Willbanks' Down Under: 360 + 256 Weeks

We have had such a busy week - and Arley has been out of sorts, causing all kinds of mayhem, maybe this is why? On Friday Arley had swimming, and afterwards the kids rode their bikes to the park. That was a fairly standard Friday for us. On Saturday night we decided to take the kids up to Huskisson for the opening of the See Change Festival (an art, music and food fest they have every year). The opening was at Moona Moona Creek, and involved a ton of people spinning these coloured lights on the water, which was really beautiful. After parking the car, we had to walk about 10 minutes to get there, and then it was really crowded. Arley immediately said he wanted to go home, and then whined and was angry the whole time we were there. I guess I should have known that he wouldn't like the crowd. It was beautiful though. By the time we were walking back to the car, the night had become really dark, and of course we couldn't see the car because we had parked a little off the beach path. We kept walking and walking, and Carmie started saying, "Um, I don't think this is the way!" I should have listened to her, because before we knew it, we had walked all the way to the town of Huskisson. We figured we had come that far, we might as well stay and have dinner. The kids loved that, and they were so great, as we had to wait ages for our food. We had to stray off our diet (which could be another reason why Arley was off this week), and the kids were very happy with their pizza. After dinner we had to set out to find the car, and we decided to go via the road instead of the beach path. Oh my goodness, we were walking and searching in the dark for 45 minutes!! The kids were getting worried, Arley fell on some chunks of cement in a construction area, it was pretty hairball! It was such a relief to find the car - we are laughing about it now, but not so funny then!

On Sunday afternoon we took the kids to play at the bounce pad and park at Lake Conjola. They love it there, and they played a lot of chase with their Dad. I tried to play too, but they kept laughing at me because I was hobbling so much.

On Monday we met up with our homeschool friends for a walk to the aboriginal cave. Just that morning I was walking down the driveway to help Carmie with her bike, and I did my ankle in again and went down. The pain was fairly terrible, and I have been back in my damn walking boot ever since. So, this made the short trek to the cave a lot more difficult! But, the kids loved it!! Our friend Deb is aboriginal, so she gave the kids a little talk about the sacred land, and then they got started on lighting a fire with a flint. After one fire got going, they decided on a second fire under the eave of the cave. The kids learned about fire through playing with it. Deb had also brought a small axe, a hammer and two pick axes, and the kids just couldn't get enough of those. It was such a great day, with the kids free to run, explore the bush, climb trees, play with fire, chop wood and break up stones. The perfect day, really.

Until we got home and Arley had a massive meltdown, a true meltdown, because I wouldn't play games with him because it was dinner time. We have been playing lots of games this week, mostly snakes and ladders, and he is hooked. Apparently waiting until after dinner was just too much for him, and he lost the plot. Poor little guy. He just had such a bad week. He was very ornery, angry and oppositional. I know this comes in waves, and it is two steps forward, one step back, so I do know there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but it still makes it hard. I try to by kind and have patience, but sometimes it just takes everything I've got!

I also had to do a flash trip to Sydney this week (with my awful walking boot, again!). My new art dealer wanted to meet with me. So, I caught the train up on Tuesday evening, stayed in a little pub hotel in Surry Hills, and met with Michael Reid and his gallery director in the morning. It was all very strange being in Sydney by myself, having time away from the whole family. It was fairly lonely at night, but pretty awesome during the day! My meeting went really well. The two of them were really easy to talk to, full of information, and I feel very confident in their hands. I was supposed to take some of my work up with me, but I couldn't because I couldn't drive, so Mum and Geoff are taking my paintings up tomorrow when they head to Sydney to see my painting in the Wynne. My paintings are going to Michael's gallery in Murrurundi, and then I have to work towards a show there next year. I think I have to have about 30 paintings for them, which is just massive. And the scary thing is that I have to be exclusive to them in NSW, and they strongly suggested that I give up the gallery here because my time is better spent painting. I am happy with this, except that it means I will have no income for a year, except for the few paintings they are taking up with them. This causes me anxiety, and I'm sure Jeff is in a panic, but we will make it work. And I also have to find time to paint, and lots of it, because 30 paintings is huge for me! I keep telling myself where there's a will there's a way!!

So, life is a little crazy at the moment. Carmie is great. She has decided that she won't have another one of my breakfast smoothies, so she has taken to making herself fried potatoes and eggs every morning, and I have to say, her cooking is delicious! Her reading list has gone up to 326 books, and she knows so many random facts, I have taken to thinking that if Carmie says it, it's true. And Arley is thankfully still taking long periods of time to sit and read, and he has been playing with these eggs a lot this week, which has kept him occupied in between rages. He is a wiz with numbers, and just tonight he told me that 1 plus negative 4 equals negative 3. Pretty good for a four year old!