Five minutes' peace

I should be banned from having a blog until I can get myself organised. I have all these pictures on my computer and all these stories in my head, and I just can't find the time and the space and the peace to sit and put it together.

Sitting still, relaxing, unwinding – those things are not in my repertoire these days. Kickbaby, on the other hand...

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Spring

When I lived in Vancouver, one of the things that surprised and delighted me most was the spring – with its real spring flowers. After growing up in Brisbane where the main seasonal changes seemed to be handled by jasmine (in October) and Mayflowers (in, uh, September), it was a complete novelty to see daffodils and tulips springing out of the ground everywhere.

They don't spring out of the ground down here, and I doubt they'd thank me for leaving them out in the Mississippi heat. Instead, I buy them in pots and treat them gently in the house... and today I took them outside to have a look at the sun.

Valentine

Berry loves making cards too. These are the many suns and flowers she drew for Valentine's Day.

Also, some eyes and mouths without faces. But we'll skim over those, since they don't quite fit the Valentiney theme. Who knows what happens in the minds of three-year-olds....

Say what?

You might think this is called a merry-go-round, but you'd be wrong. This is called "American-round".

Berry takes patriotism to places you never even thought of.

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Random Retro Photo: Seattle '06

We were in Banana Republic in downtown Seattle when Berry discovered someone absolutely fascinating in the mirror.

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Happy Australia Day!

Australia Day was actually on January 26th, so the week-long delay neatly demonstrates how organised I am at the moment. I'm flat out with custom work, and the children keep needing to be cleaned and dressed and amused and fed six times a day, no matter how often I tell them that when I was a girl, we did without all that. Photographic evidence will back me up later. But for now, you'll have to excuse me while I go fold three weeks' worth of laundry, calculate last month's state taxes and clean all the pink ink off the press.




{ps: sadly, it is not snowing here... I took this photo in Leavenworth, Washington, on a January evening in 2006}

Random Retro Photo: 1977

Although I can only see one candle, I'm pretty sure this was my sister's second birthday (she's the showy little character on the right).

I wish Mum had kept our dresses – I'd make Berry wear them in a heartbeat. And I covet the crockery cabinet behind us with the bubble glass... I could decorate a whole room around that.

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Job description

"Mommy, who that is?"

"That's Barack Obama. He's our president now."

"What president means?"

"It means he's going to look after our country and try to look after us and help our country to do good things."

"Oh. Is he our daddy?"

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Ready

I came to America in July of 2001, wondering if I'd ever be allowed to stay. I had to get through all kinds of expensive, stressful bureaucratic hoops to get a work visa, and later a fiancee visa, and later still my green card.

But ever since I became eligible for US citizenship a couple of years ago, I've been in a mental holding pattern about it. I couldn't picture myself pledging allegiance; I couldn't take the leap. But today I decided – I'm doing this.

Now, at last, it feels like time. Things have changed, and this country feels like mine.


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Random Retro Photo: 2006

Berry lost a tiny pink sock in Notre Dame early one October morning. I feel it is her most culturally-interesting sock-loss so far.

Also, I'm pretty sure I learned the French for "Oh! Your baby has lost her sock!" though sheer repetition.