it feels different. The thrill of new places has been replaced with a more subtle and perhaps genuine feeling. And its taking me a while to get used to.
So I ask myself - if its not thrilling, then is it worth going? Why not just stay at home and follow those creative pursuits and grow those veggies?
Today I struggled with an answer. I feel displaced instead of thrilled.
And so I aim, with these travel posts, to honestly reach for those beautiful moments each day, too see my travel experiences through fresh, more experienced eyes and to hopefully find an answer to my question.
Some beautiful moments today:
Ian happily aboard his yacht ready for the race
A beautiful beach scene
Bethany helping Pop put up their tent
Rosie loving her time around Nana
Still finding time for knitting
A hot chocolate in the dark as waves lap on the beach

Snug with a bug

My love and I had been awaiting our weekend away without cherubs, the first in five years, for the wedding of some lovely friends at the beach. What more could we ask for? Parents in law who were more than happy to look after our two girls, a cabin booked at the beach, coffees together where we could Talk. Seriously. Together.
I knitted half a vest for Rosie as we drove there, we talked about dreams for the future and had a lovely lunch together. Then came a beautiful wedding ceremony and the raw emotions of our two friends in love followed by a reception on a river...
All was going well until Ian began feeling unwell after eating dinner...we left the wedding early... vomiting (oh how I hate that word) followed... and then around midnight I started feeling unwell and followed suit. We were snug with a bug - so romantic.
Happily I can now report, after limping back to said parents I law, that we're feeling we'll again. Sigh x x x

Little fairy in the garden

In gratitude for the little pleasures in life :-)

Our 'Favourite thing of the day'

Nature art, guinea pigs, handmade clothes and the golden words...

With Ian away these past two days (running an off-road 42km in Melbourne - he came 4th) I've worked hard to plan some activities away and at home. Between watching a mountain bike race in Bright, a lovely nature walk to collect items for painting with, painting some familiar words and playing with our guinea pigs, I also managed to sew two pairs of pyjama pants (matching of course!) and finish Bethany's Plum Pie vest (another Milo, this time in Sublime baby cashmere merino silk dk).

After these two wonderful days Rosie tells me, during our nightly "What's the best thing that happened today?" (known to us as just 'favourite thing of the day') at dinnertime, that creating artwork from natural materials was her favourite. And it was a real joy for me to see her happiness and engagement as we chose leaves and discussed native and introduced species. My 'favourite thing of the day' was seeing little Bethany in her new vest playing happily alongside her big sister.

It was a special time for all of us.

Homeschooling trial #1

You know, I've read so much about homeschooling - from how-to books to personal accounts to blogs of families living it. And so much of what I've read resonates with me. The philosophies of independent learning, of teaching to the individual child, of holistic learning, of project-based child-led learning...the list could go on...are ones that I feel very deeply about. As a teacher these were what drove me to succeed with my students. I didn't care about the money, although it was good, and yes, the holidays were nice, but these were side-benefits. What really motivated me day-to-day in the classroom, and what still motivates me now with my own children, is providing the optimal learning environment. I don't know how much time I've spent in my life preparing myself to be the best teacher possible, but it seems that almost everything I've done has geared me towards the schooling of my own children.
Having said all this, I know that traditional schooling has a lot to offer and that teachers are doing their best to teach each individual child. So I've been in a bit of a quandary these past few months - do I homeschool at all? Do I leave it to the teachers? What is the role of traditional schooling? What is my role as parent in my child's learning? How do I find a balance that works for us? And tied messily around all of this are a whole lot of ideas from my past about school being everything, or at least the most important thing.
And so, with some trepidation, I gave Rosie the option last night of having a day of homeschooling today. I like to say she jumped at the chance, but the reality was a more cautious 'Yes' - she wasn't really sure what was going to happen either. And so I prepared some materials last night, made an open plan to guide us, factored in some housework and some errands down the street (and the needs of toddler Bethany of course) and was prepared for our first day learning formally together.
How did it go? Check out these pictures, and believe me when I say we had one very motivated girl :-)

The garden Marches on

The veggie patch is showing its last hurrah of growth and productivity in this month of March. The snake beans started producing their long tendrils about 3 weeks ago and continue to do so. The heirloom tomatoes I grew from seeds back in November are finally beginning to ripen, although I suspect we are almost too late for anymore to change colour. The zucchinis at still growing, growing and I noticed today another few ready to be picked, dried and put away for Winter.
Also, in anticipation of the coming colder months, my order of seeds from Southern Harvest in Tasmania arrived today - very excited!

Recycled flags

Okay, I mentioned these a couple of days ago and here they are - homemade, handmade flags recycled (up cycled?) from retro pillowcases I found at the op shop last week.
I imagined, as I sewed, that an old lady had gone through her linen cupboard and decided that these pillowcases had seen better days and needed to be passed on (who knows - maybe someone more needy than herself could use them?).
Little does she know what they have become! (And what joy and celebration they bring to our house...).

Slow writing, slow living

The act of handwriting seems to be becoming old-fashioned, at least for me. Yes, it's alive and well in Rosie's classroom and everyone I know can write, but often I choose to type instead. Especially my ideas. It's as if they are more professional, more meaningful and more modern if I type them.
And yet something is lost in the act of typing. Oftentimes I type, I WANT to type because it saves me time. But what am I really 'saving' time for? Yes, I could be virtuously saving that time to spend with my girls. But the reality most of the time is that I'm rushing through my writing so I can then rush through another task. You see. I'm not fully present in any of this. I'm rushing as if everything else is more important than whatever I'm currently doing....hmmmm.
So today I'm handwriting my post first. I'm focussing on the slowness with which I write, on the stiffness in my hand because I hardly handwrite anymore and on the way that I have time to think a little more deeply when I write more slowly.
Here's to a slower, more meaningful life :-)

The stitches that weave us together

Tis a curious thing, feeling overwhelmed. It happens a lot to me, in a variety of situations, and is worse since I had my baby girls. I suppose to myself, sometimes daily, that I have given part of my heart to them - and that leaves me so emotionally raw that sometimes I can't leave the house. I just want to hide from the world in my garden or my sewing. It is not, my friends, that I don't love you. But some days, like today, I feel over stretched, overwhelmed, over stitched.
It's a bit like the knitting I've been working on lately - a lovely little vest for Bethany in a colour called Plum Pie - wool and cashmere.... it really is soft and beautiful. But as I've knitted away I've been thinking about knitting as a metaphor for our friends and family - the way we really are all linked together, like part of some great tapestry that has been stitched together - the colours change, the threads might vary in thickness, but overall we're part of the same big picture. The way we are twisted and woven, intertwined with others in so many different ways. I love this, that there isn't really any separation between us all - in fact most of the time I feel this, intuitively, emotionally, and it helps me to empathise and see the detail and the big picture.
But since I've become a Mummy of two, sometimes I feel over stitched, too tightly woven, and choked by my own very sensitive emotions about the special people in my life.
Today is one of those overwhelming days - oh I might look fine on the outside...but I'm very good at hiding my feeling you see (unless they get very out of control)...
So...I take deep breaths, I look around me and try really, really hard to appreciate all the awesome things that I'm doing, I slow myself down to stop the panic and I appreciate the little things.
Happy days to you all, I wish you calm and delight in your life.