Just because

It hardly happens anymore. At 16 months M was still napping in a sling quite regularly, A hardly ever does. It seems he'll give up sleeping in the daytime even earlier than she did.

What we've been doing

 This is M helping P paint a stupa at a hospice (Karuna) in Brisbane. As I mentioned we recently got home from our second big road trip in a few months. This one was really big. From here to Brisbane, stopping a couple of times on the way up to camp then to the Sunshine Coast, then back to Brisbane for a day and night, a night in Ballina and then P pulled off a masterful feat on superhuman effort by driving all the way back from Ballina to the mountains in one afternoon/evening!
P studies Tibetan Buddhist art with Andy Weber who is only here once a year. We arrived in Brisbane a few days early so P could help with the stupa painting at Karuna as per the photos and then headed up to Chenrezig Institute for the real work.
Gosh it was a tough trip, but brilliant at the same time. We arrived at CI late at night & transferred the children straight into beds in our dorm. First thing next morning while walking up to breakfast the director stopped M and I, gave us big hugs and said "Welcome Home!". Ah!
Many more stories to tell of course, but that's enough for now.

Deprived of childcare

Apparently my children are. This is the creche at the sports centre which also houses "Kids Kingdom" (cheesy play centre). There are little cars to ride in, huge slides, tunnels and trampolines but what are my children fascinated with? The mini-prison...

Jiggetty Jig

So we are home again after our second big road trip. Much to report! Hopefully I'll get to it soon. Life just does not stop of course and I feel as though we hit the ground running, more like sprinting upon our return and haven't stopped yet.

Consensual Purification

I've yet to explain the title of this blog so here goes. Consensual refers to our aim for our family life. In the sense of Consensual Living or Radical Unschooling, applied to all relationships within our family unit. Purification refers initially to the Vajrasattva practice I began around the same time as I began this blog but also to the idea that living peacefully with our children (and spouses) will contribute little by little to peace for all beings. Even or perhaps even more so when it's bloody hard (hence purification).

Adjusting to life with one less computer and more

I've already mentioned the demise of my dearly beloved laptop. She is much mourned by M as the last remaining source of dvd viewing pleasure (the drive in P's laptop having been worn out from over-use in the months following A's birth). That means we compete to get our screentime fix from the itty-bitty HP Mini thingy. Which really means that M gets her fix (of youtube or reading eggs usually) while I'm cleaning or cooking or putting A to bed and I get mine late at night when she is finally asleep and he wakes for more milk & sleeps on my lap while I read or right now, blog.
P has quit or is in the process of quitting his main client. Which is, I must say, the best news I've heard in a long time. The house feels different already. The children are enjoying having two parents instead of one and a bit and I am enjoying less cooking (as well as the conversation). No doubt it will bring us a little closer to the (financial) edge than we have been used to for the past few years but it's nowhere we haven't been before and the benefits abound :)

Ooops!

Doesn't everyone have to make a post like this sometime? My laptop appears to be dead. Vale, dear friend. You served me well. However...............No kudos to me for never quite getting around to backing up the photos or the library data for Kunsang Yeshe I say again. Oops!