Sunday, December 18, 2011

More of Waimiha!

Hello there....I am back to share more lovely images and memories of our wee pre-christmas rush, beginning of summer, weekend away.



I mentioned to you that Black Fern Lodge was an old wool shed done up into a lodge. It sleeps 16 so there is plenty of room for all of us



and the table is definately big enough for all of us to fit around in too!


 There is not much to do here...that is the beauty of the place...a place just to be, to enjoy the quiet



and to reflect on the blessings you have.

Like the blessing of...family,

The Budd children (they aren't all mine)
from left Nos. 1,2,4,6, and 8 are. The rest are my amazing nieces!


the blessing of nature and fresh air



and the blessing of time to roll down grassy hills!

 

Don't you just love the GREEN!

FRIENDS!
Biggest cousin and Littlest cousin!




Merry Christmas to you all!
I look forward to sharing with you again soon.

Love Sharni xxx

Ps I would love to get to know my readers so please feel free to leave a comment and introduce yourself. xx

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Bring it on!

I have been looking forward to this weekend for a L-O-N-G time.  The beginning weekend of December, the offical beginning of summer and my dear husbands birthday.  This year the challenge was issued...family against family (all in love of course) for....


Yeah I know what you are thinking... Black Fern Lodge,.....'Waimiha'  (pronounced Y-me-ha) where the heck is that?
Well it is actually in the middle of nowhere so you can be forgiven for never hearing of it.



Its an old wool shed that has been converted into a lodge that is big enough to sleep our two families. No cell phone coverage here!  Bliss!

Saturday saw us ALL (adults included) glue-ing, tying, cutting, sawing and constructing our rafts, using bamboo, ice blocks sticks, plastic bottles, bark, pieces of timber, string, fern and I even saw some Dandelions stuck on a raft.

 


 

 

I just love how everyone came up with their own design....created all by themselves.

Nearly race time.... First a pre-race meeting.


Off we go!


On your marks...get set....GO!


This is one of my favourite. Kaitlyn rescuing her raft.  (Note the jandals in the hand) So cute!



Miss Tahlia waiting to see who actually won!



  Any guess to who actually won???  Yep me darling husband won, of course he did!  BUT we all had fun, ALL got wet and all have GREAT memories.

Is that not what families are great at.... I love mine!  The whole lot of them.....Budds1 and Budds2


I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he is rich - Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford, "Identity Crisis, M*A*S*H


(more Waimiha Photos to come)

Monday, December 5, 2011

Christmas Tree Shopping

One of my favourite times of the year is got to be Christmas time.  I LOVE Christmas!!!  Actually LOVE in an understatement but they haven't invented a word that describes how I feel about it.  
It conjures up those warm and fuzzy feelings.    I just love traditions too! I love creating new ones and carrying on old ones.   And I just pray that the traditions that we have begun as a family will long continue.  They are what connects us to not only family - past and present, but also to something much bigger than ourselves.  Christmas is a time for reflection. I could say quiet reflection but it so does not apply in my household!

To kick off the Christmas season in our family, is our annual Christmas tree shopping trip.
This is where we all pile into the car, drive to the Christmas tree farm, the same one we have been going to for years, weave in and out of all the hundreds of Christmas trees and trying to choose and agree on this years tree.  Not an easy task.



The kids take turns at carrying the measuring stick they give you and this year it was Sophie turn.  It was such a sight, a wee little sprite of a girl trying to carry a 2 metre long stick without taking anyone out along the way.  How precious!




Now not to loose any of the kids.




How about this one?



I think this is it!  What do you think?




Tiiiiiiiimbeeeeeer!!!!!!



Decorating the tree is NOT in the least like one of those sitcoms I used to watch as a kid, where the family all gathers round the tree, singing carols and drinking eggnog?? or hot cocoa and lovingly looking at each other.  But we do have fun and we all decorate it.  A lot of the decorations are child height and in between the arguements of who is going to put what where, there is a lot of laughing, a lot of "this looks pretty Mama!" and heaps of "can you reach up there?"



We all have our own decoration with our name on it, which adorns the tree and the years that I have been with-child we have put a blank matching decoration up, as the unborn child is already part of family.  I was a little sad that there was no blank one this year.


I love the end result of our tree.  It does not look like it belongs in a magazine - far from it!  But it is our tree, so carefully decorated with all the awe and wonder that goes with a five children. 



I love Christmas!


ps Just so you know, half an hour before we left to get our tree, the kids were fighting and yelling and I was grumpy and ready to cancel Christmas!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

I'm thinking...

I am not sure what photos I am going to put up today. Actually I am not sure how to say what is on my heart to say but it needs to come out.   

So sad!!
                                             
I heard a very very sad thing today. Someone said to me "well I have to get rid of the kid somehow!"
RID OF THE KID!!  Do they listen to themselves?  Clearly not! AND her precious child was right next to her.  How did he feel to hear, the person that he probably loves the most in the world, annouce that she wanted to get rid of him? 

Sadder still...is this is a norm, an everyday comment, a roll-off-the-tongue and often said in jest.  Is the world not getting it!  Our children, our precious gifts, our blessings from God (am I sounding like Whitney Houston at the moment?) are being reduced to comments like "get rid of the kid!" 

I makes me sad, it breaks my heart.

Please don't get me wrong I get sick of my kids, sick of the mess, the fighting, the yelling, cleaning up, making meals, tidying rooms, wiping bottoms, washing faces etc etc. I yell (yes I yell) I cry, occasionally slam doors ( I know real mature!)  My children can be down-right scally-wags!!


This is what happens when my girls try to tidy my linen cupboard!

BUT I love them, I love who they are, love that they are creative, their ability to stand up for themselves, their ability to make themselves heard, their ability to entertain and fend for themselves, their ability to have fun out of nothing, their ability to laugh at themselves (and at me).

Big Brothers!
Love
  

Parents, please embrace your children! Love them, spend time with them, make memories with them, read to them, inspire them, kiss them, hug them and colour their world! 





This isn't about being a stay-at-home mother vs going-out-to-work mother. Its about using and spending the time we do have.....Loving on our children!




Old men can make war, but it is children who will make history
Ray Merritt - Full of Grace 



Thursday, November 17, 2011

Going on a Egg Hunt

The trouble with free range chickens is that one may never know where they are going to lay their eggs.
No sooner that I find their 'nest' then they go and change it!   How rude!!  I have tried to train them into laying in the nesting box but at present we have a very vicious broody hen sitting and I think she is scaring them all away.  Crikey she scares me too!

Anyway while all Miss Sophies (2) siblings were occupied, we went on a EGG HUNT.

First a quick stop to say to 'Pink' the goat and Mama hen and her seven little chicks!



Oooo there they are!  Hidden away in the garden.


Oooo its warm!


One...Two...four...eighteen! 
(well she is only two)




I think thats all...



Carefully carefully...




Its the simple little things that create cherished memories!!

"We do not remember days: we remember moments. - Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand