Doo, Doo, Doo, Lookin' out my back door

So I burnt a CD while we were living at my parents’ house. A sing-a-long compilation for the car that the kids would hopefully get into. I called it the “Children’s CD” and have subsequently listened to little else in the car since November.
If you call past you’ll hear S & K dreamily bumping along singing the lyrics of “Good Vibrations” or “Lookin out my back door” or “I want to hold your hand” or “Magical Mr. Mistoffeles” as they go about their days of exploration and invention.
It’s not a bad soundtrack. Though it has helped me appreciate the sponge-like nature of the kids’ interests and enthusiasm for shared experience. ”Oh, Mum & Dad like this; I’ll give it a go.”
Happily musical range has widened effortlessly. Today I fielded requests: “Dad, can you please play Clap Hands again? (Tom Waits) “Dad, can you put on The Talking Lion Blues” (that’s C.W. Stoneking). S & K each love the titles and the stories and the music, music, music. Their kinder teachers planted the seeds of ABBA during the year. Mamma Mia would be the Number 1 song at our place, I reckon, for popularity. Though my personal album of the summer is Dan Kelly's Dream.

We’re back home.
The renovation work went (mostly) to plan and certainly to budget and (just) to time. I guess in hindsight it was a low stress, very successful case. Bingo. We had some stresses - days of painting, CJ took time off work, kids lived for some days in Moe with grandparents while we painted. Mind you, reno talk is not my cup of tea. It strikes as the epitome of middle class affluenza. Like the Tim Rogers song “Twenty Eight” says, as his character bemoans the direction his (ageing) life has taken: “Art house movies and flat renovations, newspaper politics & dinner reservations, oh, what a breeze, just help me off my knees.”

Saying that, we’ve changed our house for the better & I’m really happy to say so. This house is kind of the twenty year proposition. The base for schools and community and work and activity and family. So it’s grand.

Christmas passed with a rush and one day of personal anxiety regarding presents and what-to-get-at-the-last-minute, which at the time seemed to lack perspective, and from this distance seems to have been a storm in a tea-cup. It’s funny the things over which we get worked up.

That’s a nice lead in to me saying that I’ve been reading “Buddhism for mothers” lately and learning a lot. Or rather, having some ideas reinforced. The upshot is that I’ve been chewing people’s ears off about the transient nature of our lives. Everything is temporary. Acknowledge any emotion as it arrives in your head, and say goodbye to it as it leaves. Just passing through. Happy? Pissed off? Confused? Excited? It’ll pass. Far better to sit tight & ride out any negative emotions, rather than act on them. The damage you may do to others while cranky will probably last much longer than the original emotion ever did. Yadda yadda.
I like this. It’s like a light switched on. The book is a ripper.

The other thing I’ve been pouring into unsuspecting mates is this idea of Having A Crack. As Ben Lee sings: “Whatever it is, just do it. Whatever it is.” And no, Matt, homicide doesn’t count. Like building a three-legged coffee table for a quirky little spot in our lounge. Had a crack today. Done. Like resuming the running. Had a crack the past week or so. Habit resumed.

I married someone who constantly inspires me in this Have A Crack department. She’s running rings around me and we’re all living a great life here.

We saw in 2011 with some very close friends; people you just want to share with and live with and learn from and be around. S failed to fall asleep on that hot night before the sounds of celebration rang in the New Year. Great to see the look on her face as she took in the unexpected (very) local fireworks and, in the near-distance, those in central Melbourne.

So we’re living the summer holiday life presently. Long evenings of sunlight. Riding (K on the back of CJ’s bike, S on the tag-along towed behind mine) down to the Gelo Bar for a lemon (or maybe chocolate?) after dinner ice cream. Cricket at the G. Trips to Rays Outdoors and Bunnings with the throng. Had a camping weekend in Drouin with five other families before Christmas. Great to be sleeping out & all together in the tent.

And later in the summer we’ll be sharing a week camping down the Ocean Road with some great mates. Roll on summer, roll on.

This coming year? S will start school this year. K will be in the 3-year-old kinder 2 sessions per week. CJ & I will be each working 3 days/week and living this life. Amid music and dancing and laughter and imagination. May we all shine on. May you shine on. On & on. Slainte.