Picking teams

"Yesterday I felt excluded. We were playing kick to kick footy at playtime and I'm not very good at marking. Sometimes I'd get it and kick it, or sometimes A would give it to me to kick. Then D told him not to give the ball to me cos I can't kick it high enough for them to mark. B said 'I don't want to be mean, but you just can't do it properly'.  They didnt want me to play. I left and found a teacher who got some other kids to play with me."

This is the story one of my boys was telling me this morning and it broke my heart.  And it brought back lots of memories. 

Memories of being asked to score, not play. Memories of making daisy chains in the outfield instead of trying to field because if the ball came to me, I would probably drop it and then be laughed at, so why try?  Memories of my friends picking teams for sport, and that look they would give me that said 'I'm sorry, I really do like you better than them, but I want to win, so I won't pick you' as I was left standing in the lineup till second last (there always seemed to be a kid worse at sport and that no one liked either, at least they liked me!). Memories of secretly loving the week in PE when we would do dancing - I could do that!  But the teachers and other students hated it and so I would enjoy it privately. Memories of school reports that were filled with As and glowing reports - except that one report on PhysEd that was not so great (though the teacher always wrote about how polite and well behaved I was). 

Stu has some similar memories, though not as many as I do. 

Our kids are clearly not genetically sporty. They not only lack the natural ability to run fast or have natural ball skills, but they are small - standing a good head shorter than most of their peers. They are not destined to be great football or cricket players. And mostly, we're all ok with that. 

The boys, like us, have loads of other abilities - they're brilliant at maths and English, they're creative too and they can do some physical activities really well (climbing trees and door frames for example).  But the lack of ability in sports can be a real confidence sucker. 

It seems that through our social (and school) systems, it is ok to be really competitive at sport, but not at intellectual activities. Schools have whole days of sports activities that are pure competition (sports day is our families' least favourite day of the year).  The situation my son found himself in yesterday is not nice, but it is scarily normal!  A similar scenario in the classroom would be much less likely to happen. 

As an adult, I've learnt that we are all different, and just because you can't play football, netball or tennis well doesn't mean you are not capable at something else. It makes me laugh that I was always one of the worst at PE, but now teach fitness/dance classes and dance for a living. Clearly, I am quite cabable physically, just not in what they wanted to teach me. 

I don't know how to deal with the issues my children are just beginning to have. Do I force them to go to footy/cricket/other sports clinics and practises so that they get better, even though they genuinely don't enjoy it snd have no natural ability?  Do we coach then ag home, even though none of us wants to spend our family time doung that?  Do I tell them to avoid playing those games at school?  My heart says to nurture what they are good at, and forget about the rest, but that won't make those school time issues go away. I don't know the answers. 

In the meantime, I tell the kids my stories and let them take solace in my history. I hope that they have the foresight to see that life is so much more than those school time dramas; that they'll find the thing that suits them and that they'll shine at one day. 

And for me, I'll hold dear the feeling I had on the weekend in a belly dance class, when I was picked first to dance with a group and I knew in my heart I was being picked for my skills - first time for everything! :)

There was this one time, at belly dance camp.....

I'm taking the day off today.  I got out of my pyjamas at 1pm after a little snooze and have done little more than keep the ship running all day.  Why?  Because I am coming down from a HUGE weekend.

A few years ago, my friend Sharon and I decided that a belly dance camp would be a lot of fun, and hosted our first in 2011.  It was a huge success and we have just had our second, even bigger, better and more successful camp and it was quite simply, awesome.

I've been planning and preparing for camp for the last 9 months.  We changed things around a little and split up jobs, so I haven't been on my own.  But as the one in charge of marketing, admin tasks, teaching and overall planning, I've been busy, and in the last two weeks, more than a little stressed.  But as the weekend rolled in and everything fell into place, I was so proud of my little team and all of my work.  It was a weekend that I would have loved to attend as an outsider, but even as someone who was working hard all through the camp, it was a huge amount of fun.

So what happened at Belly Dance Camp 2013?  Let me take you there.

Camp was held at Southcombe Lodge in Port Fairy.  This venue is designed for camps and has space to eat, play, cook, sleep and dance.  Friday night saw 25 women arrive at camp, set up their beds in the bunk rooms, order takeaway for dinner and get to know each other over a few bottles of wine in front of the fire.  We had a local henna artist join us and many of the girls had her do some amazing art for them.  There was some setting up done for the rest of the weekend, but most of the night was relaxed and fun.

Saturday morning, after a continental breaky, the campers from Friday night either attended a special rehearsal or relaxed: strolling the market that was (conveniently) being held in Port Fairy, chatting over cuppas or greeting the remaining 25 women who arrived and settled in on Saturday. 




Belly Dance workshops

At 12.30, camp officially began.  I welcomed our 50 campers (the camp was completely sold out with a waiting list), and sent them on their way to attend the first of two two-hour workshops that were held in the afternoon.  The workshops, taught by myself and three talented and wonderful guest teachers, covered a range of belly dance styles: I taught a workshop that was American Tribal Style while Ma'isah (from Melbourne) taught one on Baladi Ashra (a traditional Egyptian style) and later Lisa (from Geelong) taught a Tribal Fusion workshop while Adalia (from Mt Gambier/Adelaide) taught a Classical Orientale workshop.  Each camper attended a workshop in each session and came away with a head full of new moves and ideas and a well used body!

The workshops finished at 5.30pm, leaving us with a crazy hour and a half to do our makeup and hair, get in costume, have market stalls set up and the hall and meal prepared for our Hafla (belly dance party).  A fly on the wall would have collapsed from exhaustion watching the mad array of colourful dancers flitting about preparing!




Happy Campers on Hafla night

Our Hafla was different to any other belly dance concert I've attended.  I went out on a limb in how we ran it, and was a little nervous as it began (when I'd explained to some how the night would run I'd been met with some interesting looks....).  Our hall was set up with tables and chairs all around the edge - each camper (and my family who were there to help) had a front row seat at a table, with the dancing to take place in the middle (I personally hate having to peer around people in front of me at concerts, or having to sit twisted around in my seat to see a performance behind me).  We had no running order for the night, but instead, I had all of the introductions for our performers in a basket and they were drawn out at random (with a little tweaking by me as the night went on).  Each dancer would perform, then introduce the next act.  So while I was running the show, I wasn't the one doing all the work introducing acts.   The audience was made up only of the campers and a few helpers - no public - and nearly everyone there performed at least once.




Performers part 1

And it seems my kooky plan paid off.  The night was a huge success, full of fabulous performances, lots of giggles and the most supportive audience I've ever experienced at a dance (of any sort) event, and I spent much of the rest of the weekend receiving praise on the format.  Yay!

We had performances by dancers who had never performed before, right through to our teachers and experienced, professional performers.  The costumes, music and dance styles were so varied that it became a gorgeous, colourful night that we'll remember for a really long time.




Performers part 2.

Along with dance performances, we ate a delicious meal (all homecooked by our group and coordinated by Sharon), shopped at the great belly dance market stalls, enjoyed some free dance time together and hosted a zahgareet and shimmy contest.  My boys were the judges for the shimmy contest and won the hearts of every camper by choosing to award the prize to the dancer who had the best smile and looked like she was having the most fun while she shimmied - lady killers!

The hafla was over by 10.30, but It was after 2am before the last campers head hit the pillow as many of us stayed up to enjoy the fabulous company and atmosphere created by a group of likeminded women.




Beautiful belly dance goodies to buy.

Sunday dawned and there were many sleepy, tousled heads making tea and coffee in the kitchen before settling down in the hall to share breakfast.  I think Sunday morning is my favourite part of camp.  I love seeing the groups of people that came to camp, dissolve into one big group as the campers choose to sit among the new friends they've made.  I love the cosy, relaxed atmosphere of women sharing the morning cuppa and caring for each other as they begin the last day of camp.

At 10.30, we gathered the troupes for a final workshop.  This one was my favourite.  An all-in workshop attended by all campers and taught by all of the teachers.  Sadly, Adalia wasn't well enough to teach, but Ma'isah, Lisa and myself all taught fast and fun workshops that had us all sharing in the joy of our dance.  The workshop concluded with my lovely friend, student and yoga teacher, Neika, calming and stretching our tired bodies with a short yoga session. 

Thank yous, lunch and hometime followed. 

I can't thank the people who helped out at camp enough.  I'm so proud of what we achieved!  And now we're left to decide if we leave it another two years before the next one, or do it all again next year.

Here's some of the comments that I've been sent on Facebook from campers so far (aw, thanks girls!):

• "Thanks Tracey and all the Meenkeel Gypsies for a wonderful weekend. I would love to have the opportunity to come next time too. Fantastic performances and such a diverse array of styles and costumes! Really enjoyed it all, excellent workshops, fabulous food, entertainment and the opportunity to shop, you've got it all covered!" Rebecca
• "I love, love, loved Belly Dance camp....... what an awesome way to spend my birthday weekend. Wonderful teachers, performers and dancers........ Catching up with old friends, making new ones. The only thing I would change for next time - is that I definately need to bring my daughters along So book us in for next time so we don't miss out!!!! Thankyou sooooo much Tracey and everyone for a great weekend xxxxxxxx" Kasia
• "aaawwwhhh we love you girls xoxoxo" Julie
• "Was so amazing :-) thank you for all your hard work organising it and can't wait for the next one! X" Misty
• "Belly dance camp rocks, can't wait for the next one! Thanks for organizing it Tracey and thanks to all involved was amazing to have a weekend to share with like minded women supporting, encouraging and learning from one another xx" Neika
• "had an amazing amazing amazing time!!! *ADORED* camp thank you one and all it was a brilliant weekend, I danced, learned, taught, shared, loved, laughed and met beloved friends and made new ones and had a wonderful weekending doing what I love more than anything else in the world - YAY!!! xoxoxoxoxoxo" Ma'isah

Introducing Jamie

Part two of my posts introducing my kids. Today I'm talking about our second born twin, Jamie. The youngest, but always just a smidge bigger and usually the first to do things.



Here's Jamie!

Jamie's favourite colour is blue.

Jamie loves bats and has a collection if cuddly bats on his bed.

Jamie is a mini mathematician and an avid reader. His favourite books are the Rangers Apprentice series, the Beast Quest series, Zac Power books, Deltora Quest and other books by Emily Rodda, and "Father Christmas- the naked truth". He also enjoys reading Dmag magazine and instruction manuals for Wii games!

Even as tiny tackers Jamie (and Lachie) loved to read.  That's Jamie on the right.

Jamie loves building Hero Factory and often plays 'Hero Factory pretend' with his brother. In fact, he loves lots if 'pretend games' using his favourite characters. And he is a bit of a fanatic about games on the wii and DS.

Jamie tells me he used to like wheat bix and corn flakes for breakfast, but now that we have rubbish free breakfasts, he enjoys toast with butter or plum jam. And when asked what I should cook for snacks, Jamie's favourite request is ANZAC slice.

Jamie strawberry picking.

Jamie is quite competitive and enjoys beating us all at games like chess, monopoly, cluedo and cards.

When he grows up, Jamie wants to own a shop in a 3-4 storey building with lots of shops in it selling all sorts if stuff. He plans to live fairly close to home, and says he'll always have somewhere for his brother to stay when he comes home from his travels.

Jamie (in my sunnies) on the train home from Melbourne last Christmas.

About our green and self sufficient journey, Jamie says "I think that being green has totally improved my life - I love how we live and I love what I get as homemade gifts (especially the bookmark Lachie gave me).".

"I love all our animals. I think my mum is the greatest and my dad is even with her. I don't know how much I love my brother because I think my family is the best." {his words - I promise!}

You can read more of Jamie's thought on his blog 'The best bat in the world'.

Introducing Lachie

My kids have started writing their own blogs at school, and have been on and on at me to link to them here. So I thought I'd write some things about each of them in turn and share their blogs too.

My boys are identical twins, Lachlan is the older of the two by 12 minutes, so we'll start with him.

Lachie on a recent visit to the skate park.

Lachlan likes to be called Lachie, he's not too fond of his middle name, Thomas.

Lachie is the slowest eater in the house - it drives me crazy!  But he is also the clown.  The first to make a joke, laugh at something or do something crazy.

Lachie loves cats. He used to tell us he was a cat and frequently speak 'cat language'. He invented his own superhero 'Catbat' who he used to pretend to be often. He still has a lot of cat soft toys, and his own real cat called Pouncy.

Even as a toddler, Lachie loved cats!

Lachie's favourite colour is yellow.


Lachie with his own cat, Pouncy.

Lachie's favourite lunchbox food is a plain homemade roll (not even a cut), a cut up apple and chocolate or vanilla cake. His favourite dinner is lasagne but he says he can't choose a favourite dessert because I spoil them with lots of yummy desserts.

Lachie loves to read. He is very proud if being an independent reader, and would read ALL day if we let him! His favourite books are the Beast Quest series, and his non- fiction books, Animal Life and Endangered Earth. He also loves reading KZone magazine, which he has a subscription to.

Lachie climbing up the inside of door frames in our house!
Why?  cos he thought he might try being Donkey Kong.

Lachie loves climbing the big banksia tree in our backyard and is excited that we've moved the trampoline so he can jump out of the tree onto it and then climb into the cubby house we built with and for the kids' four years ago.

When he grows up, Lachie wants to save endangered animals, particularly tigers and all kinds of big cats.

About our families journey to a greener, more self sufficient life, Lachie says "it is a hard way to live because it is hard to get to the goal, but the hardness stops and it is good. {I think I know what he means} If we're more green, it gives nature more of a chance to survive from habitat loss. Our homemade things make really good gifts, and people really enjoy getting them and think they're really different"

Lachie helping to make a garden for growing some food.

"My favourite animals at our house are Pouncy and Cleo. Cleo is our older cat that you probably haven't heard of yet. And I wanted to say Pouncy is a really fun cat to have because we have a bond together. When we sleep together on my bed, I know he will let me pat him and all he ever cares about is sleeping in my bed, playing, catching mice and FOOD!"

You can read Lachie's blog at "Cats eye".

A new water tank

It's cold and its wet and despite the fact that this means winter clothes, cold fingers and muddy puddles that traipse into the house on the bottom of gumboots, I'm happy.

I have been able to take the buckets out of the shower and from beneath our sinks. Those buckets will be back next summer, but for now, we can rely on the rain to water the garden and our tanks to supply the water when it doesn't.

The big downpour we had last week (which was still smaller than most of the state) recorded 21mm one day in my new rain gauge, on my new fence. Together with the decent rainfalls surrounding that big one, our garden is growing and greening up again, and our two house tanks were filled (one BIG concrete tank and a plastic one that is about 5000 litres). Through careful management, these tanks managed to keep us in water all summer - us and the garden.

But the garden did suffer as I was quite frugal with the water, so we decided to get another tank. And we installed it yesterday. This tank is about 2200 litres and isn't connected to the main plumbing system. It is filled through a hose connection that I put in at the top and will gravity feed to water the gardens and animals. Once empty, we can refill again. It's not a huge tank, but it will mean I can water the garden in summer without as much stress as this summer was.

The tank is sitting in top of a tank stand we built. The stand is clad (almost) in recycled corrugated iron and our old garage roller door. The cladding is of course not necessary for a tank stand, but it turns a tank stand into a goat shelter, therefore making more use of our available space.

The next job is to fence in the area that the tank/shelter are in to create our goat yard, and then to build the simple garden shed that will be our dairy and feed store.

More homemade gifts

We're well into our second year of giving only homemade gifts at our place. Sometimes it feels hard to come up with ideas, but really if is no harder than choosing from the shops. I have a tough time churning out the same things over and over, so my list of things is quite extensive ;).  I'll add in links to patterns etc where possible.  In no particular order - here is the pile of pressies made over the last months (excluding Christmas).


A blackboard painted tin filled with chocolate balls for my step dad.

A crocheted Mario!  (this isn't my one, but the pattern was so good, mine turned out exactly like it)



Birthstone nest necklaces.  For a girlfriend, me and my mum.  The one for mum includes all of her kids birthstones in the nest, and the gradkids beside the nest.

oops - sideways photo!  These are stretchies in an upcycled bag.  Made for a girl's 7th birthday.  She loved these so much, they will be a staple for girls and some boys this year!

A cute heart box from a cereal container.......

Inside which was a crocheted cupcake pincushion with pin sprinkles :)

A retro-ruffled apron for my sister-in-law

A sweet heart as a thank you for having us gift.

More crocheted dishcloths as housewarming gifts.

The leg warmers for my teenage sister's birthday

oops!  forgot to take a photo of the inside gift!  It was a slouchy crocheted beanie with a giant flower and wrapped with a matching mini flower for a girlfriend.

A tangled happy crocheted wand for a 5th birthday.

 

A bath set for a 40th - a homemade soap, some tub tea bags (from homegrown herbs) and a jar of bath salts in a vintage doily decorated jar.

Typically, I failed to take photos of some of the gifts I made, so add to this list:

• A duct tape wallet for a 7 year old boy
• Fabric luggage tags for my father in law
• Felted wool slippers for a grandparents birthday
• A crocheted beanie each for my hubby and my brother

For more of my homemade gifts, check out this post and this one on Christmas presents.

Have you been making homemade gifts?  Would love you to share what you've been making - I'm sure I'll run out of inspiration and ideas eventually :)

The Good Life

It seems that we've crossed some cultural line. We've crossed over from being just a regular little family, to one who does all manner of strange things - chooks, a veggie patch and a solar hot water system was normal for a home, but a waterless toilet, a massive investment in solar panels, growing chickens to eat and getting a milking goat seems to have taken us over the line. People seem to enjoy watching the progress ( are they waiting for us to fail?), but there is a definite air of "better you than us" or "it's a phase" about them.

On several occasions, usually after asking us how much land we've got (a regular 1/4 acre block), people have asked us "Have you seen the show 'The Good Life'?" Stu and I have seen odds and ends of the show. Reruns on the ABC of course ( the show ran its full course before we were born), but we'd never sat down to watch it and since there is rarely anything good on tv these days, we decided it was worth the effort to track it down.

We started watching it last week with our kids. I was concerned that the out of date humour (the episode entitled "The weaker sex" for example) would make it not worth watching for the kids, but they LOVE it and we have to pause the show frequently and wait for them to get over their uncontrollable giggles so we can hear the dialogue!

Stu and I have found the pace in which the Goods change their lifestyle amusing. It is tv of course, but in 2 days, they went from a regular couple (he working, she at home) with nothing in their backyard, to them both being home, their entire yard turned over to veggie garden and the proud owners of 12 chickens and a goat! They get pigs in episode 4. If only change really happened that fast!

We can see why people keep asking us if we've seen the show, and that's ok with me. They Good's are a couple (albeit a tv couple) that I'm happy to be compared to. And in the meantime, I'm thoroughly enjoying some light and funny tv that comes with the bonus of gorgeous 70s styling ( is it odd that I long for Barbara Good's clothes?).

If you haven't seen it, or haven't watched it for a long time, it's definitely worth tracking down. Our library had the DVDs.

This image was from the episode in which they were desperately trying to turn their goat milk into butter. They failed of course, my goaty research tells me that due to the natural homogenisation of goats milk, you can only make butter if you first separate the cream from the milk with a (expensive) cream separator. I tried to tell them (husband yelling at the umpires while watching footy on tv style), but 40 years and different continents (oh and the tv vs real life thing) didn't help.

Life here

It's occurred to me that I haven't posted anything in some time. It's not that I don't have anything to say, just finding the time is hard. So while my chai brews, the bread rises and the rain falls down, I'm taking time for an update.

Belly dance camp is finally nearly here. There has been a lot of work involved - room allocations, workshop allocations, last minute cancellations and bookings, tshirts to be printed, stalls to arrange, food to decide on and soon to be cooked, performances to organise and my own students readying themselves for performing. Not to mention preparing my family and home for a weekend without me. But I'm so excited and really looking forward to a weekend full of dancing, girly fun and all that goes with it. I'm feeling extremely proud of our little camp, which is not only great for me, but which is sold out and all of the other 49 women coming are also excited.

On the home front, the rains have finally come and I'm loving listening to water run into the tanks and watching my garden get a good drink. We started to put up the fence around what Stu calls 'Tracey's paddock' just before it really started, so I had a post to hang my rain gauge on. It's been fun to see it begin to fill up.

Mother's Day saw us back out there fencing. It's not a huge fence, but the idea is that it will keep stray critters (and passers by) out of my vegie garden/orchard and allow the ducks to free range in there without having them wondering out of our yard and onto my verandah where they get into the wheat and poop everwhere. Working out there on Mother's Day was wonderful. I was covered in mud and aching from the work, but my kids came out to help and prepared morning tea for us too. It was just the kind of Mother's Day I like.

Speaking of the kids, a couple of weeks ago, we decided we needed a family hobby. Something we could do together, all enjoy, that was a little bit healthy, not too expensive and that was away from home. We decided on bush walking. That first day we visited Tower Hill, a local state park. We walked for about 2 hours and loved it. This weekend, we visited Mt Eccles national park. We didn't walk as long or far as we had somewhere to be, but we all enjoyed exploring the forest and chatted happily about plans to go camping there sometime soon. We now have a list of places we want to visit and something we all get excited about for weekends.

At home again and our thoughts seem to be always drawn back to power. After much delay (and finally a very grumpy email sent to the power company by me) we are finally set up to be paid for the excess power our solar panels produce and put into the grid. We received a bill with our first (tiny as it had only been a week) credit for power produced! It's very exciting, even though its now winter and so we'll be using much more than we produce.

The other thing happening that makes us keep thinking of power is that our heater died. Our home came with ceiling ducted electric, reverse cycle heating. It's never been great, but this year it decided to simply blow out cold air. We could get it fixed, but since we're not happy with the system, it hardly seems worth it. So now we're trying to decide what heater/s to invest in, and in the meantime, using room heaters and only heating the room we're using. We're restricted to using only electric heaters, and don't have a lot of wall space, so the decision is challenging, and we don't want to rush in. Any advice? Other than use warm clothes and hot water bottles... We're already doing that!

We went out for a friends birthday on Saturday night. It was a fun night with beautiful food. It was the first time I'd seen her in a while, so we had a birthday present exchange. I gave her a necklace I'd made, and she gave me a terrific cookbook - one I'd borrowed from the library before and had thought would work well in my kitchen. I'm making the pea and ham soup recipe from it tonight and have used the handy book marks to mark some more recipes to try.

Well, my morning break is over and I have a list of jobs to do, so I'll apologise for this iPod written blog post (ie. no formatting) and get on with my day. Hope your day is a happy one.