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Kibbutz Monty

The children: Angus, Poppy, Max & Meemoosh.

We are in the final days of our transition month in leafy Montmorency.

We have been generously accepted into The House of Hughes, affectionately now called Kibbutz Monty. We have everything a good Kibbutz has. Shared living spaces, the kids sleep in the one room (with the exception of Poppy, she's with us). We share much of the grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning, we take turns in heading out to work. Being a modern Kibbutz, we do have our own bank accounts.

Our prime industry is eggs. Four chickens who have taken a special liking to Poppy ration our supply to 1-2 a day (we supplement with the more generous offerings from the local market).

The Kibbutz is located in a magical court where I can relive my childhood. I never imagined I would ever again witness the unique and carefree play that took place in my Neve-Rom court in Israel. A couple of kids riding their bikes, can soon flourish to 17 kids from 1-10years.

We have ventured out of the Kibbutz and explored our new surrounds including the local miniature railway, Hurstbridge Market & the Eltham market (walking distance from new home), lots of parks, local cafes and one of our favourite spots, Heidi Museum of Modern Art the gardens themselves are gorgeous, perfect for a picnic.

The kids at Hurstbridge Market

Poppy at the local organics grocer.Heidi gardens

The Kibbutz founders, the Hughes Family have made it strangely easy living the communal life. Nonetheless, as enjoyable as it has been, we are thrilled to be moving this Fri!! See you in Eltham.

Hello NY!

Happy New Year!

I'm awake past midnight! First time in many years.

We've just finished a lovely meal with Anna, JP and my mum. We devoured way too much food including an exquisite and super alcoholic Tiramesu my mother made with the beautiful soundtrack of a wild and thundery storm outside. A venture to the hill up the road for a distant view of the city fireworks returned little other than an intimate experience of a massive electrical storm, we returned home wet.

I'm kind of glad this year is over. It's been a stretch for most of the time but also incredibly fulfilling. And the decade? In 2000 Luke and I were a defacto couple, renting in St Kilda, childless, working hard, I at my sister's, Luke was teaching in Werribee. What a difference a decade makes!

I've realised this year more than any other year that I can't do it all. Girlies+Lukey+Home+Career+Friends+Family+ Health+ Arts... doesn't equal perfection, but all of those elements are important to me and so I will forever be challenged in how I balance them.

May 2010 bring you great balance and happiness, that is my wish for me and all others. I hope to be wiser and easier on myself. I hope to be more available to others and to live in the moment. More organised and better prepared, but also to remember that stuff sometime just happens and to let it go.

A couple more shots of the last days of 2009 for our little family (Baking in the kitchen, front yard nudies and Elwood beach).

xxx
Cookie

Holidays

I know I'm loving my holidays as I've no idea what day it is.

Despite the craziness of the last few months, I must say that the minute I pressed that corporate elevator button to take me to the car, I switched off.

As I've previously mentioned, we've been socialising heavily but also spending quality time at home. The girls were very spoilt by auntie Sara with lots of crafty goods, perfect for summer holidays as these shots of the girls show. To channel her inner artiste, Poppy prefers to nude up and paint paper and self. It appears that Georgie is her muse.

Otherwise, I've also enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen with the help of Mia and a great new cookbook Anna bought me, George Colambaris' Greek Cookery. I made Greek meat balls and Gigantes beans (Luke has a different name for them, can you guess?) for friends, served with Greek fetta, Calamata olives, Israeli style salad drizzled with dill and of course a couple of bottles of wine.

Below are some shots from Xmas even and day, more to come.

Christmas

Happy Chrismikah!

I never intended on taking a six month break from blogging, but that is just how things turned out. Thank you for all your words of encouragement to return to the blog, but unfortunately words weren't enough: it was time and head space that I have lacked. A few times I tried to return but felt so overwhelmed by 'catching up' that it all seemed too hard... But now, Christmas presents as a giant deadline, perhaps the kind of motivation I've been needing.
I think it's best I don't try and sum six months into a single post so I've picked the more recent stuff to cover here, and I am planning to not so subtly sneak in a back dated post to record some of the noteworthy events of the past months (you will be able to see it but please don't feel compelled to read it, it's really for the girls so in the future, when they read this they won't think they were neglected for months).

So on to it. It has been a big year and while it's flown it all so seems in some ways to have dragged on forever.

We are pooped, and as of today, officially on holidays! We're going away to Daylesford early in the NY, but otherwise, we have already started making the most of our break by catching up with each other, family and friends (the girls with the Hughes boys up top, Botanic gardens with Sophie & Pete on right, Mia at the Myer windows below, and Mia and I in gingerbread extravaganza mode above, the family in general dance mode, below).More than anything, the next couple of weeks will be a great time of rest and an opportunity to recharge the batteries before the big move! For the few who may not be aware we sold our 'Cafe Latte House' and bought 'The Tree House', or for 30 Rock fans, 'Rural Juror', in Eltham. We move end of Feb and we are bursting with excitement. My only concern is what new obsession will take over my real-state obsession? Watch this space.

New 'Tree House' abode

Otherwise, from our family to yours, have a happy Christmas (Hanukkah is now behind us) and a fabulous NY. May 2010 bring you all that you wish for and more.

Lukey

A vision of the future? I recall having a similar battle with a drag queen once at a club...

Tutu

I wanted to share these photos of Poppy from yesterday, after seeing Mia embrace her new tutu (another story, another lot of photos to come), Poppy insisted on having a spin (excuse the mess in the background!).

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Happy Anniversary!

Exactly one year ago I started this blog.

I know I've been a little slack of late but nonetheless I'm pretty pleased to have been able to keep this going for a whole year!

So much has happened in these 12 months, mostly, the girls have continued to blossom and I'm now back at work.

On the other hand, some things never change, like my decor disorder and real-estate obsession... that's a whole other post...

On the whole though, it's been fabulous and challenging, funny and sometimes unsettling, it is nice to be able to flick back and review it almost week/week, month/month

Recent highlights: Taking 2 days off work to spend with Luke. Re-bonded with the house, sorted wardrobes one day, spoilt ourselves the next. Headed to the city on the train, wandered around, lunched at Gingerboy (noted by Sara, the Ginger-nut lunched at Gingerboy, ha-ha), got high (forgot was on sinus antibiotics, had wine.....) and received a beautiful Tiffany bracelet from Luke (a belated Mother's Day gift).

Mia has been extra divine and her speech has improved considerably, not to mention her drawings. This is a piece she drew for her friend Kayla, it's Kayla and her little brother Thomas wearing bunny suits, and the big triangular thing on the side is ice -cream..of course. She's continuing to ask wonderful questions and confidently display all her hilarious quirks. Food porn is still high on the list (has been knows to sleep with dessert cookbooks) and she has thoroughly enjoyed Master Chef. We've broken the no TV post dinner rule and allowed her to watch it with us. At the finale, she disappeared to her kitchen and returned with a large bowl of (playdough) 'cookies'. She placed it delicately on the coffee table in front of us and cautiously stood back, hands linked behind her back as she explained her 'dish': "chocolate cookies with cocoa". She requested we taste and listened anxiously for our response.....

I should note here, that Luke has developed a man-crush on Matt Preston (giant judge on right), they've even exchanged emails.

Mia's shorts obsession is also continuing, we were so desperate the other night to find a clean pair of bed shorts, I just took one of her PJ pants and cut them off, she was so pleased as she stared at her reflection in the mirror (and once again declared, I'm a boy!). Still she can't hide her girliness and has taken to cross-dressing with all her little sparkly accessories.

Poppy meanwhile is barely walking now, more running, always on the brink of teetering over her un-coordinated petit feet. She loves to chase Oscar and be chased by Mia, who is, in no exaggeration the best sister in the world. She protects her, feeds her, cleans her and truly loves her. In fact, the only way we can get Mia out of bed in the morning is by bringing Poppy in to her bed, then they cuddle and get up.

Poppy is delicious, funny, playful and mostly grotty. We had friends over for a lovely brunch one Sunday morning, so glad they weren't disgusted by her 'look' : texter-snot-chocolate face.

Made for a very amusing morning/arvo with lots of bubbly and laughs and also an embarrassing trip down memory lane: Luke showed friends my old skating footage....agghhhhh! Stopped it just before my appearance on ''Good Morning Israel'' came on. Still on theme, some of my old costumes also came out (a selection live in the dress up box)...I love this photo of little Thomas, his choice.

Wish I had photos of the cupcakes I made for brunch, decorated with my new favourite food: Edible glitter!

On the work front, actually really enjoying myself at the moment, both the work itself and the people, but aware of the fragility of that status...Am spending a healthy amount of time laughing & lunching with my gorgeous work husband Andrew and his other glamorous wife Lisa. What do we laugh about? I can never remember, but there's definitely a lot of work geek stuff, truly ridiculous, any who, what I do know is that while I sometimes reflect on the past 20 years, and think about how I've matured and grown, I now doubt those reflections and instead wonder how is it that I haven't changed at all, still giggling like a 16 y.o school girl?

Cook Off!

Mia's Birthday Party Cook-Off was a whole lot of fun. The kids were simply amazing, so enthusiastic, cooperative, adventurous, mature and happy! They all donned their personalised, home made aprons (Safta Ariela) and chef's hats and off they went.

We started off with a Master Class in Ginger Bread Cookie making. Rather informal, most of the kids popped in for a look, a sift, a pour & a stir. While the dough was cooling in the fridge, we went on to make Pizzas.

It was then time to roll the dough and make some cookies. Those little hands were fabulous, not to mention the patience they displayed as they shared the rolling pins and cookie cutters. Post bake they decorated them (see below)

I had other activities planned as well but they were so busy with the first two that we skipped the others and let them run around a little. The beast of a trampoline that we bought was a perfect outlet for all that energy. At one point there were six kids jumping around at once.

In the background we had some of Mia's favourite tracks playing inc:
Welcome (Cabaret)
Food Glorious Food (Oliver)
So Long Farewell (Sound Of Music)
It's Not Fair (Lilly Allen)
Changes (David Bowie via Shrek)
Chunari Chunari (Monsoon Wedding)
Blame it on the Boogie (Jackson 5)
Tomorrow (Annie) and more...

Thank you to all who came and for your thoughtful & gorgeous gifts (I'm just trying to work out what's from whom). Mia had a beautiful day with her friends and family.