It's MY month.. or should that be OUR month

So I was reading The Mr's blog (yes he has one ~ after having to teach a class about it, so he thought he better have one~ you know hypocrisy and all ~ So he started one for 'research purposes') and he was mentioning some favourite things ~ one being that his favourite month is October - Which reminded me that October was OUR MONTH.. the month that started it all.....

Yeah, we have a month, you know like most couples have years.. we had weeks... I don't recomend it for everyone but we were only dating around 3 weeks before we got engaged (we did know of eachother for a year before though-I know, trying to Justify it and all ~ cause if my girls try to pull the same thing I'll probably kill them.. LOL)

It makes it easy to remember that's for sure..

..like how the whole ball started rolling (I was at a friends house and answered their phone. The Mr was talking of a party. I had other plans. Later that evening I cancelled my plans and felt inspired to ring The MR to ask for a lift to the party as it was far away (and during the drive we both had spooky precognition visions of us sitting in the car years down the track, all comfortable like kids in the back like, which of course we didn't tell the other about)

.... like the first unoffical date (I took him soup when he was sick ~ Yeah a can of 'cream of chicken soup' as a joke and we STILL have that can!)

....when we decided we liked each other, (at an 80's party of all things - but we didn't tell eachother we could just tell from the electricty passing through our touch or maybe our HUGE smiles )

.... Or our First real date ~ Picking me up from work at Subway and going out for icecream even though I smelt like YEAST (yep he's a keeper :)

There was mention of about 4 other guys in my journal around the same time.. As The Mr reminds often...he had to beat off all the competition to even get a date with me (not true) it was all part of the 'master plan' but as they say The Best Man was left standing

A quote from my journal in our early dating (what?? if it was only 3 weeks.. maybe I am talking days here)


"I am getting strange isms about him.. Like Eternal isms"



....and ain't that the truth

What I love

What I love: Early Morning Dance Sessions




What I don't love: Being woken at 5am on Saturdays

Gold

As I sat at a set of traffic lights golden light filtered through. The wind blew a forceful but gentle breeze - It shook the enormous gnarled tree on the curb and yellow/gold leaves fluttered down. It look like gold rain, light, fluttery, etheral looking sheaths of gold, bathed in bronze light. (how in spring I do not know!)

It was something like out of a hollywood movie - Perfect in a sense. I wished I had been able to get put of the car and dance around in it - It would have been momentary bliss - a time travel to child like joys. Or I wish I had been able to atleast photograph it.

My heart filled, I felt warm

Passion for life flowed through me.

I had a semi sort of ephiphany.

I have been looking for some sort of thing to add more passion, more fulfillment in life ~ Or ways to make more passion and more fulfillment in my already full life.

I could have it sitting at a set of traffic lights in the middle of a busy city.

Life is Perfect sometimes

Golden

From Little Things Big Things Grow

My wonderful Nanna (the girls great grandma) knits cute little outfits for me each time I have a baby - but babies grow so fast and barely wear them! I have a pile of knitted cuteness which usually ends up in the girls doll dress up box.

About 2 years ago I filed away the cutest cot decorating idea from Nie Nie Dialogues into the recesses of my brain and the idea came back to me as I was staring at these lovely handmade knitted outfits - I have to show them off! See the ideaHere on Nie Nie including a tour of her old house at cookie.

As much as I would LOVE to wash them and shrink them I just couldn't bring myself to do it on purpose! So I chose some little sweaters and matching booties and strung them on some twine. Tie onto cot ~ and voila ~ instant cuteness!! Though I suppose this idea is only for when they are little.. once they get bigger and can use their hands it will be destroyed :(

I usually like to keep my babies next to me until they are about 6 months old. I love having them sleep near by and I am the laziest mother out there - so I pick em up crane style from the crib next to me and feed them while I am still basically asleep!!

But Miss N is one noisy baby! wiggly windy baby... So she has been put in the beautifully decorated Cot ~ NEXT DOOR! - well in her sisters room across the hall - better sleep for all now ~ But oh I miss her!!

She still gets smuggled in at 3am and ends up staying curled up with me till 5am ~ Can't be too strict now ~ She is probably my last baby and oh how I want to eat her up ~

From Little things big things grow - and I just want her to stay this way!!

This is also inspiring me to do a little more decorating. None of the girls have ever really had a decorated matching type room - basically they just have second hand bits and pieces.

So from little things big things grow - I am going to move on to making some cute bunting for the room - maybe like this? And some matching canvas art - I just have to think of a pattern or idea - Baboushka's? Flowers? Dinosaurs? Birds?

Let the Ideas Grow...

The expectations I have to live up to...

girls in their white shirts and matching black skirts (sewn by a friend - THANKS! where does one buy black skirts for kids??)

This week was the Primary Presentation. This was Miss A's part

"I came to earth as part of a family. My mother helps our family by being happy, smiling and making our home a loving place. I want to be just like my mother when I grow up."

Apart from the aaawwwww factor it made me laugh so much :)


I better smile some more


and be a bit more happier

Tooth Fairy

"My tooth, my tooth" Miss A comes racing into the room screaming.. I see blood and say "Awww what have you done?"

"IT'S WIGGLY!!!"

and the look of JOY on her face can't even be described. She was positively radiating!

I owe thanks to the friend who made the caramel corn that started the tooth tremble - must have been some tough popcorn ball!!

As with Santa and the Easter Bunny there is no Tooth Fairy at our house :( I know. I know.. bad parent!!

As usual I blame it on the older daughter, just not being party to all this 'fantasy' stuff, and my obviously lack of acting skills to trick her... But what of the younger children?

The thing we have all been waiting for has finally happened! Miss A has lost her first tooth!! Oh the torture of being the 'ONLY' child in her class to have not yet lost a tooth.

(My mother likes to remind me of all the times I came home from school crying that I hadn't lost a tooth yet either - So unlike her sister (who lost a whole bunch of teeth in Preschool)it seems that Miss A was taking after me - A late tooth loser - heck I still have a baby tooth in my mouth!!)

So whilst Miss K was more than happy to keep her teeth in a box ~ and that was that ~ Miss A who knows there is no such thing as the tooth fairy has been asking about it ~ She isnt doing it for the money - she doesn't even seem interested in that part, she just wanted to put her tooth under a pillow and see what happens.

I'm kinda confused really, I mean I don't know what she wants... She knows the tooth fairy is the parent, and she wants to keep the tooth... so I don't see the reasoning behind finding out what will happen.

So this led me to start looking up some 'TOOTH' Traditions.

It might be too late for her first tooth (it was a few weeks ago and she seems to have moved on from the excitement of it all) but maybe subsequent teeth.. and there are also two other little girls in the house yet to lose any teeth - well Miss N needs to grow some first!!

So WHY the tooth fairy at all?

I did some trusty internet searching for you all and came up with:

The origin of this benevolent fairy who swipes the teeth from under pillows and leaves coins (or cash, these days) isn’t clearly defined, although it could be linked to a 18th century French fairy tale. The story, where a mouse changes into a fairy to help a queen defeat an evil king by hiding under his pillow and knocking out his teeth, is a bit more disturbing than our current narrative. The Tooth Fairy as we know it started making appearances in American plays, books, and cartoons in the early part of the 20th century

Many European Countries actually have a tooth mouse instead with varying 'nicer' stories about mice that buy teeth with coins.

In Japan, to ensure that new teeth with grow straight, one should throw lost lower teeth into the air and upper teeth to be thrown down to the ground

In some Asian countries, such as India, Korea and Vietnam, when a child loses a tooth the usual custom is that he or she should throw it onto the roof if it came from the lower jaw, or into the space beneath the floor if it came from the upper jaw. While doing this, the child shouts a request for the tooth to be replaced with the tooth of a mouse. This tradition is based on the fact that the teeth of mice go on growing for their whole life, a characteristic of all rodents

We actually had a Korean girl live with us for a year a few years ago when Miss K lost a tooth and she said to throw it on the roof and its good luck to think a bird will pick it up!

Anyone have any interesting 'tooth' traditions? That could be implemented. Honestly I am pretty bad at this, because of the unpredicatbility of it I suppose. Christmas, easter, birthdays can be planned for and things put away for - but a tooth can be lost at anytime

I found these ideas on a parenting website ~ maybe you might find them useful.

We write a note to the tooth fairy to tell about how it happened. In the note, she also always asks the tooth fairy to put their name on the note. She leaves a line for the fairy to write on and then she signs it. We have had fun coming up with tooth fairy names, like Esmerelda, Fantasia, Annamaria, and Bob. (Yes, there are boy tooth fairies too. My hubby told them a wild story about all the boy tooth fairies that don't usually do the night jobs, but that Bob really liked it and is good at it.) :-) Bob is now the most sought after fairy in our house. :-)

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We told them the fairy recycles them into fairy dust. That is why her teeth have to be clean and healthy.. The fairy dust doesn't work with yucky teeth

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We started a tradition where the children will dictate a letter to me to be written in teeny tiny letters for the teeny tiny fairy to read. We slip this in to a pocket that's attached to the stuffed tooth that has a smiling face on it.

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At my mom's house we buried the tooth under a plant to help it grow

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We can always tell where our tooth fairy came in through the window and where she flew because there is always pixie dust all over the window sill, bed and money!

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The tooth fairy would leave him a sparkly tooth brush with his name on it or fun flavored kid toothpaste or minty dental floss or sugar free gum

I think I am liking the last suggestion the best. Maybe I could make up some cute "teeth packs" with with mini toothbrush, kids toothpaste, floss, mouthwash - and stash them away to be used when the time arrives. Maybe the tooth can still be put someone special and the 'tooth pack' arrives during the night???

And maybe sprinkle around some really fine shimmer dust around it...

we all need a little pixie dust right??

and here is part of the tooth tradition that we actually do already - we take photos of every tooth as it falls out

Play with your Food

Saw this idea over at Chasing Cheerios and even though we don't celebrate Halloween.. I did have a few pumpkins sitting around :) As it was a cold rainy day after we finished playing with our food... I turned it into Pumpkin Soup for dinner... OH OH.. poor mr Pumpkin Head :)

Empty out all Mr Potato Head pieces (given to us from cousins! ~ Thanks Robbie and Rocci)


Stick into Pumpkins, Potatoes etc (Use a chopstick or similar to make holes in hard pumpkin to make inserting pieces easier)


Enjoy Soup after :)

Thirty Thoughts

from October General Conference 2009~

find All the talks here at lds.org

Thirty thoughts to match my Thirty years :) Will contemplate them more deeply later, for the moment I will just be happy with how much I enjoyed the bits of conference I actually got to hear

(I came home afterwards and read them all online as 4 kids unfortunately impacts my listening ablitlites ;)

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..the influence of the Holy Ghost as “peace, hope, and joy.” ~ Almost always I have also felt a sensation of light.” My favorite description, though, comes from an eight-year-old boy who had just received the Holy Ghost. He said, “It felt like sunshine.”



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“The goal of gospel teaching . . . is not to ‘pour information’ into the minds of class members. . . . The aim is to inspire the individual to think about, feel about, and then do something about living gospel principles



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Learning and teaching are not optional activities in the kingdom of God



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Aim High.


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We should remember that saying “I love you” is only a beginning. We need to say it, we need to mean it, and most importantly we need consistently to show it. We need to both express and demonstrate love.



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As disciples of the Savior, we are not merely striving to know more; rather, we need to consistently do more of what we know is right and become better.



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Love should be our walk and our talk.



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For what we love determines what we seek.
What we seek determines what we think and do.
What we think and do determines who we are—and who we will become



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Love is the guiding light that illuminates the disciple’s path and fills our daily walk with life, meaning, and wonder



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Cultivate a diligent desire to know that God lives.



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This desire leads us to ponder on the things of heaven—to let the evidence of God all around us touch our hearts.


With softened hearts we are prepared to heed the Savior’s call to “search the scriptures” and to humbly learn from them.


We are then ready to ask our Heavenly Father sincerely, in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, if the things we have learned are true. Most of us will not see God, as the prophets have, but the still, small promptings of the Spirit—the thoughts and feelings that the Holy Ghost brings into our minds and hearts—will give us an undeniable knowledge that He lives and that He loves us.



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The Lord does not expect that we do what we cannot achieve.

The command to become perfect, as He is, encourages us to achieve the best of ourselves, to discover and develop the talents and attributes with which we are blessed by a loving Eternal Father



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Security for our families comes from learning self-control, avoiding the excesses of this world, and being temperate in all things. Peace of mind comes from strengthened faith in Jesus Christ


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“I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.” The Savior is there, reaching out to each of us, bidding us: “Come unto me.” We can repent. We can!


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The scriptures do not say that we will forget our forsaken sins in mortality. Rather, they declare that the Lord will forget



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None of us is perfect yet. But we can have frequent assurance that we are following along the way. He leads us, and He beckons for us to follow Him.



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“I do not want to go back to the past; I want to go back to the past way of facing the future.”


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Respect and kindness ultimately give one a better chance at success



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By remaining steadfast, parents so very often suffer and agonize more than the children they endeavor to teach


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The spelling in English of many individual virtues concludes with the letters ity: integrity, humility, charity, spirituality, accountability, civility, fidelity, and the list goes on and on. Relying on literary license, I refer to the virtues ending in ity as the “ity” virtues. “Ity” is a suffix that means quality, state, or degree of being.



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The blessings we experience as members of the Church and the promised blessings of the temple are so good, if we will only reach out and choose to accept them.”


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And what did you do for someone today?



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Whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived



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We try to do what is right because we love and want to please our Father in Heaven, not because someone is forcing us to obey.



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Remember that having religious observance in the home is as important as providing food, clothing, and shelter



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Children who are not taught that they are accountable for their time and talents are increasingly subject to the foolishness and unrighteousness that are so pervasive in the world



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My life cannot implement in action the demands of all the people to whom my heart responds



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Please consider the state of your changed heart. Do you detect any rejection setting in as a result of the tendency of the natural man to become casual? If so, find a place where you too can kneel. Remember, more than mortal years on this earth are at stake. Do not risk forfeiting the fruits of the ultimate operation: eternal salvation and exaltation.



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Easiness and willingness to believe in the word of God comes from a softness of heart. It comes from having a heart that is sensitive to the Holy Ghost. It comes from having a heart that can love. It comes from having a heart that will make and keep sacred covenants. It comes from a soft heart that can feel the power of the Atonement of Christ.



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Love. Healing. Help. Hope. The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times—including the end of times. That is the safe harbor God wants for us in personal or public days of despair. That is the message with which the Book of Mormon begins, and that is the message with which it ends, calling all to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.”

Sabbath

She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her ~ Proverbs 3:18

*The girls favourite climbing tree at the local park*

Reflection

I love, love, love all my daughters crystal clear blue eyes. Did I once have eyes like that??

Since I spend most of my day looking into Miss N's eyes I often see my reflection in them and wonder how she sees me.



Is love reflected there?


Or


Comfort?

Happiness?

Safety?

Home?

An example to grow into?

Peace?



Maybe, maybe all of the above, maybe none of the above.



Nevertheless - this is what I contemplate - REFLECTIONS


Are we sometimes relecting out to others our NOT true self? I want my reflection to show my inner desires, beliefs, what I know to be true.

Why do I allow my children to see the Not so perfect me? The one who may be angry, have a short temper, or the one whom is too busy to stop and play. Who allows a schedule or clean house to mean more to me than they do?


I will try harder to reflect


**Update - Do I have to still be kind that while I was composing this Miss G unrolled toilet paper around the house?

And please note I don't really have a clean house - what upsets me the most is that I have to tell my kids No alot just so I can achieve minimal cleaning so the house is liveable - that is the most annoying - or maybe the dirt just follows us around - see a previous post- We are PIGPEN about this topic!!

Mango Tradition

Our first mangoes of the season are always a celebration around here! YUM!
Last years post here It is almost becoming a tradition I think :)

Beach Babies

We've been having fun! Can you tell? We went to 3 different beaches on the spring holidays. The last one had dark sand/mud flats which the girls flung at each other..nice.. they needed a bath afterwards - they were black!

Miss N's first trip to the beach (Ok well the man made one in the city)


Do these togs make me look fat? Someone gave me the cutest little togs - they are really shiny and sparkly, even if they are still a little too big


The girls enjoyed rock pooling - we saw crabs, sea anenomes, and weird looking dragon sea slugs


I think I prefer the beach in Spring - too hot in Summer.. better get my fill now :)

Weather Challenge - Unplug Your Kids

Last weeks challenge at Unplug your Kids was Weather.


Well it is Spring here, and where I live is at the moment coloured with beautiful shades of purple - it is Jacaranda season ~ so I tried to think of some activities to go along with it ~ There is a Jacaranda tree about every 50 metres in full bloom around here ~ It is so beautiful.

We painted some tiny canvases (they are about 5cm)
We recently went to the art gallery so the older girls were practicing more abstract styles - we talked about how to make something evoke the feeling of the subject matter without actually drawing it realistically

Gotta love a 6:30am craft session!

This idea was inspired by the recent Kids Craft Weekly - Seasonal Collages

The girls collected fallen jacaranda flowers


and stuck them onto contact
These probably would have looked better with some other flowers thrown in for variety

Here is some jacaranda folklore from wiki~
South Africa is most famous for Jacaranda with my town coming second! Florida, Phoenix Arizona, San Diego California also have them

Local folklore claims that "one won't start studying for exams until the jacarandas have molted" OR "by the time the jacaranda flowers, it's too late to start studying for exams". (It is the end of the university/school year soon)

The jacaranda only flowers for approximately six weeks from September through October.

The reason for the Jacaranda's proliferation in Brisbane is often attributed to the thirties and forties, when new mothers leaving the maternity hospital were given a jacaranda sapling to plant

While I was on an art gallery tour last year - in front of a famous 100 year old painting of the first jacaranda planted here, the tour guide said "and each year during Jacaranda season a scattering of the flowers is often found beneath the painting ~ yet they have never discovered who does it" ~ ooooooo spooky!!


We have had many discussions this week about Jacaranda's!! The kids are pointing them out left right and centre, and have discovered that their favourite small climbing tree in the local park ~ IS A JACARANDA!! As it is now covered in purple.

I myself was happy to learn about them being given as a gift to mothers having a baby! When I spy the trees in many yards around here, I wonder if it was a tree planted for a baby ~ A baby now 70 - 80 years old!!


Enjoy Spring!


This Weeks Theme: Wheel

Sabbath

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth ~ 3 John 1:4