Ruby's Walk Through Women's History

Last Tuesday, we had our Ruby’s Pearls for the term.  It was SO interesting!  20 of us were able to go through and have a little quiet time away from our kids and munch a few nice cupcakes & muffins.

We had a lot of laughs listening to Ruby talk about that tension between being a mother and being a ‘wife’.  She took us on a little ride through history starting from pre 1898 when women didn’t even have any legal status (this means, they couldn’t own property, and couldn’t do anything in court to protect themselves), through to present day.

In 1893, NZ gave the vote to women.  Go NZ for being out there & forging new standards!  However, women still didn’t work.  We were only considered for the positions of wife, mother & servant/slave. 
In 1914 through 1918 we had World War 1.
In 1939 through 1945 World War 2 waged.  These wars changed our lives from a working perspective – we were allowed to work!  We stayed home and did the jobs our men used to do, who were now fighting the war.  After this war, we remained in the workforce.

The Kinsey Report came out in 1948 which to make it safe parlour talk, sexualised women.  Now we were allowed to enjoy sex.  To add to this, in the 50s, the pill was made available.  In Ruby’s words, now we were able to be sexy, and also be in control of our fertility!

In 1972 the DPB became available.  In addition, the reasons for divorce were made more fair to women around the same period.

All this was meant to free us, and make us feel liberated!  Most of us reported it’s just made us feel a little tired.  :O(

So Ruby finished up with some tips to help the harmony reign in our marriages.
1.    Negotiate
2.    Do ‘it’ for him even if you’re not into it.  When the canoe’s out in the water, both people usually start paddling.
3.    Remember that it takes time.  Even 10 years is a short time in the length of a marriage.  But if you can stick at it, the rewards you will reap later in that marriage are totally worth the wait.

As you can imagine, this was a fascinating talk, and we all look forward to next term with Ruby’s Pearls!

We Made Soap!

It's one of those things you read about it in period novels and think, man, we're so lucky we don't have to make our own soap (& butter, cheese, etc), yet it's quite fascinating too.  Today we have so many chemicals added to our lives via our skin care, our food, our cleaners etc, that it's really nice to have a really CHEAP option to doing something a-la-natural!

This recipe comes from Rhonda Hetzel the Thrift Queen, who initially was looking for a soap recipe that she could use on her skin, hair & face.  She succeeded with this one, and began giving her soap away.  Very quickly people wanted to start buying it, so she made it to sell.  She got insanely busy, then realised she didn't want to be so busy, so she just posted her recipe on her blog (www.down---to---earth.blogspot.com) and let us all make it for ourselves.  :o)

Download the instructions here

We had a blast!  Much laughter was had, along with Chocolate Mud Cake & Hot Chocolates all round.  A real girls night out!

Check out the album.

Watch out for those fumes!

 

Messy Play Day!

Yuck!  But oh so.... therapeutic at the same time!  Cathartic even!
Today we went against all our natural instincts and let our kids get MESSY!!
We played with home-made finger paint, Cornflour weirdness, Lux soapflake slime, textured playdough... and we excavated a block of ice with creatures frozen in it.

There's a heap of photos in the album, but here's a few of my favourites.

Click on the Messy Play Tab to get the recipes.

"Here's the turtle!"

Lux Flakes Slime

I like this stuff!

"Um, can you get this off now?"

Here's the cuttlefish!

Yes!  Feels good on feet!

Tentative at first...

Then right in there!  Well, he wasn't that impressed with the huge glob.

Eeewww!  But it's so lovely too!

"Check out the cornflour strings!"

Ardmore Cafe

Ardmore cafe is such a great spot to visit with little kids.  They have a lovely deck area, and large concrete area where kids can ride their bikes. 

There's always something going on too, with planes leaving and helicopters practising their hovering.

The food & coffee is lovely!  Always a bonus!

We really enjoyed our morning out there, and had to drag ourselves away at lunch time.

Have a look at more photos here in our album.

Letter from Lokesh

 

We have received another letter from Lokesh.  How cute are his pictures!

If you or your children would like to draw Lokesh a picture, we can post it off with the letter that is ready to go now.  They love to receive drawings.

Remember, if you have spare pingers, we have a box next to our morning tea each week for money.

The $45 a month we donate, goes a LONG way to making his life better for him, and his family.  Well done, girls!

Welcome Baby Bethany!

Photo (c) by Jasmine Maclean Photography

Woohoo!  Another baby!  We love them.  :o)

Bethany Joan was born on the 24th February at 3:45pm via c-section, weighing in at a sweet 8lb 5oz (3810g).  She was 52.5cm long.

A huge congratulations to you both, Shaun & Melissa, she is beautiful.  We look forward to seeing you around WonderMums.

Ambury Farm Visit 2012

Our trip to Ambury Farm Park proved to be a whirlwind of excitement as a beautiful sunny day saw all the kids frolic from one enclosure to the next with squeals of delight!!

 Feeding and stroking bunnies, dodging bulls, pigs having a good ol’ scratch on the fence and poodle-like hairy goats (or sheep??) were some of the highlights.

We also watched the sheep being herded into a pen and even got to stroke a few stragglers who were more interested in having a nibble on some flowery gum boots. Even the Billy goat got a stroke or two however apart from giggles his beard attracted a few tugs.

The chickens didn't appear to mind little faces peeping into their coop to have a look at their eggs and the hen house turned out to make a fun slide toward the end of the day.

All in all a splendid day to get those gum boots out tromping!

Thanks Jayne, for the blog post ;)  Please have a look here at the other photos!