Lost my blogging mojo; but patterns of life continue

So what’s this all about? I know this blog means so much to my folks and it’s lovely to have a few regular readers that enjoy reading it. But life’s been ticking along in its familiar pattern, only perhaps a little too much of a repeating pattern; hence the lack of blog posts (though no doubt… I’ll now launch into a ream of writing on 101 things we’ve been doing and feel so much better!). Here goes…

After Charli’s dance lessons on Saturday I enjoyed one-on-one time with her, lunching at Simply Paris and making an impromptu stop at the most delightful bead shop, Tiger Eye Beads, on Cuba Street. It was full of ladies making jewelry and not a child in sight, but she really wanted to make one. Thankfully, she was delightful in charming the ladies and made the most beautiful necklace (she’s keen to visit again with Dan to make one for my upcoming 35th Birthday, which is so sweet).

A perfect repeating pattern…

Talking of Birthdays… What is it about Birthday’s ending in ‘5’ and ‘0’ in making one ponder life’s direction? Well, I suppose I’m reaching a turning point and beginning to really think about where I’m heading – especially with Sophie starting school in two year’s and it doesn’t look like we’ll have anymore children (well, the planet is already heavily stressed with our species sucking it dry like parasites anyway). The girls have asked me what I want for my Birthday and in an effort to help the planet I’ve said, ‘A worm-farm,’ which was met with surprise and, from Charli, delight. She’s been wanting to get one for a while, but they are $170 so I’ve been holding off… however, if I want my children to contribute to making our environment better, as opposed to adding to the damage, I know I have a big responsibility.

Anyway, enough of the self-analytical babble. Here’s a few snap-shots of life (in between the incessant cleaning).

After school one day I took the girls to beautiful Central Park, in Brooklyn, and then stopped off at CarLucciland… do click on the link and read more about the artist who has such a vision and really knows how to turn other people’s junk into a work of art. The girls were in awe and came away feeling very creative (they whiled away 2 hour’s covering our entire driveway in chalk).

What creative souls they are, with such a delightful thirst for learning (I frequently yearn for more time to stretch my ‘learning’ brain cells, which are rapidly depleting!). Well, to feed their desires, I frequently take them to the museum. Charli really misses it now she’s at school, so I try to take her once a week – she always finds something new to do and learn about – especially now she’s reading so well. The Colossal Squid is incredible and there’s a fabulous on-line game to build your own squid and follow its progress. The girls have a few pet squid now – named ‘Seasea’, ‘BINKIBINK’ and ‘Tinkywa’. I’ve just checked on ‘BINKIBINK’ and he’s now 78 day’s old, weighs 36kg, has travelled 702km and has just escaped a longliner (which was how the museum ended up with their Colossal Squid).

Also at the museum is a stunning Monet and the Impressionists exhibition, from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. One Thursday evening (late night opening) I was fortunate to really savour the exhibition with my friend Rachel, whilst Dan took the girls off my hands (though they have seen the exhibition – however they saw it in ten minutes, whereas Rachel and I took a lot longer…). After a fabulous visit Rachel and I enjoyed a glass of wine at the cafe on Level 4, whilst enjoying the delight of live music (for locals – do check out the ‘Art After Dark‘ which takes place on the third Thursday of every month). This is so the ticket for stay-at-home parents in need of some intellectual stimulation!

All around Wellington ‘Monet’ flags are flying and Wellington Combined Taxis have flags too (Sophie shouts out ‘Monet’ every time she sees one! In the Botanical Gardens there was (not sure if it’s still there – might have been blown away) a hay-stack house (like the one famously painted in numerous colours by Monet):

The other Saturday we continued to wet our cultural appetites by going along to Capital E’s National Arts Festival to see ‘How Big is Blue?‘. Charli had already been along to watch it with her school (as well as Rat Trap Snap! – which she very much disliked – got to love a girl who knows her own mind!). Anyway, ‘How Big is Blue?’ was a fabulous journey of the sensory delights that a child experiences every day; with colour, light, bubbles and textures all combining in an entertaining performance. The journey started out with a baby (an adult in a large ‘pork dumpling’ – Charli’s words) and the actor’s expressions throughout were so incredibly real that I had to remind myself I was watching an adult!

The performance culminated in two children (baby grown up and met a friend) covering themselves and a large white wall in gooey, blue, gunk – with looks of ‘this is so fun… but perhaps we shouldn’t be doing this’ – most definitely entertaining for children and adults alike. With the children in raptures of delight and the adults thinking, ‘Ha, ha, yep, great to do, but not so fun to clean up….’ and since most of my day revolves around random children’s art projects covering my house I could totally relate!

A part of every week day also revolves around school drop off and pick-up. When the weather is fine there is nothing better than an afternoon walk in the valley to pick up Charli. The girls love running down the fields, looking out to sea, rolling in the grass and making wishes as they blow the seed heads off dandelions.

Recently a pod of up to 12 Orcas visited our coastline (drats, we had no idea… until we read about it in the newspaper – must pay someone who’s beach-front to text me when they spot a whale!). Ah well, perhaps I should spend more time supping coffee at The Bach in Island Bay (had some lovely visits there… here and here).

Well, that’s enough ramble. It’s Sunday night and it really should be an early night for us. Dan took the girls out today, so that I could have some ‘head space’ and it felt great to be in the house by myself. I’m going to work on spending more time writing short stories again. As the girls get older I’m finding myself making up stories more and more – to help them understand life’s trials and tribulations.

Ah well, another week of school drop offs, pick ups and play-dates for Sophie and I. Looking forward to catching up with some friends I’ve not seen in months this week. Off to bed now to read Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Blink’, having read ‘Outliers’ recently – very revealing indeed and it’s one social reformers should definitely take note of – really would make a world of difference in providing real opportunities for our young. Also, plenty of lessons on the realities of success coming through hard-work – 10,000 hours seems to be the magic number to reach a professional level – looks like I need to put in more piano hours then! Also very interesting that linguistics has such an influential part to play in our ability to learn mathematics – now there’s the real reason the Chinese are better at maths than us! Time to start teaching our children to count in Chinese!