luckydipdays

I am privileged because I am white.
I am privileged because I am Christian.
I am privileged because I am slim.
I am privileged because I live in a developed country.
I am privileged because I finished my education up to Year 12.
I am privileged with access to free healthcare and further education is within my reach if I want it.
I am privileged to live in a developed country where fresh water and food can be taken for granted.

I am also privileged that when I found myself in an abusive relationship I had the support of the community to leave and keep myself and my children safe.

There are many ways in which I experience the other end of privilege - where I am not the one experiencing it. I am a woman, a single mother, I don't have a university education and have been out of the work force for 2.5 years. I can't afford to "keep up with the Jones'" (and don't want to). There are things I chose which affect the way that I am seen and treated - I chose to leave the work force to look after my children full time. I chose to embrace my womanhood in all its natural glory. I chose to remove myself and my children from the mainstream consumer driven norm (something which I am still working on!). I chose not to continue my education. All these choices have freed me however. I have been the one to make these choices. Making these choices has empowered me to live a life that is closer to my ideals and ethical choices. And this is perhaps my biggest privilege. The ability to choose.

So without lessening my pain at being a woman in a patriarchy, without lessening the struggles that we still face 100 years after women won the right to vote, I like to ensure that I remember the ways in which I AM privileged, and the struggles that are so much harder for many women all over the world. Women who can't get an education, access to vital healthcare when it is needed, and for whom access to food and clean water means a hike that takes most of the day for not enough to feed their family. Women who are forced to stay in marriages a lot more abusive than the one I left so easily in comparison. Women who if they manage to leave an abusive relationship find there chance of getting murdered actually increases, who have to work around the clock just to pay the rent, who find their chances of physical assault and murder increases just because they have a life within their womb. Not all these apply only to developing countries, many of these apply to women living in developed countries such as Australia, the USA and the UK.


We're clearly soldiers in petticoats
And dauntless crusaders for woman's votes
Though we adore men individually
We agree that as a group they're rather stupid!

Cast off the shackles of yesterday!
Shoulder to shoulder into the fray!
Our daughters' daughters will adore us
And they'll sign in grateful chorus
"Well done, Sister Suffragette!"

From Kensington to Billingsgate
One hears the restless cries!
From ev'ry corner of the land:
"Womankind, arise!"
Political equality and equal rights with men!
Take heart! For Missus Pankhurst has been clapped in irons again!

No more the meek and mild subservients we!
We're fighting for our rights, militantly!
Never you fear!

So, cast off the shackles of yesterday!
Shoulder to shoulder into the fray!
Our daughters' daughters will adore us
And they'll sign in grateful chorus
"Well done! Well done!
Well done Sister Suffragette!"


Music: Richard M. + Robert B. Sherman
Lyrics: Richard M. + Robert B. Sherman
Premiere: 1964
from the Mary Poppins soundtrack

Wow. What a winter it has been! A phenomenally wet April that burst the banks of the creek at the bottom of the property, and now we have just had a week of snow! Not on our place, but the road into Hobart was closed yesterday. Its the kid of winter stuff I remember from when I was in primary school, which is about 20 years ago now. The small people loved sitting on top of the highest point of the road last week and catching snowflakes in their hands out the window of the car.

Today has dawned crisp and clear and beautiful. the sun is out and the sky is blue albeit with a bit of wind and some grey clouds around the horizon.

Today the housemates head off on a holiday with their assorted children for a few days. Its sort of a holiday for us too - being in the house by ourselves is a rare thing. I haven't had to cook dinner months because I am on wash up duty so there is a novelty factor involved with it now lol.

I've had a request for rainbow gloves from both small people so need to finish spinning up the wool they have chosen too so I can do that... so much to do and so little time.

Yep, planning this again. Tried it last year and was spectacularly unorganised - picture me frantically tring to finish stuff on 23rd December, giving up and buying the remaining presents on Christmas eve... This year however I have started and nearly finished one present already and it is only June, so here is hoping I can keep up the momentum! Pics will obviously not be forthcoming for a while though ;)

In other news, and totally unrelated, Anouke had a haircut today. She is a big fan of finding scissors and chopping bits off so today I was proactive and got rid of the dreadlocks and cut it off. I would post a pic of it but I only have a super grumpy one at the moment so will wait til her hair is dry and she is a bit more cheerful.

a sprite - he doesn't match the original plan i had in my head, this trickster has appeared all by himself and definitely chosen his own look!

We are all in, Christmas and New year are over and life is starting to settle into a routine slowly but surely. There are 8 of us here at the moment and it gets loud but the small people seem to be settling in with a minimum of fuss - seems to be about the same as actual siblings experience so nothing to complain about!
We still have lots of painting to do and stuff to be getting on with but bit by bit we are getting there.

I'm getting inspired about fibre projects - wet felting, needle felting, knitting, weaving and spinning. Lots of ideas floating around but sadly so much stuff that needs doing before the fun stuff... Waiting on fluffy mail from the US now and cursing all the public holidays in between.

Well, the carpets are nearly all up at Brair Farm, as my back can attest! Only my room and lancrewitch 's room to go but as people are sleeping there that will be the last on the list. Batpup and Boywonder's bedroom is done as is etfb 's so they just need painting and a few more things and then the other bedrooms can be done. Its chaos with us all there, but it does seem to work so heres hoping!

busy weekend this weekend. Ianto has his end of year gymnastics show on saturday, Study Sister arriving home on Sunday. All very exciting but will be busy.

We had a lovely day at the park/beach today with etfb and lancrewitch 's small people along with various others for birthday celebrations of the Boy Wonder. There was much running around in the sun, splashing in the water then sleeping in the car :D
A little too much sugar judging by the way they bounced off the walls when we got home, but there you go. Apparently I have got through the tired and am into insomnia country because I am wide awake and showing no signs of going to sleep despite it being past midnight. Sigh. I will pay for this tomorrow!

When we got home I realised that our oak tree has transformed, seemingly overnight, from a brown twiggy thing to a vibrantly - almost obscenely - green tree. The green rosellas are loving it, the wattle birds are less than impressed with being kicked off 'their' tree. The change of the seasons brings new creatures and I suspect if we were staying here longer I would see the roll of the seasons in the different animals but I'm sure I will be able to see that in the new house as well! Seeing the green tree made me realise how vibrantly green everything is at the moment - the cycles of warm days and rainy days are just perfect for growing things by the looks of it because everything has just got green and shot up. So many shades of green that I can't count them all, and all so bright, and so very definite that they are here and alive and sprouting.

I spent a fair bit of this afternoon browsing through ravelry.com and finding various patterns to use up the bits and peices of yarns that I have lying around. Quick and easy patterns that mean i can achieve something in between adjudicating arguments, cooking, breaking up fights, finding remotes...
I've also been reminicsing about this time 2 years ago - I was 38 weeks pregnant and had found a lovely zen place, floating through the days, not achieving much at work, looking forward to labouring and birthing but at the same time enjoying being pregnant and not wanting it to end, just waiting for my baby to arrive. Now she is nearly 2 and it is hard to believe that once upon a time she fit in my belly. I can remember her being a day or two old and being curled up in a fetal postion on my stomach and marveling at how she fit there.... Now she manages to take up the whole double bed and then some and is lucky if she fits on my lap! She talks, has conversations, sings, wanders off into flights of fancy (usually about babies lol) wants to make and create things, to cook, to help, to play with her brother. She is very attached to both myself and Ianto and gets distressed if either of us leaves. Even Ianto disappearing to the other side of the playground can be cause for "waily waily waily" if she is tired. Leaving him at thier fathers place on wednesdays is a bit of a trial for her and she usually spends about 10 minutes upset that we have had to leave him behind. It is a joy to watch her grow into a caring, imaginative, fiesty and willfull child and toddler.

this has been floating around in my head for a while, it will probably be hugely rambled and disjointed but it my blog and i'll ramble if I want to.

I'm a feminist and most people know this. It is only recently (as in since a book I ordered arrived yesterday lol) that I have started to read about it and be able to define and clarify my thoughts a bit.

It disturbs me that even with my awareness of feminism and the patriarchy how much of it is so ingrained in my mind that I don't notice it. Things that seem small, but because of their smallness are actually huge as they lay the groundwork for larger patriarchal "truths". If I think of doctor my automatic assumption is man. Nurse = woman. Mechanic = man. Teacher = woman. It worries me, although I know that just my awareness of it is the first step in counteracting it. Still it presents a challenge - I want to raise people. I have a son and a daughter but I want them to grow up believing that their possession of a penis or vagina isn't what defines their roles in the world as people.

Which leads on to patriarchy. The book I recieved yesterday was "Restoring the Goddess" by Barbara G Walker and one of the points that it makes in the first couple of chapters is that the patriarchal model of society is one that depends on power over. It is a recent construct and before the patriarchy there was matriarchy and the matriarchal system is not just the patriarchal system reversed which is what so many seem to think it is. The matriarchal system was one of power with. and that is a huge difference

And I will have to make do with 2 random ponderings because the small people are awake now so deep and meaningful thought has to make way for breakfast.

I want to do something for myself. Ideally I would be doing Irish Dancing again, but at the moment there are no adult classes available. Obviously now that Riverdance is 15 years old its too daggy again! In the meantime I have been attempting ot get some exercise everyday - with various levels of success. It usually involves dodging children who think that mummy doing downward dog or warrior pose means she wants to be climbed on or over... I have also got myself a new tin whistle after Anouke wandered off with my old one. I got a better quality one and the sound difference is huge! It got a lovely breathy, chiffy sound to it and I'm getting better at getting the second octave without squeaking. Not easy as going up an octave means blowing harder - breath control needed!

Major discovery today? My back door has not only swollen to the point that it is really difficult to lock properly but it leaks at the bottom and the top when it is rainy and windy like it is at the moment. Sigh. So it has a whole lot of towels wrapped up at the bottom in an attempt to lessen the problem.

We also got the hot water cylinder fixed finally - the bliss of having a hot shower, especially on a day when it is cold and wet and windy cannot be underestimated. Particularly when you have been having progressively colder ones over the course of winter.

Anouke has been hugely cute lately. She has developed a lisp out of nowhere so now says "yeth" and "kith" as she smiles at everyone, calls her baby a lump (can't imagine where she got that from *shifty eyes*), breastfeeds all her toys, tries to get dressed by herself and copies the house work.