That's a Wrap

Reflecting that many bloggers out there do a wrap up post at the end of the year, neatly cataloging all their makes, or highs and lows to look back on in the future, I lamented to Steve that I can't do that since I've got so many things that I've made in the last six weeks that are as yet, un-blogged, my list would be pretty incomplete, or at least not a good reflection on the year. I guess people who blog for work can be a little more planned about things and maybe they are working in advance, but not so much with me. Even though I've been at the blogging for nearly 20 years now....

Anyway, in lieu of a "Here are all the things I made in 2024" I thought I'd do a little wrap up post with the fun things that have happened in the last six weeks that have helped the year speed to it's ending. Things that are just small and fun but special to us and I'll want to remember. 

The girls made boats. 

With an eleven week term to finish the year, the teachers at the girls school got creative and ran a bunch of activities to make the final week interesting and fun. One of these was a boat race across the school pool. Students were invited to make their own boat and it had to carry a ping pong ball across the eight metre pool. Both Sophie and Rachel were interested so we got into it. 

Inspired by the Pop-Pop Boat in Ponyo, they investigated different engines. Rachel made her boiler from a beer can and straws which was powered by steam when the heat from the candle did it's job. Sophie tried a variety of different designs - variations on the same theme - the most complex of which was bending copper pipes to be the boiler. Unfortunately her boat couldn't take the weight of the pipes and we had to try again. 

There was so much trial and error in both the boats. Loads of fixing one thing to have something new break. Sophie's especially which went from wood, to two layers of wood, to wood with balloons (supporting the weight of the pipes), and then to a variety of different milk bottle designs (when the balloons caused too much drag and we needed to nix the pipes in favour of a more compact boiler). After we finally gave in with the boiler, we switched to fan powered and Sophie did all the wiring to make the fan work from a 9V battery, including a switch in the circuitry. Thanks to girl guides for teaching her how to do most of that! 

Rachel, testing the Carmelita 3 in our neighbour's pool.

In the end we learnt a lot and had two functioning boats to launch in the pool on race day. Neither won, (or even made it all the way across the pool), but neither did they sink, so we still counted it a victory. The boats were named after we finished reading and watching the Netflix version of A Series of Unfortunate Events,  the Carmelita 3 (Rachel's boat), Beatrice 2 (Sophie's pipe boat) and The Persistence (Sophie's final fan boat). 

Sophie has been given the leadership role of Library Captain for 2025 at school. We are pretty proud of our girl, and think the role suits her to a T. Both girls actually signed up as Library Helpers this year and were very serious about turning up for their "shifts". In the last week of school when the kids were loitering around classrooms getting given jobs by teachers, both girls were requested at the library to help catalogue the new home readers. Hilarious. 

I came to school in my staff week to find this little beauty on my classroom door. I rescued him, took this selfie and he promptly jumped on my head. Managed to get him into a nearby garden to hopefully live out a full and happy life; it honestly made my day. 

Even when my school year wrapped up (a week earlier than the girls), I wasn't resting. Typically, I volunteered to help coordinate the Community Carols event hosted by the girls' school. It was a lot of work, easily twice the size of last year, but it made my heart oh so full to see the churches of the area coming together to celebrate Christmas and serve the community. 

After that, I spent the week packing things up and sorting things out and then Steve and I went off to Bundy for a quick one night (the girls started their holidays with sleepovers at grandparents) to celebrate Steve's sister's 30th. 

I got to make the cake. Which was a lot of fun. 

We had thought we were going to miss our Street Christmas Party (being in Bundy) but the Saturday night in Brisbane was so rainy they ended up postponing until the next day. Hooray! Steve and I could make it after all. The girls had made oreo truffles and my contribution to the food was this mango and avo sushi platter. 

Mango sushi - so delicious! 

Speaking of food, the following Saturday my family got together to celebrate what would have been my Pa-Pou's 100th birthday but also, 100 years of the Greek Faros Family in Australia. We all made greek food and had a lovely evening together. I contributed this bread which was just delicious. 

It was really lovely to be together sharing food and memories. I heard a language teacher recently mention that they feel bi-cultural, and I think I often feel that way. Growing up in Australia but with a strong connection to our Greek heritage. It's even more confused now with how influenced we are by my Japanese experiences, but I think it's something to embrace. What is God's vision of the future if not a city where every nation and every tongue is represented?  

Steve has continued sweating it out at Jiu-Jitsu each week, despite some injuries this year to level up to his purple belt. It's been over four years of training and he still loves it. Sophie had a six month break but has decided to give it another shot and now we can't keep her away - even in the heat of summer. 

Both girls helped to paint some Christmas decos for Church this year and Rachel is pretty proud of her little cow in the nativity scene. 

I have sewn so much - lots of presents and then just lots of little things. Actually looking forward to cataloging those as well (it kind gives January an easy start having all these things made and ready to blog about :P), just have to find the time. 

I'll finish this post of somewhat random collection of things with what I consider to be the Quote of the Year from Rachel. Last week, the girls had come with me to grab some groceries and we drove past school. I mentioned that the playground was dismantled (the P&C are funding a new one next year). Rachel says: "Oh that playground. I didn't play there much because it was always infested with children."

The End of Solitude

School holidays are about to start and I'm noticing a distinct difference to the Easter holidays this year. We are actually planning things. Planning things with people. 

I'm feeling very mixed about this. Surprisingly I really enjoyed the social isolation period, even though I am generally an extroverted social kind of person. This move back to socialisation is proving to be hard. I often comment to Steve that I would almost prefer to wait until every restriction was lifted before re-entering society. If I can't hug people, I'd almost prefer not to see them at all.

Alas, this can't be the case. We don't know when this crisis will be finished, or when life can return to "normal". Maybe the not knowing is the hardest part. In the mean time, we've got to take advantage of the small allowances given, even if they are strange and uncomfortable.

As I write this, I realise that I have a lot of wonderful memories of our time in isolation, from the early days of the COVID-19 crisis in Australia, and I haven't really blogged about many of them. Sure, I shared about some sewing, some excessive fabric cutting, reading and also watching musicals, but we did do a lot more.

In an effort not to make this post an overwhelming dump of "all the things we did in isolation", I thought I'd just share some of the food related things, and save the others for another time. When you don't have to travel and find yourself at home a lot, there's a significant increase in time you can spend on food. Sweet delicious food. Like this pulla bread:

And these cupcakes that the girls got to decorate:

It was my birthday during isolation, so Sophie organised my favourite food for dinner: Pies and chips.

Rachel made scones one morning completely on her own. All I did was tell her what to put into the bowl and turn the oven on. Again, the time factor was such a grace here. Usually I'm in a rush and have to get them done as quick as possible. With no where to go, we could let Rachel take the half hour to make them and enjoy them when they were done.

A friend sent down several kilos of lemons from her dad's tree on the sunny coast and I made copious amounts of lemon butter.

The lime tree is abundantly producing so we made limeanade again.

More biscuit icing. The girls got to practice piping with royal icing, which is usually something I wouldn't bother with, but we had lots of time on our hands, so why not?

Ninja-bread men!

Sophie was particularly proud of hers.

Lastly this magnificent herb bread loaf, which yes, was amazing.

Now that I've done this post and taken this trip down memory lane as I lament the end of this quiet time of our lives, I think I'll go an make some cinnamon scrolls to help me cope with the changes to come. Maybe they will ease the transition to where ever we are going to next.