1 Million Women

I once read a book called Three Cups of Tea. It's about an American called Greg Mortenson, who has dedicated most of his life to building schools in Pakistan.

The schools are built for both boys and girls, but educating girls remains his top priority. Greg believes that change in a society starts with educating its women.

As he puts it, ""You can hand out condoms, drop bombs, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won’t change."

I've always believed that despite the higher profile men have in society as decision makers, it's women who make a lot of the changes in a society.

So, this campaign appealed to me. It's called 1 Million Women, and it's basic premise is to find women willing to sign up to reduce their carbon emissions by one tonne over the course of a year.

I signed up, despite being a little apprehensive. One tonne sounds like a lot, after all. But I was presently surprised.

After signing up, you go through a page of commitments and basically tick boxes of things you think you can do in a year to reduce your carbon emissions.

The website then calculates the deductions.

I only made about four commitments and I was well over one tonne. Admittedly, I'm about to start commuting to work by train instead of driving thanks to the location of the new house, but still. Reductions are reductions.

Now, I just have to explain to Dan why the bar fridge he wants to set up on the back deck of the new house will have to stay unplugged.

New Home

In a surprise development, Dan and I are moving house this week. For the last few months, we have been umming and aahing about whether to move before or after the baby arrives, but in the end we decided before was going to be the best option for us.

Dan needs me out of our current house to finish renovating it for sale mid-year. Apparently, having a pregnant wife around is not so great when there's asbestos to be removed and a lot of hours of hard, dusty labour to be done.

So, we found a rental house we can get comfy in for a year or so while I'm on maternity leave and until we work out our next step.

And this is it!



The house is big, bright and airy inside. It's on the cliffs at Sandgate, a very easy walk from the water. It's also near the pub, Sandgate's town centre and the kilometres of walking tracks along the foreshore.

Basically, it's a great house in a great spot and I'm thrilled we will be spending the next year (or more) here.

Dan and I went up to Sandgate today to pick up the keys and introduce Maisie to her new local play area.





She seemed to like it.



Next Saturday is moving day which makes this weekend all about packing. Moving house is never fun, but we're pretty excited about where we're headed, which makes it all worthwhile.

Lazy Evenings

What else is there to do on these lazy evenings but sit on the deck with the dog and a glass of wine?

Oh, wait, I'm pregnant. Hold the wine.

Halfway There

Tomorrow, I'm officially 20 weeks pregnant. Halfway there. I'm quite happy about that.

It's not that I don't LIKE being pregnant, it's just that... Ok, I don't like it at all. My back aches constantly, my gums bleed profusely every time I brush my teeth, my legs keep seizing up in painful cramps, I feel bloated and immobile and cranky and I can't wait for it to be over.

And, look, LOOK at how small the bump is. It's going to get a whole lot worse.



We found out the baby is a girl on Friday, which was pretty thrilling. Not that we wouldn't have been happy either way, of course, but knowing makes it seeem more real, somehow.

She has a name... whether it'll be the name we give her after seeing her, who can say. But I think it will be. It's a good, classic name and we're both happy with it.

She also has her first ever clothes, after I won a $100 voucher at All Sorts 4 Kids. As soon as we learned her gender, I spent it on the kind of clothes I probably wouldn't spend money on nomally - and today they arrived.

Bub is now the proud owner of a gorgeous set of floral Bebe bloomers, a matching playsuit and bib and a little white dress.

They're not even vaguely practical, but who wants the first clothes they own - out of a lifetime of clothing to come - to be anything other than gorgeous?

Dan and I ceremonially hung them, tiny little flowery scraps of fabric that they are, in the nursery, and I was glad we hadn't started out with cotton Bonds onesies and singlets.

Every girl should start life with a few gorgeous little dresses hanging in her wardrobe.

High and Dry

Yesterday at lunchtime I came home from work as the flood waters rose in the roads around our office.

It was a surreal afternoon, spent sitting watching the flood coverage on the news. It did give me a good chance to finish the baby owl, and make them a little penguin friend though.

To anyone out there in Queensland, I hope you're high and dry and keeping safe!

Felt Owl

Being inside so much lately (rain, rain, more rain) has forced me back into sewing, which I'd taken a break from during my first trimester while morning sickness and fatigue worked their evil magic.

We started setting up the baby's nursery on the weekend (mainly to move the baby furniture we've been donated out of the flood plain that is our rumpus room and up into the relative safety of a spare bedroom) and decided to go with an owl theme, with a few other birds thrown into the mix to break it up a little.

I decided to make some little felt stuffed toys to kick the theme off and started this little fella a couple of nights ago.

Last night, I finished him off and started working on a baby owl, which should be finished tonight.

He looks like he's being groped by that monkey here. Perhaps that accounts for the startled look he's got.

Monkeys - so cheeky.

After the baby owl is finished, I'm planning to make a penguin and then a cockatoo, then perhaps a galah...

Fingers crossed the baby likes birds.

Christmas Day

This is my mother's block of land, down on Bruny Island - off the coast of Tasmania. We spent a couple of nights here, as well as Christmas Day. She plans to build a cabin here sometime, but in the meantime she just stays in this little caravan when she comes to visit.

Dan, my brothers, and I all stayed nearby in a rented cabin but traveled up to the block for Christmas Day.

The original plan had been to cook a turkey in the fire, but after hearing something on salmonella or e-coli or some other strain of food poisoning that comes from cooking meat too slowly, I requested we use the stove in the rented cabin instead. This turned out to be a good thing, because the fire just didn't want to burn.

That meant it wasn't such a drama when Mum's new dog, Chloe, went and stood in it.

After lunch, we went for a walk down to the lagoon. But, being full of cheese and beer (and, it being Christmas and all), we all opted for a ride home on James's ute instead of walking back up the hill.

The sun came out sporadically through the day. In true Tassie fashion, we went back to our cabin that evening partly frozen, windburned and horribly sunburned.

That, in a nutshell, is a photographic record of my Christmas Day.