Peace reigns...for now

Can you hear it?  ..........Yes that my friend is called PEACE and it is very rare and very sacred in my house. The older boys are out at for the evening (so is their Dad) and they younger three are snugly tucked up in bed.  Although I had to convince Sophie (4) that tonight wasn't a good night for a pyjama party. Where she gets these random ideas from I don't know.........Hang on.......Well that didn't last long did it.   Unbeknown to me the girls had sneakily shut their bedroom door and proceeded to have a wee bit of a pyjama party complete with the application of blue make up and white cream on the face.  As I said where they get these ideas from ...well I just don't know.  Plus on the back of very loud protesting when I put a dampener on said pyjama party, Jesse was rudely woken up and needed some loving to put him back to sleep.  Not that I minded snuggling on the couch with him in my arms, its one of my most favourite things to do.

I told you peace was a rarity here.  So half an hour later here we are. I have twenty or so minutes to get something down on 'paper' before the others get home.

Its autumn. Not my favourite time of year at all.  Give me Summer and Spring days any day.  I am battling with getting my washing dry. At present there is a three to four day turn around time for clothes to be washed and dried and put back into drawers. So as you can imagine my 'to-be-washed' pile is super huge. I wish I had a drier but not the bill that goes with it though. But in all the dampness and cold-but-not-too-cold days these is a beauty that autumn does display.

 The beauty of COLOUR.

 Casey took this photo the other day, just one of the many foggy but beautiful sunrises we get treated to.

 

Autumns richest colours

 I love this photo.

This Cherry Tomato plant look like its bejewelled with rubies. 

 

Kaitlyn just loves to take herself off and spend vast amounts of time creating and just being.  I love that she has the freedom to do this.  Here she is building a 'Fairy' house.

           

 

 Just one of the many beautiful trees that turns gorgeous shades of autumn...

 

But with beautiful trees comes piles and piles of leaves!

 In School......We spent some time looking at Yeast.  Its actually quite fascinating believe it or not. So we had a go at making some Ginger Beer.  I had never made it before so it was a bit of a gamble to whether or not it was going to work or not.

 

 

  (Our Ginger Beer Making

did not look like the picture below)

 

 

The finish product really surprised me in how it turned out (sadly I didn't get a photo of it) but it was actually REALLY fizzy when we opened it AND tasted not too bad either.  But for future reference less lemon and more ginger!  Most definitely be making it again.

 Jesse, our wee man is SUPER DUPER cute!  Nearly six months now and is growing so fast. I know I always say that they don't stay little for long but they so don't.  He is sitting now can you believe it?! I can't! He can still fold himself completely in half with his feet up by his ears.  He hasn't quite worked out whether or not he wants to suck his thumb or his fingers so just goes with whatever reaches his mouth first, sometimes its even his arm. Still spends the majority of the night snuggled up next to me and likes to sleep with one hand on my cheek. Bless him. Still prefers to sleep on the couch during the day in amongst all the noise and goings on. (see below picture) Sleeping in the resounding quiet of the bedroom just wakes him up, go figure.  Loves to grab the cat when she walks past and intensely watches the ducks and chickens when we feed them.  Loves to bath and splash water all over himself.

By GOLLY he is just so darn cute!

 

 

 

Happy Wednesday to you!

 

  Ps.  The Dress!  Well I tried it on again tonight  AND I fit it!!!  BUT I could fit it better.  But it is still very exciting considering I wouldn't of been able to get it anywhere near me four months ago!  I will try it on again when I lose another 1.5kg I think.

The Gift of Time

One of the biggest reasons for our decision to home school the kids was the gift of time. 

The gift of time
for the kids...... 
Time to just be. Time to spend with family and not hurry off to school where they spend the majority of the day only to return with homework and then fly off to sport practice or rally/youth group.  Time to spend doing something they love or that has their interest for a time - uninhibited time.  Time to form deep relationships with siblings, parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.  Time to master everyday life skills that are so often forgotten in todays hurried world.  Time to be children.

for us as parents...........
Time to see, feel and experience our children as they grow and explore the world. Time to form deep relationships with them. Time to impart God's love, wisdom and life experience.  Time to observe their wonder in learning, experiencing and living.  Time to appreciate who they are, their hearts and their creativeness.

The boys found this old cage? trap? thing in an equally old shed on the farm. Consequently transformed it (or tried to) into a working trap. They didn't manage to trap anything although they were pretty close to capturing one of our free-roaming chickens. I bet she got a heck of a fright!

This is Sophie eating breakfast (very) early one morning with the girls pet pumpkin called 'Cracker'.  You can't see in this photo but Cracker has eyes. He also wears hats and drinks tea. Fancy that.

Any home schooler will tell you that learning can take place anytime, anywhere and anyhow.  Children learn just by experiencing things.  At times this just happens, other times you have to identify opportunities and make the most of them.

Which is why a few mornings ago there was a lot of dew on the ground and outside on the fences, trees and  swing set a number of spiders had been hard at work building house aka spinning webs.  They were beautiful to say the very least.  I was reminded of a teaching moment in a book and I saw this as a perfect opportunity to investigate 'webs', how they work and to appreciate the beauty of nature. (even though it was the school holidays)

So Web Catching we went!

Step One.
Find the perfect spider web on an extra dewy morning.

Step Two.
Using a black piece of paper or card.  Put it carefully behind the spider web and VERY carefully and slowly bring it forward, so that the web sticks flat to the paper/card.

...you might be able to fit more than one web on your paper/card.

 

 

Step Three.

Gently shake baking flour all over the black card making sure you have well covered the web/s that you have 'caught'.

 

 

Step Four.

Gently shake excess flour off into sink or outside and you will have a beautifully preserved spiders web!



 

 

Step Five.

Display somewhere nice.  I am still yet to track down some blue-tack to put all ours up.

 

We all had lots of fun doing these, even Sophie got into it.  Of course they especially like sprinkling flour all over the place! 

 

No spiders were harmed in the making of these pictures, although they were probably a bit freaked out. I can almost hear the spider conversations now.

 

"Hey Merv!, Did you see what happened to my house?"

"Nah mate"

"It was here a moment ago"

"Nah mate you're dreaming"

"Well I can't believe it, you turn your back for a second and all your hard work just vanishes into thin air"

"Hang on a minute, come to think about it...I did see a great big black nothing come...maybe they took it?"

"Dude I think you better lay off the aphids! A great big black nothing! - yeah right"



 

 

I kind of feel sorry for them now BUT no need all webs were restored, replaced and then some the very next day!

 

Thought you might like to check out the sunrise that Casey (11) took the other morning.  Aren't we spoilt with a sight like that.



Working on...me.

So as you may of noticed that I haven't been around a while.  I have missed you.  But it seems as though every time I sit down to write I end up hitting the delete button either that or I write in my head and there they stay or I talk about them and that's that, they remain as conversations.   Anyway I am in the midst of a piece that is yet to be decided if it ever makes in on here - my confidence I think has taken a hammering again! Geez what is with that!  But for now I have one that is a little more hmmmm lighter, so to speak.

Baby Jesse is nearly FIVE months old now!  Yes I know. Time has gone so fast.

By golly he is cute! (just a tad bias I know)

He is very nearly sitting, which actually doesn't surprise me as he gets great encouragement from his brothers and sisters. I mean who wouldn't want to reach milestones when you have your very own cheer-leading squad.
I don't know how most of you (ladies) feel after a baby but my post-baby body leaves a lot to be desired.  Yes I know, I know I know - Jamie always tells me "well (he) took nine months to grow you should really give yourself nine months to get back to the start". Bless him. But nine months honey is just too damn long for me and this time I wasn't waiting that long.  After having Jesse and all his huge-ness and being backwards and all, really did leave me with NO strength in my core muscles (stomach muscles, back muscles, inner muscles, inner inner muscles and leg muscles etc) which isn't good or conducive to getting up off the floor or bending over to clean the bath, plus I had flab where flab certainly wasn't welcome. My super inspirational sister 'n law set me on a path that enabled me to begin to reclaimed my pre-baby body.   (Just so you know - you ARE NOT getting a "Post-Baby-Body-Pre-Workout-Programme" photo either.)

So with the help of Joy over at Massive Motivation an online/virtual personal trainer if you please, I started my programme.  Day one very nearly killed me!  BUT nearly 12 weeks on and I can say I am very happy with the outcome.  I am pretty sure that Joy thought I was such a baby at times, especially when I threw a tantrum about having to do Burpees and told her I didn't think I would be able to walk for the next few days after doing an intense leg work out.  Actually I did have trouble walking for about three days after that.  Joy gives you a Five-Day workout for you to follow (Mon to Fri) (Yah -weekend off) all you have to do is......actually DO IT!  She makes you sign a contract with yourself which sites words like 'character' 'commit' and 'cheating yourself'.  So all the times I though that it wouldn't matter if I only did 5 burpees instead of 10 thoughts went back to that darn contract!  And I also knew that I would have to tell her at the end of the day how I went and I couldn't very well lie to her could I.   I stayed under Joys tutelage for 8 weeks and then decided to try and go it alone and I have to say that I think that I have done pretty well not being accountable to anyone.  I think that's why it worked so well is that I had to tell her everyday how I went. If I was left to my own devices I would of putter out, I just know it.  So 12weeks on - I can jump now!  I know sounds pretty bad but I really did have trouble even jumping off the ground now I can jump up my steps AND at last count I ran 4.4kms in 30 mins! Wahoo! Now that makes me excited!!  Although I am far from one of those ladies who glide down the road!  Exercise has become a habit for me now, a good habit.  I understand a little now when people say that they are addicted to exercise because I too get hankering to do something active in the weekend when those days are suppose to be rest days.

So two days out from 12 weeks I have only missed one day of workout and that was yesterday, I was just too tired and had a crappy attitude.  I have lost 12cm off my waist and nearly 8kg AND I have muscles where muscles have been dormant for years and years!  So you could say that I am pretty proud of myself. I am back to pre-baby weight/size and this is the fastest I have been out of pregnancy clothing.  I still haven't finished yet.  For me, this hasn't been entirely about how I look but a big part has been about how I feel in myself.  At the beginning Joy asked me what were my goals and my reason/s for starting this.  I told her....
1. Even though I had 6 kids I didn't actually want to look and feel (physically) like I had had 6 kids.
2. I wanted to feel strong again, none of this weakling who gets puffed walking up the driveway business
3. Secret squirrel here.....I have this dress that my younger sister gave me.  I really like it and even though I have no idea where on earth I would wear it. My outings consist of church, soccer, supermarket and the occasional visit with friends - and it really isn't a dress I would wear to any of those places.  BUT if I ever did have the opportunity to dine with the Queen and/or attend a Cocktail party then I would like to have the option of wearing this dress. Here is said dress...

Photo doesn't really do it justice!

I think I have about another 5cm to go before I can successfully pull it off.

 



 

If I do get to the point where I fit it I will show you the before and after shots!

Gulp

So if there is anyone else out there that is wanting to get into shape and wants something more than just a diet, then I REALLY recommend Joy. She will design you a programme especially for you and your needs and provide you with super encouraging (not in a telling off way) feedback.  I certainly couldn't have done all this work without the help and encouragement from super husband - Jamie, or my super children (who all joined in at some stage with me - ask the girls about Pilates they will give you a demo) and Tash, my super sister 'n law, who by the way looks totally amazing too after all her hard work she has put in. 

 

Go on, you will feel so much better for it!

 

See you soon, promise!

Friendship

Ok so you all know that I have learnt a lot over the past 16months or so. A lot about myself, about my family and friends and about my God.  This journey that we are on still continues to surprise me, stretch me and shove me rudely out of my comfort zone.  I am learning to be ever so flexible and that's cool.  No longer do I have a 'tidy' life (ha did I ever), no my life is ever-changing and highly unpredictable and you know what I am beginning to like it.

 

Slowly slowly I am beginning to find my groove, my place, my role in all this changing. I know I need to go easy on myself and recognise the fact that what we are doing is mostly seen by 'the untrained eye' as something impossible.  You know just living on a Student Allowance with six kids and home schooling, you know that kind of stuff.  We have very little idea about what next week will bring, but that's OK. Its all part of the adventure.  However just so you know, it still freaks me out from time to time when I see a need and have no idea how we are going to meet it. It scares me silly.  I am getting good at faking it, you know where you put on a fake happy face and say all is well.  There is a time for that.  Like when you have two girls whose birthdays are coming up and seemingly no way to buy presents for those special little people in your life.  But birthdays they did have, with presents, cake and a celebratory afternoon tea even!  AND we are no worse for wear because of it and my children are none the wiser.   We do share some things with them but I don't think it would be wise to share all our struggles.





One thing that I have learnt during this time is the power of friendship, REAL friendship, REAL relationships.  Oh they are just so important and powerful.  Throughout my life I have struggled with friendships especially when I was school age. I don' t know why I just did. I would have friends one day and then the next day they wouldn't like me anymore. I think this left scars on my heart more than I would care to admit until recently.  I know I guarded my heart for a long long time much to the detriment of myself.  I found myself sharing my life only 'oh so much' and then bang up went a wall, no one would get any further.  Fortunately over recent years that has changed and I have come to realise that there are women out there that genuinely care and love me.  Those women are my closest friends and I love them dearly.  Those are the women that I can share my heart, ALL of my heart and know there will be no judgment or no jealousy - (both very ugly traits in women).  Those are the women that I call on to 'download' to, share my fears and my joys with, and would be here in a moment if I needed them to be.  Friendships cannot thrive on competition, superficial-ness, judgement and jealousy. But on love, honesty, encouragement, loyalty and kindness. Thank God that I am free now to be able to enjoy such friendships.  The beginning of last year I miscarried a wee baby (bitter sweet now of course - because we have been blessed with wee Jesse). During that time my heart physically hurt though I got through that time due to my faith in God, sharing my heart with a couple of close friends helped in ways that I never thought possible.  They cried with me, held me and listened through all my raw and powerful emotions - really enough to scare anyone away, far far away.  

 

Real friends are super encouraging and genuinely pleased for you when some thing good and exciting happens for you.  Real friends don't care if you have crumbs on your bench tops and dead flies on the windowsills (a reality in my world). Real friends won't ask if you need help, they just help un-asked and won't take no for an answer when you protest. Real friends don't freak out when you cry the 'ugly cry' (you know the one where you are sobbing so hard you can't talk, have snot pouring out your nose and your mascara is dripping down your face). Real friends will have your back in the midst of adversity, not run a mile because it gets too hard for a while. Real friends will make you feel invigorated and alive after spending time with them, they will change your outlook, give you energy and inspire you. Real friends just know when and how to listen. Real friends are like putting on comfy PJs and bed socks after being in tight jeans and high heels for a whole day - familiar, welcoming and easy. Most importantly they will be happy that you are you, and want to see you live your best life!

(I don't actually wear tight jeans and high heels but I know you catch my drift)

Photo by Kaysha Leigh Budd

 

It such a cliché but life is too short to waste on pursuing unhealthy friendships.  Not only are they a hindrance to you living your best life but they really do suck the life out of you and leave you feeling frustrated, flat, negative and apathetic. 

 

Kelle Hampton of 'Enjoying the Small Things' fame and author of the book

Bloom

 (a must read if you ever get the chance)

talks about her 'net', that is a net of real friends that catch you when you need it and prop you up and continue to do so until you can stand by yourself again.  My so called 'net' isn't big and certainly not as big as hers but its my 'net' of friends who truly have my heart and I love them for it. 
I don't even need to tell these people who they are, they already know.
I am blessed, truly blessed.

 



One loved cat

Around here we love cats.  Even my husband had a severe soft spot for cats, especially poor abandoned ones.

(although he may try to deny it)

This tiny wee kitty was an orphan and only 2-3 weeks old when we somehow became her owners.   She moved in last October about 4 weeks out from my due date.

This is the kitten that Jamie fed with a dropper 3hourly day and NIGHT!

The first night that we had her she was sleeping in our room and I got up to go to the bathroom(as you do when you are 36weeks pregnant) and she woke up.

I woke Jamie up and he shot up out of bed thinking my waters had broken but no it was just to feed the kitten.
This is the kitten that had a bed made for her complete with a hot water bottle covered in soft towels for her to sleep on.
This is the kitten that Jamie taught how to go to the toilet.
(I will spare you the details to how he did that)
This is the kitten that he taught how to lap.
This is the kitten he has bathed and deflea-ed with a pair of tweezers.

Such dedication!

 

We call her Stella.

(Stell Bells, Stella Rubella and Stella Bells)

 

All the kids love her but the one that loves her the most is Sophie.

Sophie loves her so much that Stella gets lugged around nearly all day.

I don't blame her for hiding at every given opportunity.

Thanks to Sophie, Stella gets to 'high 5' everyone that comes into our house with her paw including a visiting Financial Advisor - thankfully he kindly obliged.

Sophie plays games with her, attempts to dress her, push her in push chairs and likes to put her in cupboards.

Last week I opened a cupboard where we keep our newspapers and Stella was sound asleep in there. Who knows how long she was in there?

I do have to say that she doesn't help herself by climbing into cupboard while they are open only for them to be shut on her.

Unbeknown to me I have shut her in the fridge for a good five minutes, Silly cat!

 

Our other cat is Trixie.

Stella loves Trixie. Can you tell?

I think this is a case of 'anything you can do I can do better!'

 

 

My cat likes to hide in hats!

 

There is never a dull moment around here as you probably already know.

This time it involved dear wee Stella.

See that tree, see the very top of it.

Well that is where she got stuck!

When she didn't turn up for breakfast, Jamie went on a brief walk around and heard her meowing.

We couldn't even see her.

 

It was about here, when Jamie finally got a look at where she was.

He gingerly climbed as high as he wanted to and then a bit more.

 

Poor thing was so scared that he didn't even need to hold on to her while he was climbing down, she held on to him!

 

On the ground at last!

I hope she doesn't do that again.

 

It is a little bit of a worry though when you have pets. We have had two cats now that have been run over in the last few years (R.I.P Sylvie and Tuesday) and none of them has been loved as much as Stella.

I really hope nothing happens to her, as there will be very sad little people in my house.

 

 

In our 'school'...

We are nearly at the end of our Moon Study.

It makes me smile when I hear the kids describing what phase the moon is in.

"ooooohh its a waning gibbous moon"

"Hey Mum the moon is a crescent tonight"

We did take the opportunity to have a look at the full moon this month. It is amazing anyway but through a telescope its even better.

(sorry the photo doesn't do it justice)

 

I have even learnt a fair bit. I have always known that the moon effects the tides, the water table and the water in vegetables and fruits etc but I could never have told you why. A lot of people think that its a bit hocus pocus. BUT I now know why and it makes complete logic and sense.

 

We made Moon/night-time sky pictures too!

All you need is black paper, a craft knife and a hole making device (we used a screw driver) and

Presto!

 



We put them up on the window and the light shining through the black paper makes it look like the
night-time sky

I found this photo on my camera. 

Being dressed up and having your photo taken by your older brothers....

 



 Priceless!



Time for Me!

I remember reading something not so long ago that went something like this...

"Give your child a gift....Take better care of you"

I love this. I need this.

Historically I am not good at this at all. For some reason I (and probably a lot of other Mamas out there) have this perception that we aren't being a good parent if we don't continally put our children and their needs before ourselves, consquently neglecting our needs. 

 Our need to rest, replenish, rejuvenate and refresh.

Why do we do that?

 

So.....

After self-imposed isolation for weeks on end due to Whooping Cough and Jamie going away (and due to go away again soon) I felt that it was high-time for a me break - well me and Jesse.  Breast-feeding babes go everywhere their Mamas go.

 

I didn't need to wonder where I would go, I already knew.  I needed some girl time with my bestest friend (and sister-n-law) Tash.  I really struck it lucky when I married into this family. (in more ways than one)  Often one hears of horror sister in laws but not me - no way.

My adventure starts with a trip on the bus and I must say that its no easy task that.  One pushchair/carseat, two bags and one baby all in tow.  Fortunately for me the bus driver in our wee town is super friendly.  She actually remembered me from last time I came and I was a heck of a lot bigger (pregnant).  The people on the bus are super friendly too. From the elderly lady behind me who thought I had beautiful kids and congratulated me on 'getting away' to the gentleman across the aisle from me who 'oohhhed and ahhhed' over Jesse and ended up showing me pictures on his phone of his sisters identical triplets!! 

This bus driver let the kids hop on and investigate while we were waiting to go.

 

Jesse slept all the way to the city - so kind.

Once in the city I had the difficult mission of transferring buses but fortunately for me I nice young man (gee I sound like I am 70) offered to help me with my bags. Bless him!

If you haven't been on a bus lately I suggest you try it. They are quite nice these days and the view is great!

 

So after I reached my destination, my sister-n-law picked me up for my well deserved break away!



Yes I didn't go to some retreat or the like but the very fact I didn't have to tidy mess, do any chores, had dinner cooked for me, didn't have to constantly answer question (although I did talk a lot) and was spoilt with time of friendship, walks, talks, good food and a change of scenery.

Bliss!

 

One thing that I am aware of is that I don't have a lot of photos of me and the kids, the reason being is that..

 1. I am always the one taking the photos.

2. I don't particularly like having my photo taken so I avoid it. 

So I am trying to make an effort to have more photos taken of me but usually someone needs to remind me and I may reluctantly agree.

 

Fortunately children are either too small to know or care about having their photo taken OR absolutely love it and jump at every chance to have one taken OR even steal your camera when you aren't looking and take 'many' themselves!

 



Jesse having some Aunty Tash time - doesn't he look like he is having fun!

 If you are anything like me, you don't have a lot of chances to browse around town or peruse through shops in a mall.

But first things first...

... coffee and cake!

 (make that good coffee and very yummy cake)

Love the view overlooking the city.

"Milk and Honey Cafe".

Ahhhhh...!

 

 

This was the lift going down from the cafe, the one that we had to lift the pushchair down the stairs to get too and the one that we got momentarily stuck in!

Wasn't quite sure how long you wait before you push the emergency button and we were just beginning to argue about who was going to push it (neither of us wanted to). Tash decided perhaps she should ring the cafe and tell them we were stuck when someone from down the bottom push the button and the lift started to go down.

Phew!!

But what an adventure!

A dressing room, isn't it cool!

 

Lunch

We found this dinky little cafe at the back of the Anna Stretton concept store.

It was decked out in all things retro. Very very styley!

 



I grew up with a table and chairs very similar to this!  Who knew that they would be so trendy in years to come.

Day Three we walked along the river which is smack bang in the middle of the city!  Who knew ah?

Such serenity and peace!

 

My time away was so what I needed but I missed my husband and my kids. My kids I think missed Jesse more than me as they showered him with kisses and hugs as soon as they saw him, but I'll take a close second!

 

I can only hope that every women can take the time to just be or to spend some time with your closest friend who you can just be fully yourself. Half an hour, a lunch, a day, three days...etc. Its worth it.

Just so you can be your best!