Half Way...WHAT?!

Today is Canada Day (in Australia), and it marks the half-way point of our one year adventure down under. I must admit, we were not very patriotic Canadians today. There were no t-shirts baring Canada's beautiful flag, no maple leaf tattoos, no red and white flag waving, not even a humming of our national anthem. This brings me to my point of the half-way mark. Life is pretty normal, and our routine is...well, it's routine. You may think we are unappreciative of the beautiful country that we call home, but I'd like to blame our lack of patriotism on routine. Why throw a forced celebration when it is not a holiday here, and no one around us is celebrating. It just feels out of place. That doesn't mean I didn't think of our beautiful home, and how I'd like to take our family on a hike in the Rockies, and end the day around our fire pit with the Tutt family for our annual watching of the High River fireworks together. I think it just means that we are used to being far away from home. Now that we are 6 months in, and we have reached the half-way hump, I will share some of our perspectives on life in Australia.

 On the Kids:

Kevin and I continue to be thankful for this amazing experience for our kids. They have impressed us with their courage and flexibility, and with their strengthening friendships with each other. Rylan and Calla have always been great buddies, and they have done their best to include Josiah in their games and play, but it has been really neat to see how their relationships with Josiah have grown even more this year. They spend a LOT of their free time together playing Lego, playing card games, and playing Nintendo Switch (and occasionally playing dolls - yes, doll-Thursday lives on, but it is having more and more conditions put onto it).

Family bonding.

To be very honest, homeschooling has been bitter-sweet for me and, I think, for the kids as well. The kids have certainly missed the social aspect of school, and sometimes I wonder how much they are missing out on being in a different country but not being able to experience the culture through school life. On the flip side, we are told over and over that the public schools here can be pretty rough (experienced first-hand by Kevin, the teacher) and to send all 3 to private school would mean less traveling money for our family. One challenge is that the homeschool program we are part of has been a lot of work for the kids and, in turn, it feels like a lot of work for me as well. A part of my personality that does not always help matters is that I am a perfectionist (a '1' on the enneagram, for those who have jumped on that bandwagon). However, it has been so good to spend extra time with Rylan and Calla during this year, and to be able to teach them some really cool things. We have had a lot of fun together, with laughter and with some tears. I feel like it has been such a great opportunity for strengthening our bond as a family. Also, I think I would feel more lonely and lost without having a clear purpose for this year, and I find some of that purpose in a routine of schooling the kids each day. So there you go - bitter-sweet. But isn't that just life in general?

Right now we are on winter-Canadian-summer-holidays while Josiah and Kevin continue to go to school each day. In order to maintain some sort of routine, and to keep Jo from revolting against continuing to go to school each day, the big kids and I are finding things to keep us learning throughout these next 2 months. We are learning French together with the help of Rosetta Stone, we are cooking together, exercising together, and the kids are working on things they were a bit rusty at during school. Josiah is still really enjoying school and hanging out with his little buddies there. We are grateful that he can attend such a great school this year!

Cooking and crying.

No more tears!

Some of our winter exercise in action.

Meet Sir-Bounce-A-Lot. The classroom pal that the kids get to take turns taking home and doing different activities with.

Our regular routine also includes Rylan and Josiah going to Lego Club each week, while Calla is at Drama Club. And Rylan is loving going to Youth each week as well. (This week was a real highlight as they played archery tag, where Rylan managed to be the second last man standing on his team. Boys are funny - he loves going and always has a great time, but don't ask him the names of the people at youth, as he won't be able to tell you.) The big kids and I go to a homeschool group once every 2 weeks, and that has been really great as well. We have been going to our exchange partners' church, and the kids adore the kids' program there. They are so excited to go and always come home super pumped. Calla recently told us that she feels like she is a lot more excited about Jesus lately, because the Kids' Church leader is so excited about Jesus. Well, amen to that! May we all be more excited about Jesus. 

At a homeschooler's house, milking a goat.

On Dubbo:

There's not much to add to my previous thoughts on older posts, except that we are thankful that we get to live here for the year. No, it is not a glamorous beachside location. Nor is it a big exciting city like Sydney, but we get to have a look at a real country-city culture of Australia. I am appreciative of the friendly nature of the people and the constant enthusiastic "How you goin'?" "No worries!" "You're alright!" "Too easy!" that we hear. We are also in a pretty great location to explore the eastern and southern part of the country. It's pretty much a 10 hour drive to Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. And we are loving exploring the country towns and national parks that surround us. We look forward to doing some more exploring and camping after July.

On Winter:

It is interesting to me how we tend to acclimatize to our environments. Don't get me wrong - an average of just above freezing at night, and sunny and warming up to an average of 15 to 20 during the day is a pretty cushy and lovely way to spend the winter months outdoors. In fact, the forecast here has been awfully similar to the forecast in High River lately (minus the rain). We have also noticed that the trees that have lost their leaves have almost instantly sprouted new ones. (Interesting fact: no native trees in Australia actually lose their leaves.) But, having said all of that, I have most certainly felt cold here. The houses generally are not built for winter the way Canadian houses are. We have lovely heating in our lounge room and in the kitchen, but not in the bedrooms or bathrooms. That means that on the one night that reached -4, it was 10 degrees in our bedrooms and bathrooms in the morning - the places that we are most likely to have less clothing on our bodies. BRRRRRR! The malls and grocery stores are also freezing cold on the 15 degree days. So, I have learned to wear more layers. Aussies, however, are tougher than me when it comes to the cooler weather. When I drop Jo off at school in the mornings, it can be between 5 and 10 degrees. While I am sporting my light winter jacket and, occasionally, mittens and a toque, I see Aussies walking around in shorts and t-shirts, or just a jumper (sweatshirt / sweater). It surprises me every morning. But back to the cushy part of winter. I love that I can still sit in my hammock and read, or eat outside for lunch in the middle of winter, and still feel the heat of the sun on my skin. Simply glorious! I'm sure I would miss the snow eventually if we lived here long-term. But I definitely won't miss it for one year!

This is how Canadians dress in Aussie winter when they are watching a neighbourhood field hockey game.

Another benefit of Australian winter - getting to pick oranges and tangerines from trees in your own backyard.

This Aussie was dressed warm. I snuck a picture of him. Did you know that men wear Ugg boots here to keep their toes warm? I didn't know there was another purpose besides ladies wearing them with cute leggings to look and feel cute and cozy. 

On a More Personal Note:

This has been a really beautiful 6 months of ups and downs, and I look forward to what comes of the next 6 months. As an enneagram '1' (as mentioned previously) I have a tendency to try to fix just about anything and everything if I feel it needs fixing. This has proved to be a bit tricky when it comes to human emotions (among other things that are completely out of my control). In the past, I feel I haven't really felt a whole lot of high highs and low lows, so when certain types of strong feelings start to pop up for various reasons (ahem...hey Kevin, let's live somewhere just a little bit different and a little bit far away for one year and leave our most expensive "asset" {our house} with complete strangers {who have turned out to be really great exchange partners, by the way} and try to make sure our kids are thriving in every aspect of their lives {probably never possible} and that we are also thriving and making the most of EVERY moment, and seeing and experiencing as much of this fascinating country as we can, and making sure we make lifelong friendships...just an example of the intensity and expectations of it all...poor Kevin) it is my tendency to try to fix the emotions, or the things that are causing the emotions. Well, I'm happy to say that I am learning (painfully slowly) to sit with all kinds of emotions without having to always fix them or judge them. It is good. Emotions of all kinds are, after all, a part of how we were created, and they can all be beautiful and formative; maybe depending on what we do with them.

Another bitter-sweet (more sweet than bitter) part of this journey has been my challenged sense of identity (oh boy, that sounds mid-life crisis-y). It is a really interesting human experiment to pull oneself out of a lot of the things that make oneself tick. The things that we are all wrapped up in, that we take pride in, that are so intrinsic to our identities can be hard to actually identify until those things are taken away from us (or rather, we are taken away from them). I am all about community. We have made amazing friendships wherever we have lived - Winnipeg, Fort McMurray, and High River - and a lot of my identity is wrapped up in the relationships and communities that have been formed as a result. The bitter part of being completely unknown here in Australia - nobody truly knowing my nature, what I enjoy, what I'm good at, what I struggle with - is feeling very lonely at times. Not having a sense of belonging or purpose in relationship to others is disconcerting, and downright sad at times. It takes a lot of time and energy to forge those types of friendships where people truly know you and how you tick, and appreciate you for those things (the good and the ugly), and frankly, we don't have a whole lot of time here. I am reminded of the falling sand in the one-year-hourglass constantly. It also feels a little vulnerable to invite people over (and weird, as it's not my house), as each get-together feels a bit like a first date. Even though we invite people over that we don't know on a regular basis in Canada, it's different here and I find myself thinking things like, "Will it be awkward? Will we find enough things to talk about? Will they want to see us again?" First date jitters. The sweet side of this is that I have met a number of people that I would love to forge long-lasting friendships with. It has also been so sweet to be on the receiving end of energy and time being put into getting to know us as a family. I came to Dubbo wondering who would want to put energy and time into people who are only going to be here for one year, and people who, in reality, they may never see again. It has been humbling and heart-warming to feel the love and interest from people that we have met here; people who have made an effort to spend time with us and get to know us a bit over the last 6 months. We are grateful! 

Calla and her budding friendship.

Apart from the other more obvious pieces of identity that I am missing, such as working as a nurse, I am feeling a little lost without having "projects". I love making pretty things, and making things pretty. Whether that's dreaming up house projects or building things out of wood and paint, it is definitely not happening here. Instead, what is happening here, is a forced slowing down of my hands, my feet, and (in some ways) my mind. Yes, that has its perks, but I miss my making of pretty things! Browsing Pinterest projects can only get me so much satisfaction. All in all, this has been a great re-evaluation of how I spend my time doing and thinking, and who I have been created to be, and who I am constantly being shaped into. 

Another really beautiful side-effect of pulling oneself out of one's environment is more of that re-evaluation time. This has been a time of re-realizing who we are (I'm speaking for Kevin and I here) and what we are passionate and excited about. We are aware of, and very grateful for, this unique opportunity we have to separate ourselves from all of the routines and things we have been involved in over the years to remember who we used to be - what made us tick - before we became all about keeping up with all of those routines and commitments. A timely mid-life evaluation of sorts. It has been so good to see each other revert to some of the passions and personality traits that we had when we first met. We are grateful!

Beautiful local winery.

I think that about sums up a taste of my thoughts and feelings at this half-way mark. To those that made it through - thanks for listening!