Think Pink

May 25, 2012 at 10:11 am (Fun, Gratitute)
Tags: , , , , ,

 

The other night I went to a Thermomix Cooking class. It was a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Research, so we all had to wear pink. Hmmm. There was nothing in my wardrobe that was pink. A friend of mine once told me that pink is the colour of self-acceptance. What does that mean for me? I won’t think too much about it., After all, I accept the fact that I’m not very fond of pink.

The day before I made 20 sachets of Queen of Sheba Bath Milk. They were all wrapped in little pink bags, with pink tags, and pink ribbons – very pretty. I wonder if the Queen of Sheba felt satisfied with herself. She certainly has a reputation of being a woman of luxury. I guess luxury doesn’t necessarily guarantee happiness.  I wonder if you would consider riches and time a luxury if you weren’t happy? Perhaps not. Luxury for me is… a moment of uninterrupted thought… watching my children play and laugh merrily together… someone else planning and cooking dinner… having time to be creative… finishing a task in one sitting… eating something sweet, knowing it is still good for me… knowing I am loved for who I am- a child of God. The beauty of that last one is that it is constant…yet I often forget it. Perhaps I should fill my cupboards with pink to help me to remember…..NAH, there must be another way!

Leave a Comment

Some Random Crafting

May 24, 2012 at 11:59 am (Family Life, Fun, Re-purposing)
Tags: , ,

I  was going to write a big blurb about my latest chocolate making attempt…BUT…Mick has taken the camera out with all the lovely rich dark photos. So I will keep you waiting a little longer. In the meantime here are some random crafting photo’s from the last few months. Going to bed now!

 

Finn doing some crafting

Angels drying in the sun

The girls re-use their drawings

Nearly ready!

A delicious way to learn your alphabet

Biscuit Cutter T-shirt Printing

Sore throat? No worries eat a dirt lozenge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a Comment

Brrrr. It’s cold down here.

May 11, 2012 at 12:23 pm (Gratitute, Musings)
Tags: , , , , , ,

Well we have arrived home. BOOM! I think all the childrens toys exploded with excitement when we walked in the door. The house was spotless for a whole minute there.  I heard a rumour that this is a balmy week compared to last week, but to be honest I don’t believe it. We have had the fire going every night and I have even started making paper bricks. (All those lovely drawings blended to oblivion…sigh) I have had a sudden revelation though that it may have been good to MAKE the bricks in the summer in order to BURN them in the winter. They are taking a loooooooong time to dry. Ah well. We are taught patience in a plethora of ways every day. (every hour, every minute, every second. Darn it! If only we learnt quicker!)

 

Perhaps we should build rather than burn?

Paper Bricks – perhaps we should build rather than burn?

I am glad to be home though. I really  loved our time away but there is nothing like not having to pack and unpack all the time. I’m looking forward to sharing some picks with you once all the washing is done. Here are some highlights…

Seeing a Dadda and Baby Cassowary in the wild daintree and then another one the next day…Amazing!

Swimming in the Blue Hole and feeling like we were back in the time before technology…

Watching giant butterflies dance around us and perch on our upturned hands…

Watching the girls swim for the first time unassisted…

Peering at GIANT Golden Orb spiders as they mended their nets….

Seeing a tailless monitor lizard scale a tree and not topple off depite being upside down…

Mastering driving “the beast” into ridiculously small car parks…

Experiencing the overwhelming hospitality of our good friends Mike, Lani and Indi…

Coming home to a well stocked freezer, a momentarily spotless house, and a deliciously cosy wood fire. (No one has those except for cooking pizza in QLD)…

Thank the Lord

Amen!

Dadda and the Chickling

This is the way to travel!

A healthy snack from the beach

Car travel is such a bore!

Ah bliss, no crocs in this hole!

Playing in Muddies water park

The Lost Tooth

Must’ve been hot while we were away!

P.S. 19 weeks already!

 

Leave a Comment

The family journeys…

April 12, 2012 at 10:08 am (Family Life)
Tags: , , , , , ,

Three months! A lot can happen in three months. Our family has so much news I am unlikely to scribe it all before I fall asleep. (A common occurrence after 7pm these days.) Firstly let me tell you, I am sitting in the balmy (and wet) tropics. It’s evening. Dada is camping somewhere in the torrential rain, by a rising river.  I heard talk of sleeping under the stars before he left. I wonder if there are any stars…. It has been raining for a day and a half, so stars or no, he will be sodden.  By all accounts we are supposed to have missed the wet season, but apparently “accounts” can be wrong. No matter to me. I am holding the fort (in someone elses house) with the children. The rain has brought some respite from the heat  and the children are loving running around in the weather without  freezing to death. This would never happen in a Tasmanian April. We have been swimming every day. It is bizarre that you can come to a state where the weather is ALWAYS conducive to swimming and yet not be able to take a dip in the ocean. Stingers and crocs -the bane of Cairns beaches. It reminds me of home seeing all the bare sand! 

We have come to Cairns on a working holiday. The great wet has put a dampener on some of our work plans though. I don’t mind so much as it means we get to spend more time as a family.  It is much lovelier to be on holidays with Dada around! The hospitality here has been incredible. After a few hitches in our planned accommodation the local church community has pulled out all the stops. We are staying in a strangers house for this first week… (Thanks to Bec and Kevin whom we haven’t even met.) For the rest of the time we have been given the full use of a fabulous- you- beaut- glamper- camper- trailer and have an enormous prehistoric looking monster car to tow it wherever we desire. I feel like I’m living Alison Lester’s ARE WE THERE YET. The only difference is that we have four children instead of three. (How’s that for a segue?) FOUR children! This being the reason I have been off the charts for the last few months. The fourth little bubba, is only a seed in the womb and has been keeping me rather sedate. Thankfully I am now into the second trimester and have defeated the constant nausea and weariness that has kept me in survival mode for the last 8 weeks. Aaaaaah. (That was a DEEP sigh not a scream.) The second trimester passes all too fast.  I am a little nervous about what it will mean to care for four children. I have felt that about every child on the way though…. How will I have enough love and patience for another little life so dependent on mine? God is gracious. He has an abundance of both of those things and somehow has placed that well in each of us – to draw on when the time is ripe. Oh the time is RIPE!  I pray that I remember to draw and draw deeply. Every day. It’s embarrassing how often I get sidetracked from leaning on Him. ( Screwtape! That rascal!)

Anyway, the time is also ripe for a wee nap. There is so much more to tell. Loss of first teeth, growing molars, visits with Nana and Grandad, a new niece and some brilliant child-knitted beanies to celebrate, hot weather followed by the first winter fires. First steps and a new lover of soccer, birthday celebrations and lots of fun cooking.  I love family life! Despite its challenges and my many failings and regrets, I end each day with an amazing sense of not deserving all the beautiful blessings that come along with this very domestic life! What a gorgeous husband and what delightful children. DEEP DEEP SIGH!

P.S. I realise it’s lame after all this time, but I really can’t be bothered with pictures today…

6 Comments

Paper Antics

February 9, 2012 at 11:46 am (Patterns, Re-purposing)
Tags: , , , ,

Our creative efforts this week have revolved around paper. That over abundantly used resource, that finds its way into every nook and cranny of our life. I am forever at a loss as to how to reuse it efficiently and to give appropriate awe to all the creations it finds itself in in our household. There is paper everywhere! Drawings, sculptures, letters, paintings, origami, bills, lists, lists of lists, flotsam, jetsam and scraps of hieroglyphics from long gone phone calls. It is a never-ending influx. So…. we have been thinking about how to have an outflux without having to just throw it away or burn it. Enter blender…. followed closely by moulds and paint. We mooshed, (mushed? It sounds so much better when you say moooooooshed!). Anyway, I digress. We mooshed it all up and made a great mess in the process. The water flowed out the top of the blender, much to the children’s delight. Then we squeezed the excess water out through a sieve. This part felt so deliciously good. Finally, we pressed it into cookie moulds and laid them in the sun to dry for a few days. (You can bake them on a really low heat if you are impatient) Lo and behold it wasn’t long before we has some fantastic little sculptures to decorate and stick/hang up all over the house. They are now dangling in windows, hanging over beds and creeping ever so slowly in the night across the top of the rafters. And all that left over mooosh? What did we do with that? Made it into paper bricks to BURN in the winter of course.

Paper Bricks - perhaps we should build rather than burn?

More beautifully but not so recycally, we made pinwheels from some origami paper. We coloured in the blank side and cut and folded and pinned and wahlah, we have a bouquet on our dinner table. They are even lovelier when you eat outside because they spin in the breeze. Of course the weather must permit which is not always guarenteed here in the south!

Pencil Pinwheels

2 Comments

Flames and Fireflies

February 9, 2012 at 11:12 am (Family Life, Fun, Gardening)
Tags: , , ,

The beautiful flame

We’ve had an adventurous night! The fire brigade turned up at dinner time and assured us it was a great time for a burn off, so we have been surrounded by smoke and flames all evening. It was actually a little eerie. The girls danced around like fireflies. It was like a ritual, as though they couldn’t have kept still even if they’d wanted to. The fieries (faeries?) were fantastic and let them have a go with the hoses and climb on the truck but mostly they just wanted to dance. If I wasn’t such an adult I would’ve joined them. Flames are beautiful aren’t they. Especially when they are under control. There is something almost timeless or mythical about them. Like they have a story to tell. A fierce and deep story. I’m looking forward to learning it. God must have had a particularly brilliant thought when he created fire.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Leave a Comment

Motherhood in the Trenches

January 27, 2012 at 9:49 am (Family Life, Gratitute, Uncategorized)
Tags: , , , , ,

This has been one of those weeks where I wonder why God has blessed us with so many little ones. ( I didn’t think three was “many” until I had to look after them.) I feel like I haven’t done this blessing justice in my mothering.  Deep sigh. There are so many days where I climb into bed regretting something; some impatient response or unmet need, some harsh word or mean look. In fact when I think about it, that happens EVERY night. DANG IT! I can imagine God slapping his forehead thinking “What was I doing? She was impatient before she had children. Why on earth did I give her three?!” Thankfully these moments pass and I remember that God didn’t give us children because he thought I would be a brilliant mother, but because HE is a brilliant Father. God is a BIG and POWERFUL  GOD. (BOOM!) Every day, even those days where there is vomit dripping from the top bunk to the bottom, He gives me the strength to be a mother. Not just to bear having children around but to actually MOTHER them. He helps me to love, love, love and love some more. To love in action even though my mind is whining about not having enough sleep or enough quiet, and when I am having to answer the same question for the 34th time because my 5 yr old won’t believe that I have actually said no and meant it. (It amazes me that she can even think of 34 different ways to ask the same question in the hope that it will get a different response.) Oh how I wish that I would lean on Him more often. I wish that I could remember how He loves me when I am trying to love my children: graciously, gently, wisely, unconditionally. When I am trying (and flailing/failing) to love them, it is inspiring to think about how much He loves me. When I remember that I am filled with gratitude. It is hard to be grumpy when you are filled with gratitude. Suddenly all that vomit, sleeplessness and noise becomes nothing compared to loving my children alongside Him. Thank God it is not all up to me! At least God knows what He is doing and I will trust that He will bless my children in the same way He lavishes his blessings on me.

P.S. Sorry about that gruesome vomit image, but it really did happen this week.

Leave a Comment

Meeting the Couch Man

January 15, 2012 at 4:20 am (Art Therapy, Free-Form, Fun, Re-purposing)
Tags: , , , , ,

Such a delightful catchup with all the New South Welsh Men and Women, but I am glad to be home! I love holidays, and I love the feeling of RETURNING too; coming back to our nest. I must say though, it is very strange nest at the moment. Dada has taken ALL the children on a roadtrip to Coles Bay. We decided when we came home it was a good time to change all our rooms around before heading off again. But when it was time for us to leave for Coles Bay there was still furniture all over the house and junk everywhere. Coming home to that would be more than we could handle so Dada took the adventurous route of travelling with three littlies while I stayed home to create order out of chaos. I think I have managed enough for everything to feel fresh when the children and Mick arrive. Oh my we have sooo much clutter. Does anyone else suffer from clutter? It has been wonderfully refreshing to let it go. I will have to get it all out of the house soon because even now, in this moment of freedom, there is a temptation to go back into those garbage bags and pull a few things out. What is it with stuff that holds us so?  Deep sigh. I remember the days of traveling with just a backpack…. Come to think of it even my backpack was heavy with stuff!  ugh. It’s everywhere.

Whilst in NSW, I went to the mountains and spent a momentary breath with my dear friend Amanda. (hello!) She is an amazing woman and everytime I see her I come home a few centimetres taller. Do you know anyone who does that for you? Just lovely. It’ s like I am stretched and encouraged and blessed and filled out with friendship. So now I am daydreaming about regular tea drinking and crafting sessions, and wondering if I lived near her if I would end up a giant? Most likely. Good friends are such a treat. For the moment we will have to suffice with virtual spaces to grow…

Whilst at Amanda’s house I met a new friend. I didn’t catch his name, so for the time being I shall call him the Couch Man. That is where I met him. He is one groovy and comfortable fellow. A very  good listener, and warm. I should like to have warmth as one of my own characteristics, so I hung out with him for a while. He had a great deal of knowledge about stuff. He was full of it! He looked after little Finn; was good with the children. And after they all went to bed he shared a beer with Mick. That pretty soon put them to sleep and that was the end of that. What a funny fellow to have around.

Sharing a beer

Snoozing

Leave a Comment

Ah! Holidays. I love them.

January 14, 2012 at 6:00 am (Family Life)

We have finally arrived home after a lovely time away with our extended family. It is good to be home, but despite just arriving, Dada and the children decided it was a good time to head up to the shack and hang out with the Tasmanian cousins. I have taken the quietness of the weekend without them and turned it on its head! The whole house has been in chaos as I change rooms around, make a grunty attack on the mould and throw out much of the clutter. It is wonderfully refreshing and satifyingly tiring. I think I will have finished enough by this afternoon to warrant posting some photos and reflections on christmas, turning the big 36 and getting ready for the new year. Looking forward to catching up with you all!

2 Comments

Preparations

December 16, 2011 at 12:04 pm (Family Life, Fun, Gratitute)
Tags: , , , ,

We are about to journey north to see our relatives for Christmas. I am so looking forward to it! Our house is busy with washing and packing, last minute sewing, wrapping, gardening, playing, singing, and roaring. It is hard to believe that another year is coming to a close and a new one is knocking at the door. Finnegan is ONE! Today I finally finished off his birthday book. (My thanks go out to Amanda Blake Soule for the idea!) I was impressed that Finn poured over it for quite some time, pointing at the pictures of us all. The girls also enjoyed reading it. It is not so often you see yourself in a book I suppose!

Recieved with glee!

Finns Birthday Book

From all the Family

 

 

Such pretty wings!

We spent some time painting angels to give away as cards and wrap presents in. The girls loved getting their hands dirty and feeling the paint – as did mama! Finn was sleeping so missed out on making all the mess. He did get into the vacuuming at clean up time though! It’s very hard to take housework seriously with such little helpers. The machine kept going on and off and on and off, and the floor is still pretty dirty! Best not to worry about that though!

Finnegan Helping Vacuum

Christmas Angels

 

We have also FINALLY finished Grandad’s birthday belt. Avalyn suggested sending a pair of shoes or a belt for his birthday. As much as I am up for a challenge, I thought shoes might be a bit beyond me, so a belt it was. If anyone were to suggest a smurf belt might not be well recieved they would get a very well thought out reply from the girls. (As ifGrandad wouldn’t like it!)

Grandads birthday belt - the girdle of love

All up, it’s been a lovely week. Despite a gruesome head cold and some sleepless nights, life is worth being joyful in!

Here is my list of things to be grateful for this week.

The anticipation of seeing wonderful friends and family again soon. Finishing off all the Christmas presents and wrapping them up in preparation for Christmas day. Watching my childrens joy in exclaiming that THEY MADE the presents as they give them to their friends. The promise of warm weather. Hankies. Secret hiding places for Dada’s presents. The smell of wet grass. Spontaneous visitors from Germany. Chilli Chocolate. AISOI concerts. Children, Children, Children!

 

1 Comment

« Older entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.