Sunday, June 29, 2014

The start of something big....

          "And he placed his hands on their heads and he blessed them...."  Mark 19:15

Today, 29th June 2014 was the start of something big.  Something new and exciting was birthed. (No I haven't had my baby, its not due for another 16 weeks at least)  Today a part of me, a part of my heart was launch out into the world.  I am excited, I am thrilled, I am scared.  Today I shared my heart, my vision, God's vision with people other than those close to me.  It has been a BIG day.

Today is the day I am to start walking the walk and not just talking the talk  Oh boy do I need God now more than ever.  We are actually going to have to do what we say we are going to do. There is no going back, no back-tracking, no rewind button. I cannot stop this.  Wow that is scary, oh boy is it ever!!

Today is the day that we reach out into our community and help, give, support and love. Today is the day we start to fill the gaps, fill the needs and right the wrongs for people that can't do that on their own.   The need is there and the need is real.

Today we begin to really be the hands and feet of Jesus, to show the world a love that hasn't been seen in a while and that we are willing to roll up our sleeves and jump on in boots and all.
                                                             
Today is the day that 'Loving Arms Te Awamutu' was birthed.  For that I am both grateful and excited.
                                                    
Loving Arms

                                         

'Loving Arms' is a community outreach that would like to see 

To see every baby born in the community adequately clothed and every new mother (regardless of age or number of children) adequately cared for, supported, and encouraged during that all important time after the birth of her baby.

We can do this. We will do this. We all have something in us that wants to give to and to help others. We are not created to be doing this 'life' all on our own but for so many that is a reality. We need each other.

So here we are at the beginning......and we will clothe, we will feed and we will support. For that is our vision, this is what we are meant to do.  We will do this because the need is there and because we care.


Is there anything big happening in your life at the moment?


PS If you would like to know anymore about 'Loving Arms' please feel free to check out our Facebook page. You can also contact me through there.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Bedtime Reflections

A person's a person, no matter how small.”





Firstly let me say that we parents have taken on the one of the most mammoth tasks of all - raising children in todays world.  I get how hard it is, I truly do.  For I am raising six soon to be seven of them.  I face the same struggles and difficulties as you do, I am no different.  There is sometimes the perception that people that write or blog about children and parenting have it all together. That is simply not true. For I definitely do not. For most of us, we are doing the best that we know how to do with what we know and one cannot ask for anymore than what you know. The following is simply a reflection on my journey and my view on parenting. I also simply ask - do you know your journey, your story? Do you want to know more?

Do your best until you know better
then when you know better, do better.
- Maya Angelou

I was lying next to my son last night as he was drifting off into dreamland.  I allowed myself to be wholly in that moment. I let all my senses experience that precise moment.  Touch, Smell, Taste, Sight and Sound. The feeling of his small wee body curled and jigsawed into mine.  The smell of his sweet breath and the soapy fragrance of his pajamas.  The taste of little boy hair on my lips as I kiss his soft wee head.  The sight of him enveloped into my body, his soft chubby cheeks and his cherubic semi-closed fist and his to-die-for luxurious long eyelashes.  And the sound of his rhythmical deep breathing as he falls deeper into sleep. Could you get more peaceful?

In those moments I was always wonder if that is going to be a moment in time that I will always remember, always going to be etched in my mind.  I have a lot of those moments.  I reflected on how blessed I am and on how much I have evolved as a parent over the years.  I have come so far.  Bedtime in our house wasn't always so peaceful and still at times its not.  But the thing that I love the most is that this sweet wee man gets to fall asleep embraced by someone who loves him the most.  What a way to do bedtime!  To really embrace this time as a parent you really have to make a mind set shift, put aside all other agendas that you have, all the other places that you 'have' to be, all the other things you 'have' to do and all the other things you 'have' to watch/view/check and be totally in the moment with your child.

I know that this is not the ideal for a lot of parents, that this will not even be possible for some parents. There will be some that totally disagree with this bedtime routine and that's OK. I don't mind, it doesn't matter. For me it works and it is a time (mostly) that blesses us both - Mama and Child. Its an experience that I wish everyone got to experience.

As I said, I often look back on my journey as a parent and I see how I used to be and I am so thankful that I am not where I was.  While I am the first to admit I am not perfect (just ask my kids too) I am so blessed to be at this place where I can parent for me, my family, my heart and my God.  I only wish that other parents feel the same way.  For so many years, too many years I parented for other people, to textbooks, to advice that was cleverly and unfortunately disguised as scripture inspired. Oh how I cringe! I could never find the perfect fit until I let it all go and began to seek out my heart, my God, his wisdom and knowledge that fits us better.  And while at times especially under stress I fall back into what I call my 'default' parent mode, and that is never pretty, I still for the most part am happy with who I am becoming and how I am raising my children.

How have you changed you may ask.  How do you parent now?  In one word RESPECT.  Its a biggy in fact, its huge. And I am sorry but mainstream parenting lacks it. I know I have been there. The whole mindset that children must show respect for you no matter is unreasonable and wrong.  Children learn by what is modeled to them by the parents/adults in their lives.  If you aren't modeling respect to them, you can't expect them to show respect to you when they themselves haven't been shown it.  What happens is that when they are forced or controlled into 'showing' respect to you and other adults they might act it out or be respectful on the surface but that so-called respect that they are showing you isn't real, it isn't internalised and they don't mean it.  I am pretty certain that we all want our children to not only love us but really and genuinely respect us as parents.

Do I get it right?  No of course not!  I have a L-O-N-G way to go before I get it right all of the time.  I still loose it, still get unreasonable and stubborn,  still don't listen to them, still interrupt them and still shout BUT I am getting better. The best thing is that I am way more aware of my own behaviour and my interactions with my kids and my expectations of them.  I am thankful for that.

Whether I am right or wrong, or you agree or disagree that's OK. I don't mind as I certainly don't agree with most other people either.  My only problem I have is when it turns hateful and nasty and people start attacking each other out of what usually is ignorance and frequently fear.  Fear that if they are presented with a different view that they could be wrong and who likes to be wrong AND to admit that you might be wrong would require you to change and...well GROAN...change can be very hard work!

Anything that goes against the mainstream way of thinking and acting is usually there quietly ticking away in the background.  People who generally identify with a more conventional or mainstream way of doing anything are usually the ones who are shouting the loudest to be heard, wanting to be agreed with, can also be found as being the most stubborn and aggressive in their arguments.  I love this quote...

"The empty vessel makes the loudest sound"  - William Shakespeare

I know not everyone will understand this way of parenting or anyway of doing anything I (and others) do.  I also know that I can not change the world (nor do I want to) just by what I say.  We are all made to be different, that is our right.  So I will quietly carry on here in the background doing what I do and evolving into the person that God created me to be. For myself and for my children.

 I do want to say this.....Is there anything you are doing that you have never questioned or thought there might be a different way to do it?


How ever you want to parent, how ever you want to do anything in life make sure you are doing it for you and that it fits you perfectly. That is called living genuinely! 
 Go on you can do it!


PS I love when I start out to write a post and it ends up being completely different to how I intended it to be!

Photos from our week...

We rescued a cat with its head stuck in a cat food can!


One of the ducks got into our mostly emptied swimming pool. Needless to say it had the time of its life and spent the day calling to its friends to join it.  They couldn't work out how to get in.
 Bummer for them!

I love these two and their imaginations.
Take one ride on tractor, one banana box, one tonka truck, and some soft toys and you have 
a whole heap of fun!

I love that they thought this up.  Rather clever I thought!
And it worked a treat too!


One banana box jammed down over a tonka truck and you have made yourself a trailer with wheels!
Awesome!

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Two of the Best.

Apologies to you all.....I am far too tired to write tonight and I feel I have nothing to say. (Shock horror I know!) So I will leave with one of my all time favourite quotes and a favourite photo of mine. Until next week then......



"I will not die an un-lived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit". - Dawna Markova


I"ll never get tired of this view!
Photo taken one sunrise from our deck!

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Thankfulness

I may or may not have written a post along these lines in the past but its always good to be reminded!

Oh Peace!!  Well not really even though I have hauled the lap top down to my room, set myself up on my bed and shut the door I can still hear the chaos down the hall.  So its semi-peace I guess....

I am actually unsure of what to write this afternoon. Do I call it writers block?  I have been very uninspired of late. I hate it when that happens.


The first official week of winter has come and gone.  Winter is definitely not my most favorite months but in saying that this week as been a week of fresh mornings and beautifully stunning days.  Days I can get washing dried on the line and the kids can play outside, days where my girls somehow manage to don their bathing suits and have a winter afternoon water fight with the hose (without me knowing of course).  Days where the kids spend afternoons up trees, constructing tyre swings and rolling tyres down from the top of our section and down the driveway.  Days where my favorite wee 1 year old can spend hours plodding around in his gumboots, picking up sticks, leaves, rocks and other treasures of nature only to bring them inside and leave them in unlikely places.

Those are the days where its easy to be thankful isn't it.  Blissful happy days.  We feel good, we feel energised, we enjoy life and in turn we are thankful.  Thankful for the life we have been blessed with. Life is good.  This is the time where we only see and feel the good, we are motivated to get things done and we accomplish more than we set out to.

Unfortunately sometimes those days can be few and far between, even for the best of us.  The clouds come - literally, the rain, the cold, the grey, the damp, the wind and life just doesn't hold that some lustre as it did maybe even in the previous week (or even day).  Oh my aren't we a fickle lot!  Guilty here!  I can't deny it. Winter days get the better of me and sometimes its hard to see and feel past the grey days, its hard to be thankful.  Yes I know we are thankful (there aren't too many that would admit to not being thankful) but to FEEL thankful is a different story entirely.

God tells us in his word to be thankful. In fact he says it an awful lot throughout the bible.  So it must be pretty important then.   We are to be thankful in the midst of those blissful days (easy!) and also on those not so blissful days (not so easy).  But the Lord has made them both and he is good.

"Give thanks to the Lord for he is good" Psalm 136:1

"Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything" Ephesians 5:20

Having an attitude of thankfulness is not for the benefit for God but entirely for our own benefit and well-being.  It takes the focus off of ourselves, what we may have accomplished or gained, our own prowess and even our own issues and shortcomings. It also takes away our intense focus on what we don't have, can't do, won't get and what others have,  can do or will get.  Being thankful puts our focus and our thoughts on others and essentially God.  You can't be thankful for yourself and you don't go around thanking yourself.  Being thankful recognizes that God has blessed you and loved you, that others have loved you, made you smile and laugh and generally had an input into your life in a positive way.  How can you not feel better after all of that?

Before I leave you for this week, I'll give you an example from my own life, of my attitude depending what kind of day it is, how tired I might me, what is going on in my life, how stressed I might be etc. Remember when I said we are fickle.  Guilty!

Blissful sunny carefree day......I love my house and where we live. I am thankful that we have a big beautiful home that is filled with character and heart. I love the fact that we can open up the doors wide and have an amazing indoor/outdoor flow. I am thankful that the rooms are big and the living area is very functional for our family and that we can have a large number of guest all at once without being squashed. I am ever so thankful for my kitchen, that it is just perfect to be entertaining the guest we have. I love our yard the trees, our garden, the fact that we have a swimming pool, space for chickens etc.

Grey, cold, damp winters day...I am tired of living where we have flies, flies and more flies.  The large high-ceiling rooms are hard to heat and keep warm get me down.  Bigger rooms leads to bigger messes. The trees oh the trees that drop their leaves all winter and make a terrible mess.  My list could go on and on when I am in this kind of mood...ugly isn't it.

I need to focus on the good, remember nothing is perfect - NOTHING. Remember all the blessings and amazing things that God has done for us and all the wonderful people (family and friends) that we are surrounded by, the health and safety of those people and the free and beautiful country we live in.  And be THANKFUL!

What are you thankful for?

View from our front yard - a yard that I do love!

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Autumn Arty Mess


I figure that if I am bored with schooling the kids then they are probably bored with the schooling schedule too.   I think its entirely unreasonable to expect them to be super excited about learning when I am ho-hum about it. Now don't get me wrong I am NOT bored with schooling the kids at home but more of a need to change things up a little. Well for at least a time anyway.  Here is where 'Radical Unschooling' becomes super appealing to me.  I have a number of philosophies around education and children's learning that I glean bits and pieces that I love from.  Some from the above site, some from the Waldorf Education philosophy, some from the NZ Curriculum, some from my own thinking and reflections. Anyone interested or thinking about Home Schooling (or just wanting to know more about people who embark on this crazy journey with their kids) should read or at least know about John Holt, who was a well known author who left mainstream education where he was a teacher and became a advocate for the home-schooling movement and later the un-schooling movement.  I will openly admit that while I totally agree with it and as much as I would love to, I am not brave enough or trust my kids enough to embrace the entire un-schooling philosophy.  

Anyway this week we had some fun and got a little messier than we normally do. (which is really pretty messy but that's what we do around here)  Google/Facebook/Pinterest has oodles of fantastic ideas for creative play/art/crafty things to do. One of my favorites is Happy Hooligans who feature things that are totally doable and are heaps of fun (be prepared for mess though - which is the whole point, KIDS LOVE MESS!)

So here are our...                                Fabulous Fall Collages

Step One:  Put your boots, jackets and woolly hats on get outside to collect some autumn treasures.
Step Two.  Put some paper or plastic down to protect your table or floor and squirt some blobs of autumny colours on paper.  Be warned if you children are anything like mine, there maybe some differences of opinion about what colours are autumn ones.  Stay quiet!



 Step Three:  Roll out some Gladwrap (cling film) and tear off a piece just a little larger than the paper and lay over paper.  Then get your kids to moosh all the colours around with their fingers.  You can lift off the gladwrap and re-position for ultimate colour coverage!


Step Four:  Lift off Gladwrap and discard!  Once dry, arrange autumn treasures on paper and glue (or sticky tape extra large bits) to painting.


Step Five: Once satisfied, leave to dry and hang for all to see!!





And since I keep getting asked for an updated pregnancy/baby bump photo I thought I would oblige and post one. Aren't I brave kind!
So here it is!

 20 weeks with #7! 

I have been blessed with this pregnancy as so far I have found it relatively easy.  I have had the normal extended morning (all day/random times) sickness but that is about it.  I haven't suffered from that horrible over-coming tiredness that I usually have had.  Thank goodness for that, I do not have time to be tired!!
I have one of the worlds most loveliest midwives and I just love it when she comes to visit! All the kids are super excited and of course the boys want it to be a boy and the girls want it to be a girl. I on the other hand can honestly say I really don't mind what this wee blessing is - we will be happy with whoever God has blessed us with this time.  I am praying however that this one won't be a whopper like Jesse was and will decide to be born the right way up. (or down depending on how you want to phrase it)
Bring on the next 20 weeks!!