Shutting my mouth!

One of my dreams for all my children is that they know and I mean really KNOW what they like and what they don't like.  Why? Well its really only in the last 5 or so years that I have discovered what I like and don't like and that is across a whole range of things too.  For years I didn't know what clothes I liked, would second guess the music I liked, didn't even know what furniture or house stuff I like and worse still my preferences would change to align to whoever was around at the time.  I am not entirely sure why that is but I don't have the time and nor is this the place to nut that one out but all I do know that I don't want my children to be the same.

So in order for them to have their own preferences, likes and dislikes I have discovered that I actually need to ...wait for it...SHUT MY MOUTH!!  Yes I do.  I need to zip it with the proverbial zip, lock it and throw away the key! (That is unless they actually ask for my opinion or advice).   My children are their own persons and they do not need me telling them whether or not the will or won't like something, will or won't be able to do it and will or won't find that boring/exciting/scary/hard/easy etc. The list goes on.

 My girls like to dress themselves *sigh* and of course they always want to look beautiful and they most definitely know what they like.  So along with other things I am trying to leave what they want to wear to them. My only requirements 1. They dress for the temperature and 2. They dress for the occasion if we are going out. So no we aren't wearing our togs together with our boots to church.  For the most part the girls both get it right and look quite well put together, other times I have had to look the other way.  The boys well - um yeah.  More often than not we have to point out mud on a rugby shirt or a rip in the crotch before we leave the house. The clothes is just one area that I struggle with but am learning to give it up. 

It came to me one day when one of the kids had picked some 'flowers' (weeds) - they thought they were just beautiful and proudly ceremoniously presented them to me.  So while they thinking  'beautiful', it came to me how quickly ones view of something could be changed forever just by a comment or less than desirable response by another.  All it would of taken would of been me to say -'Ew those are just weeds not flowers, weeds are bad!'  and they would have never looked at those 'flowers' the same again.  Of course I have never said that and hopefully no parent in their right mind do that at a time like that.  I graciously and thankfully accept all 'flowers' given to me and proudly display them in a vase, centre stage!  Like the saying goes 'of all the people in the world, she/he has chosen to give to me - be blessed!'

So the other day, just out of interest I sent Kaitlyn off with my camera and told her to go and find things that she finds beautiful and take photos of what she finds. ( I also used this as a bribe for her to finish her Maths when her interest was seriously waning - needless to say Maths was completed pronto)

Here is what she came up with:-

 A Baby Rabbit that Jamie rescued off the cat and has become a new resident here -

called Thorin!

 

Pink Camellia Flowers

 

 

 A strange looking selfie!

I am glad she thinks she is beautiful!

(but may need some lessons in taking a good selfie - help Kaysha)

 

The pink bow on her pink t-shirt!

 

Polly Pocket house

 

Funky design on the terracotta pot.

 

Rose hips

 on the badly-in-need-of-a-prune rose bush.

 

Her pink my little pony gumboots

 

I will admit I was a little surprised with what she came up with.  I never knew that she thought the terracotta pot with the funky design on it was pretty cool. 

 I am pleased that I did this experiment and I will do this with the other kids also.  I am most interested (and a little nervous) to see what they come up with.

 

As for this scrumptious wee man!

 

Isn't he just delightful.

He is finally getting into this eating thing, up until about five days ago Mamas milk was it.

Now he has branched out and will eat apple, pear, banana, nibble on toast and handfuls of dirt!

Of course!  He looooves crawling around outside and picking at the grass. Also loves to feed the chickens and the ducks.  Has learnt to clap and is getting brave and attempts to stand by himself for short periods of time.  Still hates his car seat and shares my half of the bed with me.  Loves his feet and calf muscles massaged, especially if having trouble going to sleep.  Thinks his Mama totally ROCKS with her singing of random songs that would drive anyone else around the bend but puts him to sleep!

 

 

Enjoy your weekend!!

Winter Weekend Get Away

I am choosing not to feel sorry for myself at the present time but to deeply sigh into the peace that surrounds me as my children all sleep and my husband is out at a birthday dinner for his brothers 18th.  Ha that last sentence may imply that my husband is quite noisy - well sometimes perhaps.  Even the TV is off. What a treat!!  All I can hear is the fire crackling, the hum of the computer and me tap tap tapping away on these keys. *sigh*

So how are you?  I mean How are you? Really? I hope that life is treating you kindly and all is well in your neck of the woods or corner of the world.  I have had a sad baby today which as many of you will know, it makes everything you do throughout the day just that much harder.  He is currently growing teeth and has flaming red cheeks. Poor wee boy. Sad boy = snuggly boy so I was blessed with extra snuggles today.

I have so many photos and stories to tell you, I wish I had more time to share them  but I will start with our weekend away.  We were treated to a three nights away down at my Mums house to help celebrate my nephews 5th birthday.  I say treated, it was a treat as due to our current economic status we hadn't been down there for nearly a year.  It was great to get away and see family.

 

Jack Hallgarth

 Handsome nephew!

Aged 5

Loves Transformers, Lightening McQueen and Frank (soda water drink with lime)

 

The kids were SUPER SUPER excited and had even packed there bags three days before we were due to leave. They do not get that from me - I packed the morning we left!

Its times like these that I have no problems getting them into the car, they were waiting for me!

 

Its a tradition in our family to play 'Car Bingo' a game that I constructed after I saw something similar in the toyshop (but way over priced)

 

You each have a laminated sheet with pictures of 16 things you may see along the way. 

On this one we have:-

A pig, plane, seagull, motorbike, rubbish, tractor, café, Suzuki Swift, weather vane, yellow mail box, log truck, school sign, 30km sign, a 'GPU' number plate, a personalised number plate and a boat.

Rules are as follows:-

First person to see item gets a blue dot sticker to put on the corresponding picture.

Someone else has to see it too.

If you find a windsock or a hitch hiker you get a free blue dot.

If someone has found something no one else can use that same thing for a sticker.

Game is paused in a 50km zone or through town.

First to sticker all pictures is the winner.

No fighting or punching or kicking or name calling if someone beats you to something

(that rule is not just for the kids - it get REALLY competitive up the front too)

 

 

It concerns me that Jamie has won this most of the times we have played it - and he is supposed to be watching where he is driving!

 

We are on our way!

 

After a stop to look at a scenic waterfall and a geocache jaunt (which we couldn't find) we stopped off by Lake Taupo for a wee picnic.  God blessed us with a stunning day for it too.

  Lots of locals were eyeing up our lunch.  The kids were most impressed that these Seagulls could catch food in mid-air! 

  Out doing what boys love to do!

(no he is not throwing stones at the duck but skimming them)

 

 Isn't this the weirdest looking duck ever! I am sure its head is misplaced. It looks as if it needs to come forward on its body more either that or it big breasted!!

The Dolly Parton of Ducks perhaps.

 

 This wee pool of water is why this particular place in Taupo is called Hot Water beach.  Off to the left of the photo is a wee spring that is bubbling up from the bottom of a bank. The water is quite hot. Too hot for the kids to leave their fingers in it for too long. People have been know to bathe here, soap and all!

 

 This is a perfect place to stop and have lunch and stretch legs for an hour or so before heading off for another two hour part of the journey.  I should bring a bag of stale bread next time I think, might save half our lunch!

 

 

An early morning walk along Te Awanga beach. This is where I grew up and I would never tire of this view.  Te Awanga is a sleepy wee village. Not at all sandy like most beaches but has some good surf. It makes for an interesting stroll along the beach to see what the tides have washed up.  This particular day the sea was as flat as glass but it can get horrendously huge waves. 

 

Sleepy seaside village.

 Oooo I see some sand - that's a rarity.

  These picture make me smile.  They look so innocent and good paddling away there but unbeknown to you it turned into a full on winter swim after Sophie fell over fully clothed!  After that they were all in.  One day I'll learn to take a towel or two with me.

 

 Cute 'Baby's foot'!

 

 Since Sophie got the wettest we had to strip her off and wrap her up in some one's sweatshirt so she got to ride home in style (in the pushchair). Jesse got treated to a view!

 

All of the cousins and second cousins that attended at Jacks Party.

A party all on its own really.

 

Time with family is always special, especially when a milestone is being celebrated such as a fifth birthday! Celebrating is good. Celebrating is important.

 

Kaitlyn came roaring inside yesterday and announced that her flowers finally had flowers on them. We went out and investigated and had a discussion about Spring Bulbs (in this case Irises) and how they start to flower at the very end of Winter or beginning of Spring. She concluded that we MUST have a Spring Day Party to celebrate!

 

That is a good idea I think, a very good idea.

  I think we just might do that!

 

 

 

 

A Family of Treasure Hunters

Its official, we the Budd family have finally caught on to the global phenomenon of Geocaching. Actually I don't think its a phenomenon because a large percentage of the people I told about it had no idea what I was talking about.  So for those of you that are one of those people I'll share the secret with you.  Its like a world wide treasure hunt. Boxes, tiny to large are hidden all around us (actually over 4 million around the world) for normal everyday people to find.  You plug the co-ordinates into your phone or GPS and it will lead you to a place where someone has hidden a Cache (treasure box), you fill in the log book and maybe exchange a treasure or two and go on your merry way. Check out the web site for more information and to check out how many there actually are around the world.

http://www.geocaching.com/

 Its a good way to see the country side and go places that you probably normally wouldn't go. Like us, we found one just around the corner from us (who knew) and we had never visited this lovely and very old church. Driven past it yes but actually walked around it, read about its history and the people that are buried there.  Given that our kids are home schooled it was a great learning opportunity about local history.

 

Aren't they a good-looking bunch?

We have long since realised that anything remotely fun and a little quirky then the kids are totally on board. Once I had showed them the website then I heard about nothing else for days. So today we finally made it out.  I just hoped that they realised that it wasn't an actually treasure, you know like one with gold and jewels in it.

 

We find ourselves standing outside this beautiful over 100 year old church. I wonder how many people actually attend here.  It would of been the heart of the community once upon of time.

 

Even though the grounds are beautifully kept I felt a sadness for the place. Sort of like the kid who is the last picked for a team. Left out.

I guess I felt sorry for it.

 

 

 

 The first signs of spring, even though its still six or so weeks away yet.

 

I love reading headstones (is that weird?) I wonder about the people and the lives they lived and the stories that were buried with them. Yeah I think I am a little weird.

 

Scouting around for the treasure. We had some clues to work out which involved finding and reading headstones. Most interesting.

 Check out the view.

 

 After a while of checking behind every post/tree Thomas found it!  And boy was he proud of himself. I was pretty proud of him too.

 

I still find the whole concept behind Geocaching fascinating. There are actually thousands/millions of these all around us and we never knew.

 What's in it?

 Jamie is checking out the log. This particular log book was replaced in 2009 as the first one got lost.

 We filled in our family code name and the date and put the treasure safely back where we found it for the next person to find it. 

Very very happy kids!

 

 Biggest brother and littlest brother!

Love this photo!

 

 Goodbye fascinating old church, thanks for having us visit.

We will leave you in peace again.

  Much to the kids embarrassment I just had to take to photo of this VERY cool VDub Combi van.

Love LOVE love this!

I told them that we should trade our van in for one of those.

They were not impressed. AT ALL!

*sigh*

Dreams are free.

 

We have already decided on where we are going to be looking next.  Who knows maybe we will even hide one one day.

 

“A merry heart doeth good [like] a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”
- Proverbs 17:22