Obsessive escapism or just having fun?

My brain loves a project and I'm really really really loving building my cubby house right now!

This picture shows my latest achievement. I managed to build a side frame with pointy roofy bits AND put in a window ($5 from the tip). I've got another gorgeous old frosted window for another frame.

People ask me how I have time to do this sort of thing. Honestly, I get kind of obsessed over my projects so I sneak half hours here and there to go down and build. I also tend to make decisions like: hmmm, washing or building? cooking or building? cleaning or building? Building wins right now.

As well, I figure I'm doing this for the children's ultimate enjoyment and play. They will LOVE this cubby house and I hope it will get them outside a lot together.

I'm also modelling learning new skills, trying things out and showing that you can make things and make it good with bits and pieces; everything you get doesn't have to be new from the shop. I hope that my children might one day think, "Mum built things and found ways past the challenges, so I can too."

Finished

I finally finished a quilt/comforter I started more than two years ago for my daughter! My shoulder is not up to quilting, so I just tied it and used the machine to put the binding on. It's made out of of old table clothes, serviettes and scrappy bits. I love being frugal!

2008

This year I would like to:

- complete my book and find a publisher

- improve my ability to teach and guide Bright Eyes in his therapy.

- learn more about the way people learn and/or teach

- read a lot of books

- read more of my Bible

- have relaxing days off (child-free) with my husband

- talk to lots of people

- lose 3kg and start Pilates again

- stay in Mittagong (but that's not really up to me)

Teenager Again

I am trying to come to grips with the Facebook phenomenon.

For those of you who are unaware of Facebook, it's an internet network where you can enter your profile and information about yourself plus photographs, and then connect up with people you know or have known in the past. It seems to be exploding - there are more and more people signing up every day.

I have made connections with lots of people I knew from high school days. On one level, it's really fun to see what they look like now (20 years later) and read about what they are doing.

On another level, it is bringing up all sorts of odd feelings for me. I almost feel like a teenager again when I look at my 'friends' pages and read their messages.

I guess that would be fine, except that I didn't find being a teenager particularly wonderful. High school was reasonably hard in terms of relating to people in our small fishbowl type boarding school. In the 20 years that have elapsed I have grown and matured and become much happier being me.

So it's bizarre to take up again with some of the people I struggled so much with in those years.

I'm not sure that I'm happy with Facebook. I want to ignore it and never look at it again, and put all of that teenage angst behind me. On the other hand I have a bit of an obsessive fascination with seeing all the people from the past.

New interests/hobbies/obsessions

1. Health kick
It's official. I think sugar is vile, evil and dangerous. I'm taking my children off it as much as possible, and have nearly eliminated it from my life (apart from the odd piece of chocolate). I have become convinced of the ultimate goodness of organic food and home cooking and nut butters. Numbers in ingredient lists are to be avoided at all costs. Everyone (bar the dog) in my house is now taking Omega3 and Omega6 oils. My favourite section of the supermarket is the health food aisle, and my favourite shops in the local town are the two organic wholefoods markets. Don't worry - if you come to visit, I'll still serve something edible.

2. Tsunami puzzles
Have you seen these things? They are logic puzzles where you fill in some squares and keep others blank in order to make pictures. Kind of like Sudoku but more fun because it's not numbers. I'm addicted.

3. My new grinding kitchen machine thingy
It's a juicer/sausage maker/grinder/pulser/ all in one. I bought it for the sausages but they've been a dismal failure. However, the frozen fruit sorbet that it whizzes up is pretty spectacular - and delicious.



If my brother is reading this (and you know who you are...) yes I still enjoy my obsessions of yesteryear. It's just that I don't have time for everything. Someday I'll get back into home-made paper, cross-stitching, quilting, photo-albums, cloth nappy designs, sewing clothes, making cushions, folk art and painting, Alexander Technique, swimming laps, furniture restoration, vegetable gardening (although that's about to hit a resurgence) and interior design. I read a book last year that said I wasn't lazy or uncommitted for switching around, I just had a particular kind of brain. I want to believe it.