Januarius Blog

Fruit picking

I am sitting here in the playroom watching the three older kids jumping on the trampoline. They are loving having each other to play with and have had some great times together again this holiday. It seems strange that another summer is passing, this has been our fifth in Australia. Five years, that is what it will be this August, when we left Val and Brads house on a beautiful summer evening with a car load of bags, two children and a word from God that we were doing what he wanted! It seems ages ago and yet it also seems like yesterday.

Had to pause in my reminiscing as George came in asking if we could make paper airplanes again. This has become the summer pastime for George, with Mac joining in when he can. I think we have probably used a few trees worth of paper to make them – 90% recycled though! Many evenings Pete has come home and waded through the failed attempts scattered all over the floor.

This week I have been preserving in as many ways possible some PYO fruit. I remember as a child going fruit picking in the summer months, strawberries, raspberries, red currants and so on so I wanted the children to experience this too. After much hunting about on the internet we found this place. About a 2 hour drive from us. Hmm was it worth it. Well we were also bidding on ebay for a dolls house for Rachel which we won. The pick up was well on the way to the fruit farm so we decided to combine the two and make a day of it all. We heaved ourselves out of bed at a rather early hour for a Sunday morning, even Pete doesn’t get up that early when he is playing bass at church! Piling everyone in the car we set off, picked up the dolls house and carried on up into the mountains.

After a brunch and coffee break, a ‘find an ATM for the cash to pay’ panic, and a ‘where exactly IS this place’ moment we found it. ( exactly where is says it is!) Heading off into the orchard, we realised quickly that it was not going to be a long stay, partly because of the weight of fruit that 5 people can pick adds up fast, but mainly because the heat was stifling. We picked plums, pears, apples, and the biggest peaches I have ever seen!

I told the kids that they weigh all the children as they go in and then on the way out so they can work out how much fruit had been eaten, they believed me – until we walked into the place. Rachel who ‘loves apples so much I am going to marry them’ was happy to sample all the goods! However we thought that we might leave this particularly hairy ‘fruit’ at the orchard…

This had just run down someones back – not mine I am pleased to say!

We headed home and I have been jamming, freezing and eating the 15kg we picked. It was totally worth it. The best quote of the day was from Rachel when she felt a peach on the tree ‘ it’s warm!’

Tags: 2010, children

Look what we have done…

No not another baby! This…

…the floor.

It has been a great bonding experience for both Pete and I. We are chuffed to bits that it has finally been finished, well almost finished, just two more things to do. What is most important is that Josh is now sleeping in there. The smiles are from ear to ear. It has been a long time coming but he is now in his own room and sleeping through. It is fantastic, wonderful and a sigh of relief is echoing around. To add to that the little dear has now reached the graphs on his weight chart!! How fantastic is that, we are all so pleased. His other achievements are that he is clapping, saying mumumumum, dadadadad, waving byebye and blowing raspberries. Not bad we thought, each day there are more little brain cells connecting. You can see him growing and learning it is fascinating, and very watchable.

We are wizzing through the holidays, George said he can’t believe how fast the days are going, neither can I. Rachel starts preschool next week and my mind is beginning to think about, pencils, rulers, shoes, bags, hats and so on. All the things that need to be done before the school term begins again. Actually I am trying hard not to think about it. I am pretending that it will call go away if I ignore it. Do you think that will work?

There was a wedding in the street last week. Our neighbours daughter Emma married Stu in the garden. It was a beautiful setting, just simply at the bottom of the garden which is looking lush, green and immaculate since they had spent the last few weeks before mowing, pruning, raking and much more. It was a great evening, and our kids were a big hit rolling over the lawn, staining their clean shirts with grass. The party went on into the night but we took the kids home after dinner, which our brave boys sampled with initial delight and then decided that they didn’t like that much…

Yes that is what you think it is. Octopus. There is no way I could be tempted by those but there were lots of other great things to eat. It was a wonderful time and I have not listened to music that loud for many years, it made me feel rather old. Mind you a few more years and George will be playing it for the whole street to hear and I’ll be yelling at him to ‘turn it down!’

Oh life would not be as much fun without this lot to share it with…

Tags: 2010, beach, children, Josh, wedding

Quick Lightbox Test

Early prototype of Robot Rachel

Tags: Januarius, Januarius family

Happy New Year!!

Yep in this part of the world we are nearly into the new year, just a few more minutes… It is strange to think that on the other side of the world people still in the middle of new years eve.

We were planning a beach trip today to get in our last swim of the year, but due to the rain the thought of sitting on the beach did not appeal. So we are off for a swim tomorrow at a friends house. Today has been an odd one, with tears and tempers abounding. I am glad to see this year coming to an end, and we have both concluded that the stress of the fourth child has been our undoing this year. Not that there weren’t some wonderful times with old friends and new and welcoming our beautiful boy into our family. It is just that if I think back over the year the pervading thought is Josh and the stress and sleepless nights that have occurred over him and his rather wobbly start in life. However we thank God that he is growing rapidly, talking, crawling and being totally absorbed by his older siblings. He is doing wonderfully well and it will be even better once we have finished his floor so he can move into his own room!

I am shattered and the day is almost done so I am going to wish everyone a happy new year and praise God that we are able to enter the next year with each other and four children whose love for life is abounding, energy never ending and desire for learning seemingly inexhaustible.

goodnight all, see you next year!

Tags: 2009, Australia, beach, children, God, Home

Merry Christmas to all

Just a quick post to show you what we have been doing these last few days and to wish you all a Merry Christmas! We pray that God will draw close to all at this time and speak into your lives and show you his love for you. Thank you God for your son at this wonderful time of year!

It is officially 30 mins into christmas day here so I am off to bed so very soon. Santa has been and I am hoping that there will be a few hungry children in the morning since he seems to have brought lots of snack packs this year.

We have decorated..

We have baked, and baked and baked.

All in 30 degree heat so we needed a paddle ….

Now we are planning a quick beach trip tomorrow before the predicted rain occurs. I am off for the night, before I consume any more peppermint bark… Oh how yummy, this stuff is addictive and is going to become a tradition in this house, especially since it looks as if I am going to be the one to eat it all!

Goodnight  and Merry Christmas again to one and all.

Tags: 2009, children, christianity, Christmas, God, Januarius family

Catch up

I am here honest! We are rushing through to the end of the term and I am so looking forward to the school holidays. Three more days to go … not that I am counting. It will be lovely not to have to leap out of bed each morning and run into the day. Some days just don’t start well and then the morning falls apart. People ask me how I cope with four little people and honestly there are some lots of days when I don’t and the only way I manage is to take a deep breath and lean heavily on God! If I can get to the end of the day having fed and watered them all and got them all to bed I think I am doing well.

So before I show you pictures of our beautiful tree and other decorations which are going up slowly about the house, I thought I should show you some of the stuff we have been up to since the computer went on the blink…

There were two birthdays…

Yes the that cake really is pink sponge, my attempt at red failed and the amount needed to rectify the problem was not going to be good for anyones health.

We rescued a possum..

Climbed to the top….

Had some family bonding time…

Watched the sunsets..

Did some digging…

Made a mess

Watched him grow..

Had some wonderful friends from the UK to visit…

and Val, my tree is still growing and I am hoping to harvest in the next few weeks if not days!

On to Christmas…

Tags: 2009, children, God, Home, Visitors

We are hopefully back on track..

Sorry about the months of lack of post we have had a few technical issues and not much time to get them sorted!

This is a quick post to say we are still here but the technical issues have meant no pictures or links able to be posted, Pete thinks he might have found the problem but I am not trying tonight – it is well past my bed time!

You know it is hot when…

..the car becomes an oven and the seat belts become branding irons.

..the children complain that their seats in the car are too hot to sit in.

…you can finish pegging out the washing and start collecting in the stuff you hung out first.

…you need another shower about five minutes after you finished the last.

…you can feel the heat radiating up from the ground – through your shoes

…you shut the windows because you want to keep the house cool

…the water comes out hot from the cold tap

..you fall asleep to the sound of whirring fans

…a rumble of thunder gets you heading outside to feel the rain

…in the middle of the day even the birds are quiet

The weekend just gone was a small heat wave. I have only ever been over 40 degrees once before and it is not fun, especially when there are little children involved.

As a quick postscript to this I have just managed to pull my first tooth. George was the willing victim and he nobly let me attempt it several times before I got it! I was so proud of myself – and him. Right now I am off to check the markets to see what the going rate for a tooth is these days…

Tags: children, heatwave, summer

Playing tourist part 2

Where were we…

After the very memorable ‘dusty day’ as Rachel has nicknamed it when the topsoil from the centre of Australia was blown across Sydney creating a Mars like look to the morning, we had a birthday to celebrate.

Yep our little girl has grown another year older and as you can see has reached the grand old age of 3! She requested a ‘white chocolate birthday cake, please’. So after hunting about on the internet I found this one. Jen and I were a little concerned about exactly HOW much white chocolate had to be added, along with the butter and sugar. My token gesture of raspberries on the top to make it slightly less sweet did actually work and all in all it worked well and was greeted with great delight when presented with sparklers and candles on top.

After dinner it was the grand present opening and this smile makes me smile too…

We found some little mice to dress up from here and Jen and I had spent the night before dressing the mice in all the sweet little clothes. Along with a new tin tea set and colouring books she was a happy girl!

After that cake and a sleep we needed a walk to burn off some of the calories! So we decided to walk up to the top of Barrenjoey headland (Home and Away is filmed there y’know) and admire the view. We had 2 hours on the parking ticket, tired little person and lunch to eat at the top. So it was a challenge but we made it and the weather was fantastic…

The next and final trip we planned for Jen and to celebrate Rachel’s birthday was a trip to the Blue mountains. So on Saturday we loaded up and drove 1.5 hours into the mountains. We climbed out at Echo point, Katoomba with picnic in hand and promptly froze. As we donned coats snow began to fall. We could not believe it! Jen had by this time experienced all possible weather conditions in 2.5 weeks. The only one she missed out on was heavy rain. The wind was strong and freezing on the top but then we caught the cable car down into the valley and were out of the wind. We had a great time and caught the train back up – frightening ourselves as we had to hold Rachel and Josh in a slipery seat at a 52 degree angle ( yes that IS how steep it is and what is more you go backwards up the slope!)

So that was the end of a memorable trip for Jen and a great time for us all.

Tags: 2009, Birthdays, Blue mountains, tourists, Visitors

Playing tourist part 1

Having started this post I realised that it was going to either be one huge post or two reasonable sized posts so I am going to do it in two parts. We have spent the last 2.5 weeks playing tourists in our fantastic area, something I recommend to all – not ours  but yours, when was the last time you went to explore the sights of your own area? So after the birthday party we…

went to North head,

we caught the Manly ferry to the city and had a guided tour around the Opera House,

we drove up to Gosford to see the reptile park where we saw,

a tortoise,

alligators,

crocodiles being fed,

and Funnel webs – of course!

Then we went to Longreef headland

and to the beach on a very dusty day!

So that was the first half of Jennys stay, and a memorable one it was too!

Tags: 2009, dust storm, Sydney, tourism

The Orange Experience

The world was orange today. Lots of dust blown right across Australia to Sydney. The first time in living memory apparently.

The Orange Sky

The Orange Sky 2

The Orange Sky 3

The Orange Sky 4

Tags: dust storm, orange sky, Sydney