On Staying Home

Last week I had three extra kids in the house. By accident. All on the same day.

 There's the child I babysit twice a week
{Mother is a vet - vets are open till 7pm. After school care is only open till 6pm - see the problem?}

There's the neighbourhood girl who comes to our house every day. She either walks home with one of my kids or expects a lift. Shes here morning and afternoon for hours and her mother has never asked me once if this is ok. She's an only child so I understand she is lonely.

There's the kid I wait with every afternoon. Her brother walks from the local high school to the Prep. It takes him 20 mins. It seems crazy to pay for after school care for 20 mins, so for her immigrant mother who works two jobs I wait with her till brother comes. Except this time brother didn't come.

I don't share these things because I'm angry
{It doesn't bother me to do these things, extra kids sometimes makes my kids better at home}
and I don't share to say I'm awesome
{I have so many failings its ridiculous}

So as I sat there feeling a teeny bit put out thinking GEE these people are lucky they have ME

 a thought hit me so hard

This is a blessing.
This is why you are a stay at home mum.
To provide exactly this for your children.
If you can also provide it for other children it also a blessing.

Sometimes I can't believe I have been a stay at home mum for 12 years!
{bar a short stint at part time work and working in my husbands business while he got another job}

12 years! It doesn't seem that long but when I say 12 years I wonder if I've wasted my life away.
I could have multiple extra degrees by now, a strong career, be saving peoples lives.
I worry that I actually prefer being at home, taking the easy way out?!

Each year I seriously feel like I'm getting dumber and dumber and less confident.

{Just ask my husband when I refuse to do calls regarding insurance/electricity/phones etc - I don't do calls. Scares me lol.  When he tells me of work politics I feel sorry for him. I don't do confrontation.
It's going to be a steep learning curve if I ever do get back into the job market - I've gotten so used to being my own boss and a lady of leisure ;) }

But at the same time I'm gaining smarts and confidence in other areas.

I'm a blessed woman. We have everything we need and surplus and I can stay home.

We might be frugal, we might not be rich.

But what riches we have in other ways we can try to share.

These decisions always seem hard. There's never a perfect life.

Stay home 100%, work full time, work part time. Help noone, help everyone.

It's not possible to do.

Each one has positives and negatives. Each one equal losses.

So as I push myself this year to volunteer daily with the hope of employment in future years.

I'll remember it was a blessing.

Staying home was such a blessing.

FHE Lesson {Honesty}

We had a little incident at school. The teacher pulled me aside to say that my daughter had stolen drunk another kids juice box. Daughter said she thought it was hers. Teacher asked do you usually have a popper? Daughter in her naivety says No. Teacher knows kid was lying.


So of course anytime a challenge comes up you do a FHE lesson on it right? After my husband suggested it, I initially balked because I remember an adult telling me once how much she disliked FHE growing up because all the lesson would ever be about is something her or one of her siblings did wrong that week and pointed out to them.

Hopefully we left a big enough gap between incident and lesson, but we did get the guilty child to TEACH the lesson!


Lesson: Honesty

Song: I believe in being Honest #149

Article of Faith:  #13.
We focused on the first line... we believe in being honest, true...

What is honesty? What is true? Start discussion.


Object lesson:

I got our 6 year old made a little village out of lego.
We had the green mat, some houses, some lego friends girls, a lego tree.

In her words she told the story of 'The Boy who cried Wolf' -
{I went through the story with her previously in the afternoon}

She had a lego girl go off to the hills and sat under a tree and called to the villagers
'A wolf A wolf '
When the villagers came there was no wolf
{other lego people come and check it out}

The next day the girl went back up to the hill and called out 'a wolf a wolf'
The villagers came again and once again there was no wolf

Later the girl was back out up the hill under the tree when a REAL wolf {lego dog} came along. The girl called out but the villagers did not come because they did not believe the little girl was telling the TRUTH!

The girl was gobbled up by the wolf {tiny lego dog eats girl}


Why is it important to tell the truth?

Sometimes you might tell a lie and not get caught. You might think you go away with it.

BUT eventually you will get caught in your lies and it could:

make you lose friends/family
people will not trust you
might be dangerous (like the wolf)
you will have to tell more lies and it will hurt your spirit

We talked about how sometimes we are frightened to tell the truth so we might lie because we feel we have no other alternative
{dont want to get in trouble with a teacher, if something is broken}

But taking the consequenences is ALWAYS the better way.

If you lie and get found out the teacher/friend/parent learns not to trust you

If you tell the truth the consequence might be hard but that person knows they can trust you to do what is right and tell the truth and you will be better for it.


Establish some positives about Truths

We love it when people in our family are honest
Your parents will always love you even when you make a mistake
honest people make nice friends. Tricky people you should beware of



Closing Song: The Thirteenth Article of Faith #132

Closing Prayer: Child

Treat:

Idea 1:
You can't unbake a cake
Ask children is it possible to Un-bake a cake
{like put it back in a low temperature and reverse the process}
discuss how once a cake is made it is pretty impossible to change.

As with lying or being dishost it is sometimes very hard to undo.

Idea 2:
Using small lollies hide them around the house and have children ask questions to where the lollies might be hidden in which you TELL THE TRUTH to the questions they ask to help them find the lolly. Telling the truth is useful and helps us find our way when people help us.

Family Home Evening Ideas

I'm going to try hard to put up a Family Home Evening Lesson each week.

Just that Monday seems to come around so fast!!

Previously I was posting them over here

No Lesson today but some tips I thought I would share.

Most people say they have trouble making FHE last longer than a few minutes.

When I share that our FHE can often go for hours people are surprised.

So Here are some tips I've used over the years to lengthen out FHE to more than a few minutes.


:: Journal Writing
Use the first few minutes of FHE to write in journals. (I did this more when I had little children) The girls would draw a picture of anything that happened in the last week in their journals. Then I would write the words above for them. I found this helped me as I was now keeping atleast a weekly update of what they were getting up to.

:: Scripture Hero/Story
This is a new to us this year idea. I was helping in Primary and they were holding up a picture of Adam and Eve and asking who it was. I was shocked when neither my 3 or 6 year old answered! They KNOW THAT!. But then I thought about it, and realized we had moved beyond holding up pictures and sharing the bible stories as our older kids grew and moved into more subject orientated FHE. Having 12 years-3 years old in the family we have to make sure we cover both younger and older learners.

Each week the younger children will hold up a picture from the gospel art kit and tell us about it, ask us questions on who is this? What is this story?

::Whiteboard
We have a fairly large whiteboard that we use often. Whiteboard can be used for pictionary, drawing out the lessons, games, for the little ones to scribble on while we focus on the older ones, or for older children to be scribes {give them something to do}

::Song App
We have the Childrens Songbook App for our Ipad. It has most of the childrens songs with the words and a bouncy ball when to sing the words. It also has several photos to go with the songs. When we sing we use the app and our younger child slides the pictures for us while we sing. It makes it fun and they want to sing for a long time!

::Dinner
Monday Night is our Fancy Dinner Night. I try to cook a better dinner on Mondays, with sides and with dessert. We set the table with a table cloth and try to make it look nice. We start our FHE before Dinner. We open with prayer and sing Love at Home while all holding hands around the table. This is the opening of FHE for us. Once dishes are cleared we go straight into FHE. It helps extend the length and idea of FHE to our kids and they know that Monday night is family night from about 5:30pm-7pm

::Articles of Faith
We printed and laminated each Article of Faith on a separate piece of paper. The girls take turns choosing an article of faith to hold up, read out, make us guess

:: Games
Some weeks the lessons might be short, or some weeks they just seem to want to keep going so we keep a few easy quick games around to play after FHE lesson is over and after dessert. Uno, Jenga, Boggle etc.

::Testimony
We have a shy girl or two so we take time having turns at practicing our testimonies.


Do you have any Family Home Evening Tips to Share?

I am looking at starting a Facebook group to put up links to lessons, share and chat about FHE lesson ideas etc. Would you be interested?

Double Digits

Turning 10 always feels like a milestone no?

We have had a busy little time lately and I'm trying to keep things simple but I always feel 10 is a special number.

The night before her birthday I happened to be checking on everyone in bed. This girl loves to sleep with the blinds open {I would NEVER!} and there was a warm glow around her perfectly arranged body, with her little hands tucked neatly under her cheek.

Sometimes I feel its a long time between 'tender moments' when parenting.

But I had one of those tender moments.

I looked at her and kissed her cheek and said 'it's the last night of single digits sweetie'.

Oh and was she up early.

I love that my girls love our birthday traditions and are getting old enough to help set it all out.

10 candles just so
a birthday shirt
a birthday letter {which she actually read this year!}
presents {umbrella, walkie talkies, snorkle, kids electronic safe}
chocolate mousse and cream for breakfast


This girl
:: Loves her alarm clock and to get up early
:: Loves the outdoors
:: Loves being around people, rarely likes alone time
:: Independent, only one of my children who gets ready without help
:: Loves riding, skateboarding, iceskating, swimming
:: Adventurous and loves taking herself to school
:: Loves to keep her side of the room tidy and lined up

She loved her Pool Party last year and has opted to do the same again!

14 Years

Between our birthdays, school starting, childrens birthdays, valentines, is our wedding anniversary.

Choose your Wedding Date Wisely if you want to ever celebrate it again.

{I actually don't mind if its between these things because if something happens you just can put extra effort into one of the other celebrations to 'make up' for it.}

There was this time and it was our 14th wedding anniversary and the night before The Mr's employer calls to say he is wanted pronto 2000 km away the next day for work.

Sad Face


the day started off by hosting four missionaries for breakfast
then off to school and volunteering there
Then he off to buy a car, paper work transfer it all over to us
then me off to help with swimming at school

then he off on a plane.


Somehow previously I thought I was going to get a lunch date or a dinner date someplace nice as we don't typically exchange gifts. 
{GIFTS would totally work as a back up way to cover when life invariably gets in the way of spending ACTUAL time together. Note duly taken}

But it shall be hereby known that on his late night trip to the store to buy supplies for said missionary breakfast he did pick up a block of white chocolate  and it did say DREAM on the outside and he did all cute and sickly smoochy say to me the morning of our anniversary

You're my Dream girl

{nawwwwww}

So while I was gettting all sad and only slightly huffy {I may have thought briefly... an anniversary alone isn't such a bad thing.. maybe I will get that babysitter afterall and take myself out....}

the Mr says well we invited the spirit into our home by hosting the missionaries so early in the morning and it made a great start to the day. You are getting a car for your anniversary and I'm off alone to big bad work earning the money to be able to do so and provide for this family.

You've always got to look on the happy side of things right?

and luckily like most holidays/celebrations theres always another one next year.

We can't get it right all the time on ONE day of the year.

But we can have good days for the REST of the year, and that's what keeps one happily married I spose.

FHE Lesson {Love}

Family Home Evening Lesson
Love/Valentines

Opening Song: Love One Another

Opening Prayer:

Lesson:

As Valentines Day is coming up perfect time for a lesson on love.

Perhaps firstly you could discuss expectations, what individuals would like to have happen on the day. (my girls like lindt chocolate, flowers and balloons - I usually only do ONE of those per year. It could be a nice family dinner and dessert, a special heart shaped pancake breakfast or I'm doing heart pretzels this year}

Set and discuss goals to do a secret kindness for someone else this week
{help siblings, bake something for a neighbour/friend, do something special for mum and dad}

Discuss how and why we should love others {John 13:34}

Activity:

Make Heart Maps {idea found here at Chocolate on my Cranium }

Basically draw a heart with several small compartments.
Inside each space draw a thing YOU LOVE.

Ideas to prompt young children:

Family
Pets
Drawing
Holidays
Animals
Nature
Flowers
Dancing
Reading

Leave Heart Maps up for the week to remind us of the real things we LOVE.

Hopefully by focusing on real love we can avoid commercialization of Valentines Day.

Have a LOVE-Y week!

Closing Song: Jesus Said Love Everyone

Back To School

I had planned to do a back to school dinner.

Then Brisbane had a cyclone and it was rainy and noisy and flooded and we helping other people and checking on everyone and didn't get much sleep and plans went out the window.

I forgot all about it till last minute but we still managed to pull it off.

One lovely daughter set the table all nice and offered to be our waiter for the night

Menu

Bacon, chicken and Green bean linguine
Warm bread rolls
Jelly and Cream

Sparkling apple drink

Fathers Blessings for each of us girls to start the year off

And we were set and ready for the start of school!!

We actually had a great holidays. They always feel a little long towards the end, but when the day came I almost didn't want them to go. But go they must for we had truly fallen into zombie mode. TV turned on first thing in the morning and left going all day. Children stuck at computers and Ipads for hours possibly days even. It makes you feel kinda blah. Even though I didn't want them to leave I did long for a bit of routine and purpose to life.

First week back at school has been wonderful.

We loved the holidays that us repeatedly visiting the creek, science centre, museum and art gallery, iceskating, swimming swimming and more swimming, late nights, movie nights and sitting around in out PJ's. But it must come to an end.


See you soon holidays. Please come back now ya'll.

About Birthdays

Growing up I thought it fairly lovely to have my birthday on the Summer School Holidays

The only downside as a small kid - the birthday parties were all cousin, neighbour, church friend as school friends weren't seen to give an invite. But it didn't matter.. birthdays were always fun.

I was pretty happy with that arrangement till the last 12 years.

Oh yeah, I fogot that a birthday on the holidays would mean ALWAYS  having my ALL my kids at home all day long with me on my birthday. Makes it hard to rest, relax, get stuff done, take myself shopping alone etc etc.

Lucky this year (and last) I sent them packing and planned to do the above

A haircut. A movie. Dinner. Shopping alone the next day.


Thankgoodness for Grandma's also on holidays {bless all the wonderful grandma's out there}

I felt sort of bad though.
They waved me goodbye with sad eyes and slumped shoulders while being driven away in Grandma mobile.

Sniff Sniff enjoy your birthday....don't worry about us.....

 as if they have some sort of major part to play in MY Birthday.

To be fair we did do Roast dinner and Cake and sparkly drink the night before.
We put a whipped cream 41 on the cake then ate it off and replaced it with a 34.

I'm not baking two cakes people!!

Somehow in motherhood anything that was once yours (your body, your chocolates, your bed etc) seems to become owned by the kids. Birthdays fall into this category too.

They want your cake, your balloons, your party, your sparkly apple cider.

It's sort of sweet...... {sort of :/}

But I didn't feel bad for too long and had a lovely relaxing 2 days.
{is it bad to say I wanted another day?? greedy I know}

All was right in the world when they returned home happy, dirty and tired. 

They had gone swimming down the creek twice, ate mcdonalds, watched movies and got to place their handprints in new concrete laid at grandparents house.... just like mine where when I was a child!!{They loved that}.

And we joined back again for takeaway cause I'm not cooking on my birthday.


And happy birthday wishes to my birthday twinsie the darling MR.
{So that meant I didnt cook for two nights!! spoilt!!}

We don't do gifts usually, but a date. In the middle of our two birthdays.

The middle moment where our two birthdays join.



So basically we've been celebrating for three days. I do love a good weeklong celebration.

Christmas Was....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:: Red and Green at my side of the family Christmas Eve celebrations. Complete with Slip n Slide, lots of food and presents galore.

:: Presents under the tree, with a Santa injury going to the Mr who fell while retrieving presents hidden from up high.

:: Christmas breakfast consisting of toblerone dip, summer fruits, Mango and croissants

:: Attempting some order at the Present opening

:: Christmas Afternoon, Boxing Day and next with The Mr side of the family. Yummy food, swimming and camping in the backyard. Cold Nights, rain coming inside the tent, but still quite relaxing to lay there and listen to the rain and rainforest sounds. Fun with cousins and the most favourite thing of all Christmas - Playing with the brand new puppy their cousin got for Christmas.

:: Down to the Creek with Grandad. The girls have hiked here before and wanted to show it to us. Fun in the dirty creek floating by on our new floaties bought by Grandad as a present for exactly this purpose! Building a dam because thats what boys/men do apparently and moving lots of rocks. The girls learnt the art of skimming stones and where very impressed that Daddy and Grandad could get 6 or more jumps. Love that amazed look kids get when the realise just how awesome their parents are. I know it won't be around for too much longer - it warmed my heart sooooo much. what skillz we have!

:: New Years Eve Pool Party and 180 view of city. The Pinata was forgotten on Christmas so we were finally able to smash it good on New Years Eve. Goodbye Christmas!! Lots of funning running around the castle house, sparklers, sock wrestling!!, friends and food. Nice way to end the year.

:: New Year Day at the beach with more friends. A 6 hour surf marathon for the girls. They just swam and swam and got dumped and dumped and Miss G floated and bobbed, and drowned and popped back up in that floaty. Didn't stop all day. Such joy and excitement and wonderful way to start the new year.

:: And today we are tired and a little pink and resting while poor Daddy is back at work.

We didn't do too bad for Black Hole Week

Christmas Is....

sleeping under the Tree

Home

 

Swimming

Dress Ups

Myer Windows

 

Christmas Parades

Gingerbread houses

Putting up the Tree

Christmas Dinners

Nativity

 

City Trees

Christmas Eve Pyjama's

 

And Family and Presents galore tomorrow!

 

 

Have a wonderful Christmas Everyone!!

Christmas Card Movie

I've finished just in time!

{had a few technical issues - my video footage was sideways!}

But I fixed it and Our 2012 Christmas Card Movie is done!

I've waited YEARS to have a child with no teeth at Christmas time.

Finally it's happened.

So of course... this HAD to be the idea for this year.

Enjoy!

And a VERY MERRY Christmas from our family to yours.


Previous years here:
2011 - Putting up the Tree
2010 - Let it Snow
2008 - Nativity

Worries of Christmas Past

It seems each December I come up with some worry.

You know.... just to balance all that cheer out.

Things like:

The dueling Christmases that exist in my head
Will it be enough?
The impossiblity of a perfect Christmas
Black hole week and that horrible after feeling

{yes go back and read them }


Last night I was wrapping presents on the bed when The Mr came home from a evening meeting.


He was like... what IS all this STUFF!?

Ummm Christmas presents?? We do have four kids that equals ALOT of stuff to buy ya know


Yeah one or two things each ...... he trailed off.


Ok so I have been buying stocking stuffers since about September.....

It is possible that there is a little too much of the little plasticy fun stuff.....


I've been thinking ever since talking to a mum at school who stated they didn't do Christmas.

Why I asked? She felt as they practiced no religion it would be hypocritical to celebrate Christmas
(I said you do realise probably 80% celebrating don't do the religious thing?)
and that she is very against all the consumerism and waste around Christmas.

I actually really admire her for her stance. She made me really think. Asses how much I do.
{because I really agree on the waste part}
I personally would not be able to stand against social norms of presents, fun, lights, crafts, christmas trees, Christmas dinner etc. She really did NOTHING that is associated with Christmas.
Hardcore to me. 

I'm but a sheep. A follower. Easily led by shiny pretty things.

I've also heard of religious people who opt for nothing but church services, kindness to others and choose to opt out of all secular parts of christmas .

I always wonder if I do too much. People have said it. Over compensation? Wasteful of resources to be buying up crafts, decorations, foods to celebrate for the whole month. Do my kids REALLY need all of these traditions? Do they need more than one present?

What would it be like to keep things really simple.

Maybe one year I'll try. I tell myself that will be easier in the teen years? They won't want to do cheesy family traditions by then. Simple will be easy right? On a side note I watched that Christmas with the Krank's movie where they try to cancel christmas to save money and go on a cruise. It just seems there are just so many things that you can't cancel!

Theres always that balance.

Too much?... Too little?

Cheer or Grinch

Take the parts you love ... leave the parts you don't?

Throw other peoples expectations to the side?



One Day I'll do it.

{I'm dreaming}

Grandparents Christmas Dinner

Our favourite tradition

Last night after it was done I was even thinking about next years menu.

Food was delish

company wonderful

Kids with Gifts

Watching slideshows of the years photos

And I got my first napkin rings!! {I've been on the lookout for a while!}

The Menu

 

Creamy Roasted Parsnip Soup

***

Chicken Kebabs with Mango Peanut Lime Sauce

***

Beef fillet on bed of creamy mash, asparagus and jus

***

Lemon Curd Tartlet, Gingerbeer Chocolate Cake, Meringue with Rasberries

 

 

One of my girls is learning how to send emails. During the busy preparation of the day I recieved this email which made my heart melt - The subject line said 'sup'

hi mum it's me!! I think you've put alot of effort into cleaning cooking and getting redy for grand perants dinner I bet tonight will be awesome it's gonna be so fun like it always is. lol oh and I'm happy it's holidays the holidays is fun. but when are we going to the movies with dad or you?

please send a email back to me

 

 

When the kids are little and they're tired and its hard to organize and cook a fancy dinner and keep the house clean and look after them it sometimes seems so hard to do these things. Then the kids grow and they know they've had 8 years of this tradition and they know it in their hearts, its part of them and they become helpful {sort of}and things seem easier {apart from the hot weather and sweating it out in the kitchen} then they want to be part of things and their idea of decorating is vastly different from yours and you have to step back from being OCD balanced decorating mum and let them make daisy chains and paper trees, while they forget about garish tinsel they had taken from school with grand plans for it. You let all children use crystal cups you got for a wedding present 14 years ago and they love it and the glasses live another year! And great grandma's send along really annoying presents which make you laugh cause only great grandma's have the authority to give annoying presents and we have to grin and bear it as thats what family is all about.

 

And we love it.

 

 

 

Previous Grandparent Dinners found here:

2011
2010
2009
2008

Stocking Pinata {A Christmas Tip}

It's not a party without a

PINATA!

Last year the Candy Cane pinata was a hit!


I think Christmas pinatas are my favourite.

So many easy shapes to make


This year I'm doing a stocking shape

Materials:
Large cardboard (a box works fine)
Masking Tape
PVA/White Glue
Crepe Paper

Trace 2 basic outlines of a stocking in cardboard and cut out. {Mine is about 50cm tall}

Cut a long rectangle to join around the edges (Or two long rectangles)

Bend the rectangle around the stocking shape taping as you go.

When attached, then place the other stocking shape on top and tape it down too.

Leave a small gap at the top to put the treats in

'Fringe' the crepe paper by cutting 3/4 way into the paper.

Cut several layers at once to save time!

Glue strips down in layers starting at the bottom. Each layer covers the one before.

Keep going till all sides are covered


Fill with lollies, glitter, cut paper, small toys


The hard bit is attaching a rope. Fasten a hook or loop onto the back to then attach a rope to.
Alternatively tie a rope all around it :)

Make sure it is well attached {Glued/ Taped down}
This is a weak spot and often where pinata's break.
It wrecks the fun to have a pinata fall down before the lollies come out.

Hang your pinata in a tree, in the garage, over some sort of post.

Then HIT your PINATA.

Hopefully we will be sharing ours with cousins on Christmas Day.

Ha. I just realised where I took this photo. Note: DO NOT hit pinata's in front of windows :)

Melbourne

I've probably had dates 2-6 by going away with the Mr for the weekend :) I might make 12!!

There has to be some perk of having your husband travel interstate weekly for work for 6 months.

Right?! Right?!

That would be a flight business class to Melbourne and back thanks to frequent flyer points

and hotel 'cause he was already there.

and major props to grandparents for babysitting {I'm forever indebted}


Most times we go out, The Mr and I are together {of course}

there have been very few times where I have travelled somewhere to meet him

{see another time here}


But I can't describe that feeling after being apart a week, then travelling hours flying then taking two buses then finding the hotel and walking into that lobby.....

and seeing him sitting there waiting for me...

I literally bounded over and threw myself in his arms

I think I may have done the chick-flick lift of the leg thing

...so if you havent done it before, I totally recommend travelling to {even if its just across town} and meeting up with your other half somewhere.

Magical.

Now on to Melbourne. I've been to Victoria before and seen several places but never to Melbourne City so it was exciting for me. So many Trees! lovely old buildings! and churches! and christmas decorations! and tiny restaurants and cafes everywhere! Melbourne felt so safe and vibrant. I felt more unsafe in the evenings when I was in Newcastle and Sydney than I ever did in Melbourne. Positive vibes the whole time and not a single dodgy vibe even once... I was impressed.

We played it pretty easy. Lots of walking, looking at buildings and churches and shop browsing and my first ever ride on a tram.

Not much else.

so onto photo overload: Buildings and more buildings, churches, gardens, food, trams

 

 

I even took money to buy myself something but alas didn't really find a single thing!?!
{whats wrong with me?}
Things are either too expensive, too big to carry back, have similar shops in Brisbane, beautiful but where would I put it?, why? {I talk myself out of purchases all.the.time}
I know I know so silly and I regretted not getting myself something on my last holiday with The Mr but hey I suppose the memories are the most important thing.
I find shopping on holiday really difficult for some reason {and I'm sans kids! what the?}


Always lovely to take a few days time out with my darling Mr.

Where to next????