The One About Inori

Our daily temperatures now average from 0 to 15 degrees celsius.

We do love the cold and use heating sometimes which can be quite painful on the pocket. We (all four of us) usually just huddle together under 3 thick quilts, each wearing 3 to 6 layers of clothing and socks to sleep. That way we don’t need heating while we are asleep!

My school requires me to travel quite a bit to their campus for my Chemistry practicals. The campus is about 4 hours drive away from where we live.

I dread going everytime because although Nad is the one driving and he never ever complains, I dislike long car rides. I’ve had car sickness since I was young. My mum had to time my meals – no food within an hour before going in the car or bus… either that or bring lots of plastic bags to catch whatever I throw up!

Because of this, I cannot knit and I cannot read in the car and I find it a waste of time, just sitting there, doing nothing.

I dislike driving as well… because it comes with a huge load of responsibility. The lives of your husband, your kids and yourself in your hands. *Shudder*.

I would cast on a project that requires only stockingnette stitch or simple stitches so I won’t have to look at the pattern or the knitting just so I can knit in the car but I already have SO MANY WIPs going on… urgh.

Anyway. I digressed. As usual.

These few mornings have been so cold that we have had frost on our garden beds, our lawns and even our windscreen!

Nad was wiping/chipping off a layer of ice from the windscreen with a rough glove.

Most of my friends just pour warm water over their windscreens.

Almost the entire journey to school was covered in fog.

This was what it looked like from afar:

And when we’re in it:

Some parts look like scenes from a creepy horror movie.

It’s been much colder than this nowadays. I’ve had it flash 0 degrees for the past two days.

We also saw something interesting… well.. not REALLY interesting but I thought it gave the term ‘Moving House’ a whole new meaning.

Literally.

Moving. House.

This is the 2nd time we’ve seen people move their houses this way. The first was an old weatherboard house and we could look into the front door as the truck past us and see kitchen cabinets still attached.

Haha, why don’t they just build another house instead?

Maybe they like their old house too much?

And this time I have a damn good reason.

I am hoping to keep this entry short – but enough to jump-start on my blogging routine (or lack thereof) again.

The reason why I haven’t been updating for such a long time is because in early April, our house was burglared.

We were staying ONE night with some friends (we brought the dogs) and attended the last day of Feast of Unleavened Bread in another town the next day. When we returned home, we opened the door to see a mess. Cupboards open, toiletries strewn all over the hallway, computer’s keyboard on the floor.

The theives took electronics.O ur LCD monitor, DVD player, my PS2, PSP and DSLite are gone among some other stuff.

We are not angry but rather disgusted that our private space had been invaded by uninvited hooligans.

The bottom line – we moved out of the area to a safer suburb and therefore had to relocate our internet services. That’s why I’ve been offline for so long.

I have something to share, though. About how God had shown us miracles after miracles in times of adversities.

Firstly, we were not at home when the break in happened. If we were, I think our trauma might have been worse.

Secondly, we got another place to move into within 2 days. NEVER before have we heard of anybody in Australia being able to find affordable rentals within a week, much less to say within 2 days. On the average, most people spend 1 to 2 weeks searching and securing a home to rent. This is truly a miracle that only God can produce. In effect to this, we were able to move out of the old place within 4 days of the burglary. The lesser time we spent there, the better!

Thirdly, we were not expecting to be able to get out of the old rental contract. We were supposed to pay rent until the house was let to someone else. Ie, if it takes 1 month before a new tenant is found, we have to pay rent for that house for a month, on top of the rent of our new residency. (If it took 5 months, then, well, we’ll be paying rent for 2 places for 5 months!)

Even the agent had advised us that “I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be able to get out of the contract easily.”

But God in His amazing wisdom and grace, worked another miracle. The owner was happy to let us off with only 2 weeks of notice!

We cannot help but feel extremely blessed and loved by Him. Yes, we did suffer a loss (in an electronic-goods way). But in turn we gained more trust in The Lord and learned to lean on Him. On our own, we can do nothing!

He has continued to show us even more tiny miracles which are a little too personal to share here. But we are living proof that He is with us. Everyday of our lives. Without any doubt.

About an update on our family.

Chubbs is now 13 months and walking all over the place. He’s still rather clingy to me. He’s babbling a lot in his own baby language and has a hearty appetite.

Sunshine is 2 and half years old and reading and writing very well. She loves stacking her blocks, riding on her scooter skate, reading her nursery rhyme book, colouring, going to the playground etc.

My mum visited us (she just left for home this morning, actually) and Sunshine was correcting her english!

When my mum said ”Yesh”, Sunshine corrected her, “It’s not ‘yesh’. It’s ‘YES’!”

And then, “It’s not ‘podado’, it’s POTATO!”

Really made us laugh.

I’m still in school and school is killing me slowly. Homework piles on rather quickly. I am struggling with Biology especially as I’ve never done Biology before in my life. It’s like going from nothing to level 12 (equivalent to ‘A’ Levels) in less than a year.

I am coping with the other 4 subjects, thank God.

My online yarn store is back online and I have been busy with it too. We go to a market to sell our wares this Sunday. (Hopefully I can update more on this later.)

I have to go off now as the kids are whining.

Hope to update more soon!

Frantically doing this:

They are sitting in front of the heater, frantically drying.

I’m frantically going to take a break today and will be frantically going to stay with our good friend for a night on her farm so that I can frantically knit while frantically relaxing… while Nad frantically takes care of our frantic kids.

I printed a T-shirt for my friend:

The transfer paper was bought in Thailand after our wedding 3 years ago. And this is the first time I’m using it.

I don’t quite like it though. See the areas where I cut the words out? I was hoping they’d be transparent instead of bright white!

More frantic dyeing to come Monday night.

Our Malabrigo shipment has finished touring Europe and is waiting in Melbourne until Wednesday (Monday and Tuesday are public holidays here). I hope I can finish dyeing all the colourways in time with Malabrigo’s arrival!

Yours Frantically,
Jolene

Not me. My internet connection!

Somehow, when I feel the urge to blog, my ISP has to have problems. Statewide problems, no less.
Just doing a drive by post to show you guys what I received in the mail a few days ago!

There was something interesting in the mail and I ripped it open to find this:

Sooooo cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For the past few days, I’ve lost plenty of brain cells trying to remember what this kind of art is called. (Alongside with my maths assignment.. I think I may have lost half of my brain).

Finally today I asked my dearest ‘brother’, Martin, WHAT it is called.

ANDY WARHOL!

Brainz, you haz the smartz, Martin. Nom nom nomz.

Anyway, back on topic. This lovely piece of wall hanging (tea towel? decorative cloth?) was sent to me by a Raveler named Therese.

She was visiting New Zealand and went to the Majacraft spinning camp featuring the very talented Lexi (Pluckyfluff).

I read that she was visiting our state after her exciting camp is over and we initially wanted to meet for some tea and chat (and I was hoping to wiggle out some info on the new Majacraft spinning wheel out from her or maybe, you know, she could smuggle one out for me… hehehe, *ahem*).
Her schedule must have been packed but she said she’d send ‘something sheepy’ to me from NZ.

That’s the ‘something sheepy’!!!!!!! Cute Andy Warhol sheep!!!!

There’s also a NZ cloth badge in the same package but Sunshine pinched it and I still CAN’T find it! Grrr…

But seriously, what a generous lady Therese is! Here I am, barely knowing her and she’s soooo thoughtful! I’m so touched.

Thank you, Therese. I will probably make it into a bag since I don’t know what else to do with it. Might as well put it into full use around! I love it!

We’re recovered from our bout of flu now. Thank you to all well wishers and your emails.

I tried to take a photo of Chubbs with him posing like the baby in my Yarnandkisses logo. No luck, though.

(Note the mismatched socks?)

Much dyeing to be done very soon! And then probably a huge update in the store!

Okay. Off to finish up my Science assignments. Have to hand it in at prac class tomorrow. Cyas!

I haven’t updated in a looooong time and here’s hoping that this is the post that would start the ball rolling again after having gathered dust under that old sofa eh? (Yes, there are a few balls that have rolled under my sofa which the kids can’t reach and I couldn’t be bothered getting them out because barely 5 minutes after, they will roll back under so they are best left ignored and err.. ok.. I digressed… where are we before the metaphorical ball-under-sofa?)

Ah yes.

I’m nursing a cold now, having caught it from dearest Sunshine. But my cold was 10 times worse than hers. She had a runny nose a few days ago and I came down with a strep throat the day after.

Someone named Wynn on Ravelry very kindly posted a home remedy for strep throats. I took a glance and noted that I would have to get lemons to make that concoction. After getting the lemons, I was too sick to turn on the computer so I made this:

- one whole lemon’s juice

- equal part of Apple Cider Vinegar (which was the part that almost killed me)

- one teaspoon of honey

- room temperature water

And needless to say, I almost fainted from the mere smell of this. BUT BOY! It WORKED!!! The liquid glided down my throat and the pain was lessened somewhat.

After slinking off to bed, feeling terribly sorry for myself, I woke up and logged on. Only to find out that although I got all the ingredients right, the RATIO WAS NOT.

It should have been:

- HALF a lemon’s juice

- a DESSERTSPOONful of Apple Cider Vinegar

- a teaspoon of honey (to sweeten the deal a little)

- WARM water.

DUH.

I made another concoction this time with the right amount and it tasted MUCH better. Also helped with the strep throat.

Sunshine LOVED this mixture and kept wanting more. But, you know, she’s the weird one who eats lemons with the rind and all. *Shrugs*

I gave Chubbs a teaspoonful and he refused to ‘talk’ to me after.

Anyway I also bought some lozenges from the pharmacy. I was there in my jammies and URGHHH… the pharmacy assistant was Ky-uuuu—-ttteeee!!!

So I asked him for something to help with a strep throat, right? And he went on to ask if I was getting it for myself (yes), any headaches (no, but feverish), any allergies (no -oh would you please please please get the medicine for me already…. I look horrible in my jammies and you’re sooo cute!- )…………

So he got a packet of lozenges and then I HAD to tell him that I’m still breastfeeding- would it be okay to take this medicine ? Sigh…

Does it mean I have no chance with this cute guy?

I told Nad to keep coming back to this pharmacy because the guy is cute and my most wonderful hubby said okay. :p

Lets stop talking about uninteresting stuff and go on to… erm.. more uninteresting stuff….

I’ve been busy with SCHOOLWORK.

Well I’ve managed to stay on top of the workload thus far, always sending in my assignments way before their due dates. BUT those teachers keep sending new stuff back!!!!!!!!! *Grabs hair*

I did my first Chemistry test and scored very well on it so that’s a relief because I’ve glanced through my next unit and it’s not something I’ve done before (redox) so I’m quite screwed, I think.

I struggled through Biology as I’ve NEVER done Bio in my entire life before. I may have to drop this subject if it gets too tough.

English is rather fun I’d say. I love writing but I wish the workload was lesser.

I’ve not done my Physical science and Math homework yet.

Then as if that isn’t enough to reduce me into a pile of messy tears, I’m waiting for a new shipment of yarn to arrive. NEW base yarn to dye up!!! I’m so excited as this yarn is rather unique!

Malabrigo is STILL being dyed up in Uruguay and I’m hoping they will be ready soon! Loads of customers are waiting!!!

I’ve also made a decision to put soap making on hold. I have big plans for this soap business and will probably take half a year to plan everything out. Meanwhile, I will soap on my free time (whatever is left of it anyway) and leave them to cure. In half a years’ time, I would have a ready stock of soap ready for sale!

Check out my newest creation:

This smells LOVELY. Vanilla, Orange and Cocoa!!! Yum yum yum. It’s still curing now and I cannot wait to try it out!

I’ve been knitting more often nowadays. More pictures of the knitting maybe later. It’s getting colder and we’re all wearing sweaters, long pants and socks around in the house now. Good weather to knit in!

The kids are growing and growing. And growing.

Sunshine is beginning to write now. She’s 2 and a half and can write a few letters already. She’s also reading sentences and can carry on conversations with us. It’s a fun age!

Chubbs is almost a year old now. He can stand on his own, has 4 front teeth and crawls at supersonic pace. He is a boobaholic. I wouldn’t have dreamed of breastfeeding a baby for so long. We initially wanted to stop at 8 months but I can’t bear to do it! What if he’s the last baby we’ll ever have? He’s too cute to stop breastfeeding!

He is, however, also on solids now. So lesser time spent being mummy’s appendage.

Okay………. I probably should start on my homework. Oh, maybe not. It’s 1.15am now. I better go hit the sack then.

See you!