Clothes lines!

One of my Favorite things about living abroad are the clothes lines.  That's right--we don't have a dryer! In fact I am not too sure if I know anyone with a dryer... everyone has a clothes line. Ours is on the side of our house mounted to a wall much like the picture below. Other people have one in their yard. 

At first I did not know the art of hanging up clothes to dry, how to use clothes pins properly etc....so you don't get funny marks on your shirts. This picture below explains pretty well that you want the clothes pin marks on the bottom of your shirts and not the tops of your shoulders like American pictures and advertisements would have you believe. They wouldn't know because they all use dryers!

I do have a washing machine and when I pull the "wet wash" out I then "hang it on the line"--My favourite part about getting my clothes from the line is the smell of that cold morning freshness. My absolute favorite smell is when I have left the clothes on the line too long, they end up getting rained on, and then I leave them out to dry again. The post rain smell is indescribable and I get to wear it and smell it each time I wear a clothing item from that batch! 

I have memories in my head that make me smile.  I remember one really bad rain storm with lots of wind in the middle of the night. I remember waking Stan up because I was worried the clothes pins wouldn't hold our clothes on the line and I didn't want to loose all our clothes over the neighbors fence. Stan and I ran out to save our clothes in the pouring rain and wind- it was freezing but we saved our clothes :-)

According to my dad, when you hang your clothes up to dry you are less likely to develop allergies. This is because small bits of pollen etc... dry on your clothes when they are out in the wind and you  adapt to it gradually- come spring, pollen and other stuff does not surprise your body as much as someone who uses a dryer to dry their clothes. 

Clothes lines are great, I LOVE them; if I ever moved back to America I would miss my clothes line dearly. I know you are thinking--so install a clothes line, but it is not that simple. There is a whole culture around clothes lines that I would miss. You have no idea how much time I spend talking to other mums about drying clothes. If I had a clothes line in America I wouldn't have anyone to talk to it about because they would all look at me like I was a freak.

Hanging the clothes up to dry is fun too. I get all this fresh air and I have to stretch really tall (because I am short) to reach the line. It is invigorating (takes 10 minutes) and I feel better when I am done. So there you have it.... I love clothes lines!

Miss Millie's' Princess Fun-Run

If you are in Utah on Saturday, June 30th there is a very special princess 5K run /walk (I think this means you can run in a dress!)  It is for my little friend Millie Flamm who (now 6) has fought cancer once, finished treatment and is now fighting again! The race will help raise funds for her treatments, medicine, etc... It looks like a blast!

Here is the link: http://milliesprincessrun.org/

If you ever run for anything ever again, run for Millie--she really needs it!

Permanent Residency!

Currently we are applying for Permanent Residency to live in Australia. It is a long term visa. At the moment, we are on a working visa (which expires every 4 years). By getting our PR visas we won't have to worry about renewing our visas every few years and we can even leave Australia for up to three years without it getting revoked. 

Most immigrants have a PR visa and never bother with going the next step (citizenship) because the only difference between a Permanent Resident and a citizen is citizens get to vote....wait, citizens HAVE to vote--if you forget to vote you get a fine!

The PR visa is around $2,000/ person (so $10,000 for our family)...+ all the other tests which incur a cost. 

Today we finished our health exams ($1,000 for the family). The tests took 4 hours and we did everything from blood work (checking for HIV) to chest x-rays (checking for Tuberculosis), to a regular physical (half naked...the kids were mortified), eye tests, weight and height (BMI) tests, blood pressure, urine tests (checking for drugs) and so on.

Basically if you are fat, on drugs, old (over 45), sick or have any medical history you don't get into the country.  Olivia was red-flagged straight away. She is now smaller than Mary. We were pulled into a dr.'s office and I was trying to explain that Olivia just had a positive renal test and has been discharged from her pediatric urologist. ALL BETTER. He won't pass her unless we submit more paper work & her x-rays. It didn't help that right then the kids decided it was time to loose all control (we were coming up on 4 hours by then) and I could not hear what the Dr. was saying and he couldn't hear what I was saying... thanks to yelling, screaming, laughing and banging of toys that my kids decided to display RIGHT THEN.

Another fun part of our PR application is getting finger printed. We need police clearance from all the countries we have lived in during the last 10 years.  For some reason the police stations here no longer finger print for visa applications. So you have to make an appointment at the visa office in the city...which has a 6 month wait for finger printing. Since our visa's were going to expire before then we were told to fly back to America to get them printed...I decided I would have to beg. We went to 6 different police offices and begged them to finger print our family. I finally got a YES!  I got the prints and then left...only to realize the police officer didn't sign the document! I went back the next day...but GUESS WHAT...that exact police officer has just left for his honeymoon and would be back in 5 weeks. The other officers remembered me but wouldn't sign the document because that would be forgery and we ARE in a police station....

We went back (after a tip that ALL police stations are empty around 10:00am on a Sunday morning)...NEVER try on a Friday evening, they will be swarmed; and we got them done again :-)

Last but not least- PAPER WORK! We pretty much have to certify (notarize) everything in our application. This includes, all passport pages...for each kid...+ the old passports that had their current visa in them + marriage certificates, birth certificates, university degrees, CV's, pay stubs, taxes, bank accounts etc...

THANK goodness I have a lawyer friend who sat down with me for a little over an hour and certified every copy with her stamp and signed each paper...I think we had over 75 documents.

Stan's work has assigned us a Visa Consultant (she helps us submit everything) and gives us tips and helps us fill out the papers correctly. We have 4 months exactly until our current visa runs out. Most visas take 12 months to grant...so things should get exciting around October!

Parent/ Teacher Interview....

A little while ago Thomas had a Parent/ Teacher interview. Unlike my other kids Thomas' interview went something like this...

Thomas in his school uniform...

Teacher: Thomas doesn't want to listen or participate with the class. When I call him he doesn't come, when we have circle time he doesn't want to sit, when we change stations and play the drum (indicative of changing stations) he ignores it.

Me: Really? Can he hear ok....?

Teacher: Yes, we screen all the boys hearing before they start at our grammar school.

Me: Maybe he has ADD?

Teacher: I don't think so--we change stations every 15 minutes throughout the day so the kids can be stimulated on all levels. Thomas wants to play with the play-doh and will for hours at a time. 

Me: So he has a LONG attention span....

Teacher: Yes, the opposite of ADD, but it disrupts the class because he is not participating with the rest of the kids.

Me: Well it is his first time in preschool.

Teacher: Yes, this is the FIRST year for everyone in preschool...and he is one of the older kids. Some kids have just turned three years old and then begin with us the next day.

Me in the car with Thomas on the way back from my Parent /Teacher Interview.

Me: Thomas, do you hear your teacher when she calls you to come to circle time?

Thomas: Yea

Me: Do you come?

Thomas: NO!

Me: Why not?

Thomas: Because I don't WANT too.

Problem solved!

Happy Birthday to ME!

I celebrated my birthday this week, It was fantastic! It started out with a surprise dinner organized by Stan the night before, (he booked it clear in January). It was at a fancy restaurant called the Victorian in Albert Park, http://www.thevictorian.com.au/ (4 course degustation) overlooking the beach. He had paid in advance but a few things didn't work out according to plan.  First since my birthday is now in the fall/ winter and day light savings happens in April; it gets dark around 5:00....so you couldn't really see the beach. Secondly, when we got to the restaurant it was CLOSED! The lights were out, the chairs were stacked up and there was a note on the door saying they were only taking reservations of parties with 15+ during the winter months!

We drove down to the next suburb (Saint Kilda), which is a very young and trendy part of town and got dinner at Mirka, a Guy Grossi Resturant- http://www.grossi.com.au The best part about eating there was that our waiter was British; so it seemed more formal than otherwise and our chef was french so when he brought us our dish (I guess the waiter was busy) he said something in french that sounded like the food would taste even better! THANK STAN!

The next day was my actual birthday. Thomas' school was doing an early mothers day celebration so we went into school an hour early 8:00 and got to do stations with our kids. There was a necklace station, a hand massage station, a coloring station etc... where the boys (it's an all boys school) could make things for their mum's. Every time Thomas made me something he would hand it to me and say "happy birthday!"  The teachers would correct him and say "no it's for mothers day" but Thomas knew better :-)

Mary's class had an "excursion" aka field trip and she went to the Victorian markets (an outdoor conglomeration of famers markets) and brought me back a gift! http://www.qvm.com.au/qvm/photos.aspx

Throughout the day I was showered with flowers, cakes, tarts, balloons and cards from friends. In the evening I had a mini pajama party at my house which was a lot of fun!

Thanks everyone for the warm wishes--emails, Face book messages! Happy birthday!

Healthy Eating!

So probably 6 weeks ago I stumbled upon a 2 hour documentary about refined sugar (hungry for a change). I was glued, I actually watched it two times.... and after a bunch of complaining from Stan I caught him watching it (alone) on a Saturday morning!  http://www.hungryforchange.tv/ (it was free to watch during the trial but now it costs money to see) 

I loved it! I loved it because it very slowly explained all the changes in our food industry from about the 1970's until now. It went over the process of refining all types of foods (sugar, flour, cocaine :-) etc...) and the effects on our bodies. And after you were totally grossed out after the first hour--they spent a second hour showing you how to detox and eat right and be healthy and not kill yourself with food. 

There were no gimmicks or ways to make money off me; and the next 6 weeks I have gotten two emails in my inbox with recipes or advice for eating right.

After watching the movie, Stan and I went through our pantry and got ride of a lot of stuff. We started shopping at the Victorian markets (every Saturday) where we can buy lots of fresh veggies, fruits, and meats. We cut out desserts and replaced them with fruit.  We follow a general guideline for our meals (that we created) which looks something like this:

Breakfast:

crumpets (which have no sugar in them) + honey = divine!!

homemade juice (whatever I blend in the blender)--Pineapple, cucumber, pear, chia seeds (which work better than Olivia's laxative which she has been taking for nearly 3 years now)

1 vitamin

1 fruit (if still hungry)

+ 1 fruit for morning tea

Kids Lunch:

2 veggies

2 fruits 

1 sandwich

water bottle

+ 1 fruit for afternoon tea

Dinner:

1 meat

2 veggies

1 fruit (served at the end for dessert).

(and we do fish for our meat 1/ week--yep FISH FRIDAYS --usually salmon, but there are so many yummy fresh fish here in Australia, its hard to choose).

Other frequent add ins:

avocado, cilantro, parsley...I eat as much of these as possible (fresh), and throw them on everything! 

I guess I have done this in baby steps. Australian food has about 10% of the sugar content that American food does....that's 90% LESS!!!! I have noticed such a huge change in my body with taking the extra step and cutting it out even further.

I go to the store a lot now--can't bulk buy fruit (it goes bad)...we consume at least 1 pineapple /day so when I go to the store we get a lot of pineapples (and it is winter here). I don't buy anything canned due to the sugar content in the syrup, all produce is fresh!

So I love it!  Eating like this has changed my life. The kids lunches have changed so much. No more chips, gummy snacks, cheese sticks, gogurts....nothing. Just cut up fruits and veggies and a sandwich. Breakfast has changed a lot too (no more cereal (which is crawling with sugar...yea even the "healthy ones")), no apple juice (or any kind of store made juice) and my snack cupboard is bare....I replaced the microwave popcorn with the natural kernels which I pop with olive oil and salt. I use olive oil or water for everything now.

Sometimes I break my sugar rule (for instance, I just had my birthday and we did have cake), but I don't even have a desire to eat this sort of "processed" stuff. It is amazing how many times I go into a store and am only interested in about 10% (or less) of the store, and don't even get me started about gas stations or quick places to get the kids food if I come unprepared after school and we have to dash off to dance or another activity...It is so sad! There is unhealthy stuff available EVERYWHERE and healthy food is hard to find. 

Across the street from Stan's office is a "salad shop" there is a line an hour long every day; it is the only really healthy lunch place in the whole city. People want to eat right but with our fast paced world we need healthy stuff available now, otherwise people compromise just to eat! 

 I am so glad I didn't make these changes until AFTER I or someone in my family had gotten very sick or obese--(diabetes, cancer--highly related to sugar) or some other crazy disease). I am keen to see if eating this way will positively change how Olivia digests food. 

I know a lot of diseases are genetic, but research shows that almost always something has to "trigger" them--I am not going to let food wipe me out physically, especially with all the stressors now days. Keep you posted on any other benefits or tips I come across. I can't sum up this video in a quick post--it is 2 hours-- just watch it--eventually someone will put it on Utube right?  :-) It will change your life!!

ps. Although my kids did resist at first, they have to eat, and if there is nothing but healthy stuff around--they will eat it! Brussel sprouts are a new family favourite right now--Stan is the best cook ever!