One of many gifts

A beautiful book titled simplyWisdom is one of the amazing gifts that entered our household this Christmas. On the website link, you will find some fascinating snippits in a video format. Check it out if you are so inclined and enjoy the wisdom these people share. I know I will treasure this work.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! Wishing you all the joys of the season!

Day 24: Read "The Night Before Christmas"

Over the years, we've collected several versions of this story, including the Cajun, Redneck, and now Aussie tales. For Christmas Eve, we read the classic. I hope in the future we'll spend the greater part of December reading through "A Christmas Carol" as a family, but right now that's a bit much for our girls. "The Night Before Christmas" is just our speed, and it's always a joy.

Day 23: Welcome our guests!

Markus's mother and sister arrive today to spend the holiday and ring in the new year far away from the German wintry rain and cold. Having recently been all too familiar with European winter, I certainly appreciate their timing! It will be wonderful to have our first visitors over our first Christmas in the new place. It doesn't feel like Christmas since we're not used to celebrating it in the summertime, but it is beautiful and always a good time to see family!

Aussie Love Poem

As part of my ongoing multicultural and local lingo education, this poem was forwarded to me by my gorgeous red-haired girlfriend from Sydney. She has two busy little boys, each of whom she calls "mistah."

Aussie Love Poem

Of course I love ya darling
You're a bloody top notch bird
And when I say you're gorgeous
I mean every single word
So ya bum is on the big side
I don't mind a bit of flab
It means that when I'm ready
There's somethin there to grab
So your belly isn't flat no more
I tell ya, I don't care
So long as when I cuddle ya
I can get my arms round there
No Sheila who is your age
Has nice round perky breasts
They just gave in to gravity
But I know ya did ya best
I'm tellin ya the truth now
I never tell ya lies
I think its very sexy
That you've got dimples on ya thighs
I swear on me nanna's grave now
The moment that we met
I thought u was as good as
I was ever gonna get
No matter wot u look like
I'll always love ya dear
Now shut up while the footy's on
And fetch another beer.

Weekly Video Post

Observe the level of wild hysteria and amusement. Can't you tell it's bedtime?

Happiness is...

...making time for simple pleasures.


...a muffin as big as your face.


...bouncing on a trampoline in a "princess dress".


...protecting that adorable noggin.


...father-daughter time.


May the holiday season bring you and yours much happiness and joy!

Day 22: Bake Christmas cookies.

I've been putting this off, because cookies baked are cookies eaten. Instantly (usually by me when no one is watching). Markus's mother and sister will be arriving tomorrow for their 3 week Christmas visit, so it seemed time to have some cookies in the house! Watch for recipe links to show up in the sidebar once the baking slows. Tomorrow will be all about the decorating!

Day 21: Have a solstice feast.

Summer solstice in December is new to us, but we celebrated in style.
Menu: maple-thyme glazed salmon, snow peas in lemon butter, corn on the cob, black & white quinoa, Margaret River white wine. And iced tea, of course.
Ellie ate some leftover pasta. Whatcha gonna do?

Day 20: Have a picnic dinner.

We are nowhere near the championship picnic level inherent to locals, but we do enjoy meals outside. People here take it so seriously! They picnic ALL DAY. As Markus says, we wouldn't be surprised to see them erect a huge white tent with Persian carpets inside. This is serious business. Our family picnics, on the other hand, involve lots of last minute scrambling to assemble assorted foods the kids will eat and the adults should eat, plus drinks. We keep the blanket and two chairs in the car; that's about as pro as we go. Still, you can't beat a picnic in this glorious weather! I know it's bad for the farmers, but I am enjoying this extended spring so much!

The real purpose of Lamaze

We've all seen it in the movies. A woman goes into labor and instantly starts huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf, doing her best at Hollywood Lamaze breathing. Deep, regular breathing, we are told, will help women cope with labor, meaning it makes the pain less, right? Speaking as a woman who has gone the natural birth route, let me clear that up: it doesn't. What it DOES do is make you breathe, a highly underrated activity. Focused regular breathing can help keep stress levels down or reduce stress further. When in pain, focused breathing has many benefits. It prevents holding your breath or hyperventilating, both of which reduce oxygen in your system and increase stress considerably. It also has the marvelous, untold benefit of keeping you from screaming or swearing or both. All of these benefits will come in handy again, say sometime when you are reaching into the fridge with a baby on one hip and an expectant child at your leg and you knock a glass bowl out and onto your big toe, where the bowl promptly breaks and leaves your toe (and thus the rest of you) in momentary white-hot, throbbing agony.
Lamaze: learn it for life.

Day 19: Invite friends for a Christmas tea party.

This is another activity that was heavily adapted as the reality of busy parent schedules factored in. Last week, two of Ellie's friends came over to decorate Christmas ornaments and to jump on the trampoline until they were all exhausted. Today, we met up with another of Ellie's friends at a huge indoor playground, where they ran around like monkeys and played to their hearts' content. Maybe next year we'll get to the tea party with Christmas cookies, but this year the alternatives were just as fun!

Day 18: Purchase a gift for charity.

Two weekends ago as I worked at the toy library, I was chatting with my co-worker about the gorgeous extended spring we've had. He is from Nepal, but he has been living here for the past 3 years. He was commenting that the weather is most unusual for this time of year. I responded with how much I am enjoying it, especially given the fact that our A/C is still not installed (should have been done a month ago) and the children don't sleep well in the heat. He said, "Yes, it is nice for us, but what about the farmers? How will this weather impact the growing of food?" This simple, casual exchange reminded me once again of the bounty of our blessings. Nepal is filled with families who rely on subsistence farming for survival. I have never had to worry about food supply; he has. How easy it is to take for granted one of the greatest blessings of all!

As our children grow older, I hope they will participate in the annual selection of a charity. This year, given her joy at the Cuddly Animal Farm, I thought Ellie would like selecting a gift from Heifer International. In a snippit from their website, "In FY2007, Heifer had 867 active projects in 53 countries/provinces and 28 U.S. states. Heifer projects around the world help families achieve self-reliance through the gift of livestock and training. Gifts are passed from recipient to recipient until entire communities are transformed." For as little as $20, you can give a gift of a flock of chicks, ducks or geese...and it goes up from there. Selecting animals with older kids can be a lot of fun and a great learning experience, weighing up the potential benefits for the recipient (a sheep and a goat cost the same, so what is the real difference for the community that receives it?). This allows children to participate in charitable giving in a way that is tangible and has meaning for them. It is my hope that my children will grow to understand how rich our lives truly are and how blessed we can be to share our resources and our talents to make even the smallest difference in the world.

Surfing for Sanity

I am sitting here surfing the internet, mostly looking at other people's wondrous creativity, in hopes to stave off the inevitable descent into madness that accompanies having a mini-adult in the house. Oh my goodness. When the Terrible 2s started at 18 months, I was relieved, thinking we'd be out of the woods earlier too. Hardy har har. Here we are past 39 months (that's nearly 2 years later!), and the woods are closing in around me, people! She has not outgrown the tantrums. Instead, she has refined and enhanced them to take fit-throwing to a whole new level of insanity-inducing mania. The thing is, to the untrained eye, she is still WORLDS ahead of most kiddies her age. Most parents who've been through this age (or are going through it now) would wonder why I'm so fussed (unless they are party to the actual fit). You see, typical toddler/preschooler behavior has never been her thing. She knows EXACTLY what buttons of mine she wants to push, and she knows EXACTLY how to push them. I like to say that you always wish for your children to be very smart until they are. I was done for by the time she turned 2.

Anyway, today I thought I'd share some of the sites I browse. I often find great sites linked through other people's blogs, so maybe there will be something here for you too.

Geninne's Art Blog. I don't remember how I discovered this blog or her work, but I enjoy it so much! I have two prints from her etsy shop, and even the bubble-wrap mailer she sent them in was pretty. Now and then, she posts pictures of her house, and everything is clean and inspired and lovely. My house is currently buried in kiddie mess and I want to hide from it under the bed, so hers is particularly appealing!

lovelydesign. I've been following her personal blog for a while now. I found it through her work. She made a beautiful address file from assorted found papers that was so simple and beautiful that I tracked her down online...only to find she wasn't making them anymore. I did snag one of her journey books, and when I opened it up, it is so lovely that I'm reluctant to use it. A handmade work of art! Her blog has led me to discover other artists I enjoy, and my personal space is filling up with small art that gives me joy!

SouleMama. I seem unable to resist this blog despite the fact that it makes me feel inadequate. She has just home-birthed baby #4 (part of the draw for me, I know...I love little babies and pregnant bellies!), home-schools the other 3, creates constantly, runs a small non-profit and has published a book with another due out soon. How are these things possible? What hours in the day I am failing to utilize? At any rate, she takes lovely photos of her life and family, and I do enjoy browsing her site. I discovered her blog after buying her book, Creative Family, and the book is well worth owning if you parent littles.

The Pioneer Woman. She just makes me laugh! We are girlfriends separated by half a globe who have never met, but she is a girlfriend nonetheless! She also parents and homeschools four kids, but her life seems much closer to my reality and her humor is infectious.

dooce. Sometimes she's too over-the-top for me, but on my rough days, I appreciate her bluntness and sarcasm.

small notebook. After our most recent move, the staggering amount of STUFF we own hit me full force. Being raised by a pack-rat (and what's worse, a MILITARY pack-rat wherein the philosophy is if one is good, four is better), I have been hoarding for years. The paper chain Ellie and I made for our Christmas tree is from pre-cut scraps that I saved from a project I made during my teaching job EIGHT YEARS AGO. We're talking about scraps of paper, people. That should give you an idea of how scary the stuff pile is over here. I enjoy this woman's blog because she has said no thank you to all of that and lives small with her husband and young daughter. While I cannot reach where she is, I am inspired by it and often enjoy her posts.

Quadville. Just when I think I can't take it anymore, I read this and relax. She has FOUR. If she can survive, I can too.

And I just found this last one for Quinn. You're often stuck out here in Mama-Land when you check this blog, but I appreciate you checking on in me anyway! I do still have many many interests that I don't choose to write about, and it's nice to know my good friends trust I'm still in here somewhere.

Day 17: Make Christmas placemats.

Okay, so this wasn't the scheduled activity, but it was so fun that we wanted to share! I remembered how much I enjoyed weaving when I was a child, so I dug out my massive pile o' felt and did the pre-cutting. Ellie decided managing the strips to be woven was more her speed (she is, after all, CEO), so she handled the color order and I did the manual labor. Should be really cute on Christmas Eve when we have our fancy meal!

Lounging beside the Swan River

Last week, we went to one of our favorite spots along the Swan River to take our family Christmas photo. There is a beautiful old tree there with a massive above-ground root system that made a perfect sitting place. It took about 10 tries, but we got one we could use. Too bad I tipped the camera as a ran back into place after setting the timer on this attempt; Ellie's expression is priceless (and sums up her current enthusiasm for all things water-related).


This spot is close to our house in an upscale area that could either be Mosman Park or Peppermint Grove (we hear people call it both, so I'm guessing it's somewhere along the border between the towns). Whichever it is, we like it! It's wind-sheltered and shady, and there's plenty of space to play in the grass and the sand. In the afternoons, the shade extends into the water, which is extra-nice.


For almost two years now, Ellie has had a great affinity for sticks. Sticks in the sand is even better than sticks in the grass, so she's happy at the river even when she stays dry (or tries to). The other day, she couldn't resist attempts at spear-fishing one of the unidentified fish that swims close to the water's edge. Each time she squatted down, she dipped her skirt in the river...but who cares about such things when there are fish to be captured?


And let's not forget to style Mama's hair. Those gentle breezes don't do a thing for you, and we could all use a little help from a personal stylist, right? Stephanie doesn't look too sure about this, but Ellie is confident as ever.

Photo seekers

As a segue from the advent activities, I'd like to talk about my photos for a minute. There are LOTS of photos on this blog. I am a photographer by hobby. I am not professional by any stretch of the imagination, and since the birth of our first child, I have only shot using automatic features. I don't know how to use Photoshop, so what you see is what I saw. That being said, these photos of mine seem quite popular, and I'm so happy you like them! I'm flattered and thrilled that so many people in so many places find them appealing! I do ask, however, that you please do not steal them. I have a little copyright blurb on the sidebar in case you missed it, but even if I didn't, these photos were taken by me and I hope you will ask permission before you choose to use them in any way. If you are interested in purchasing a print, please shoot me an email at blitzpampers at gmail dot com describing which photos you would like, and we'll see what we can do. Selling my images is a new area for me, but I would be happy and quite excited to do so if there is a demand. In the meantime, please enjoy looking to your heart's content! I place them here with that hope in mind.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Best wishes for a happy holiday season!

Day 16: Go for a beach walk after dinner.

Our household is fairly routine-oriented, especially in the evenings. I know everyone has different opinions about family routines, but they work for us. Knowing what will come next because that's always what comes next makes life easier around here, and we're all for that! This made the beach walk after dinner extra-special. The Fremantle Doctor was a-blowin' strongly, but we still enjoyed the fresh air and the evening sun. The wind helped contain Ellie's usual enthusiasm for stripping naked and running into the surf, which was probably a good thing given her small case of the sniffles.

Day 15: Dress up in fancy clothes for dinner.

This one seemed easy enough! Ellie wore her princess dress all afternoon, so we thought we had day 15's activity in the bag. Think again. "We don't wear princess dresses at the table," we were informed by the CEO. Guess we missed that memo.

Day 14: Go out for ice cream.

Matilda Bay is an awesome spot for an ice cream. It's in a wind-sheltered bend along the Swan River with lots of shade trees, which is imperative on days like today. We got our first really hot day (35 C in the shade), so the ice cream "activity" was much appreciated by all!