Riddle

We (Joshua, Rosa and I) have had the priviledge of seeing a new little bubs - very recently brought into the world. Our friends recently had a little girl, Rachel. She is such a sweetie and so obviously has brought a special blessing into the lives of her parents! God is awesome!

This evening we have had the youth group drop in as part of their car rally. They had to get on their bellies and crawl into the boys cubby house (see previous blog pictures), grab a clue and then solve a riddle. When the had found the answer to the riddle it was a password for our computer so they could find out where they had to go next. The riddle is quite a challenge. See if you can work it out...

I am a creation of Jehovah God,

a marvelous gift men may applaud.

But follow me and you will see

a great deal of treachery.

I can incite to evil, or to good.

I can unite or divide a brotherhood.

Without me men would be but dust,

though I'm not one to give your trust.

If you would have a happy life,

and keep away from sin and strife,

then use me well, but do beware,

I could lead you to Satan's lair.

But life to you will be a joy,

if I serve you well in your employ.

To God I am an open book,

ensuring justice for the course you took.

A mechanical wonder I am it's true,

and I mean life to all of you;

but guard me well or you may see,

yourself filled up with treachery.

Aviation project

David began reading the book of Joshua today - much to the delight of our Josh. What an amazing promise God makes to Joshua in the first chapter - to make Joshua's way prosperous, to make his enemies fail and to provide for his people, Israel (of course conditional on their following in the covenant). Joshua is reminded again not to be afraid (anyone leading the Israelits after Moses had big shoes to fill - so desperately needed the Lord's hand to be on him)...

Joshua spent some time working on his aviation Lap book. How do you like Pilot Josh??

And back again...

What an exhausting day (but a good one!) I was still in my pyjamas when Martina came up to say hello before she headed off (Martina is our Czech friend who is staying with us for a couple of months). She sure saw a flustered Mum cooking up a storm in the kitchen, covered in mess... children running wild and lunches being packed! She made some comment about me not having any plans for the day - because here I was in my jammies! Wrong! Just one disorganised Mum who hasn't made it to a fresh set of clothes yet!

We went out in the afternoon with Daddy. When we arrived home we made the dreaded discovery that Owen's hearing aides weren't there. After a thorough search through the car and house Dave made a call to the book shop he visited and yes after they searched the store, they managed to find them! So after dinner it was back to pick them up... I think Owen is going to have to have those things glued on next time!

I did enjoy, despite all the fluster of the day, some time of quiet in the car praying for my kiddliwinks. I was reminded of just how blessed I am and how each one of them adds such a different set of blessings to us. Thankyou Lord for the blessing each one brings!

sing for joy!

We have been enjoying some precious times singing songs together in the evenings as a family. I find it leaves me with such a sweet taste in my mouth at the end of the day... We take turns choosing a hymn and hey, let's be honest, we are not musicians (to say the least) but the words are so true and so precious that they linger. I love to wake up with the words still spinning around in my head.

On a more 'schooly' note - here is one of the projects Joshua has begun. We have been learning
bits and bobs about Aviation. I must say I am learning a lot too - as I really don't know much about planes at all.

That Crazy Homeschool Family

We had some fun mucking around together today. For some reason Joshua wanted to wear his funny glasses all day - kept leaving them places and went looking for them before he did his work.

So what exactly does the "average" homeschooler look like? Does he wear big goofy glasses and eat organic, homemade hommus??


And what on earth would the mother of such a child look like? Does she also wear big, goofy glasses and homemade jewlery (made from foam stars her children make her).... I guess the answer must be YES!


And is the child's father a recluse who spends his every waking hour thinking of scientific inventions... or does he romp around on the floor with his little squirts?

Perhaps I am just in a wacky mood today! I do have those crazy days (ahhh... let's be honest - I have quite a crazy streak you know - or did you?)

I actually happen to be quite relieved today that my curriculum planning has met with the aproval from the Home Ed. department and I now have the thumbs up to be doing what I have been doing all along in one form or another... homeschooling.

Time alone with our Master

Here is something beautiful I came across in my recent reading from a book by one of my favourite authors, Elizabeth George "Life Management for Busy Women - living out God's Plan with Passion and Purpose":

Rules for Daily Life

Begin the day with God

Kneel down to Him in prayer;

Lift up thy heart to His abode,

And seek His love to share

Open the book of God
And read a portion there;

That it may hallow all thy thoughts,

And sweeten all thy care.

Go through the day with God

Whate'er thy work may be;

Where'er thou art - at home, abroad,

He still is near to thee.

Converse in mind with God

Thy spirit heavenward raise:

Acknowledge every good bestowed,

And offer grateful praise.

Conclude the day with God

Thy sins to Him confess;

Trust in the Lord's atoning blood,

And plead His righteousness.

Lie down at night with God

Who gives His servants sleep;

And when thou tread'st the vale of death,

He will thee guard and keep.

I had some special time today with Rosa - just showing her picture cards and letting her romp all over me on the bed. It was lovely just to have a quiet moment with her alone while Owen was at Prep. and Joshua working on the computer. Each of the children really respond to time spent with them alone - where they can have my undivided attention for even a short while. I am the same - reminds me that God, too wants our undivided attention - to commune with Him - and Him alone each day.

The circus (but not the one at our house)

It has been a fairly 'normal' (hmm... not sure there is a 'normal') day.... I am beginning to think it was actually not normal at all - in that nothing popped up throughout the day - things went rather smoothly :)... We walked Owen up to his Prep. class. Josh on scooter - Owen wishing he was... They all received their usual very vocal "Hello!" from our boys. Josh likes to share all that is happening in his life and today his thoughts have been constantly on the circus at the end of the street that he is dying to go to. Owen raced outdoors for his free play time and spotted some little bikes. Joshua was a bit surprised that one of the substitute teachers thought he was a student there (I guess they don't usually come across school aged kids who are not at school)
When we picked Owen up later Joshua raced ahead to the gate and I heard him get a few questions about what he had learned for the day (nothing like a bit of a check up to see iffin' is really gettin' an edukashun! And of course it just happens that he can't remember anything he has learned at all!)

David took the boys this evening to the circus - much to the extreme delight of our boys - particularly Josh. They came home late and had so many stories to tell. Owen kept talking about dogs (and cows - I had to remind him that they weren't cows - they were actually Alpacas - he is not convinced yet!). I am sure tomorrow I will spend a good part of the day hearing more about their adventures. When I tucked Josh into bed tonight he was trying to balance his stuffed toy dog on his finger.... I can feel a Joshua circus show coming on!

Perseverance

I spent some time today reading through some library books on flight with Joshua. I was amazed after reading about the Wright brothers (managed to invent a plane that stayed up for initial 12 seconds!) at just what perseverance they had. Their first plane crashed and required some time to repair. Their second plane (flyer II) got caught in a gust of wind and crashed beyond repair. They didn't give up or even consider a holiday - they just kept perfecting it and persevering in order to create a more effective plane. Not only that but when they did succeed in flying their first plane it didn't even make headlines in their local (country) paper ! They didn't appear to be phased but kept working on their plane and after perfecting their craft (could now fly 30min. they couldn't even talk the US army into buying their idea as a helpful tool during enemy attacks)... Now these two guys, Orville and Wilbur had incredible perseverance! Here's a verse that encourages me to persevere in tough times...

Romans 2v58
58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Owen had a lovely play today with his dear cousin, Matthias. Matthias was having some special time with Grandma who decided to use the stroller and drop in for a visit (now even Grandma comments about how unusual that is for her - she hates walking with a passion!) It was lovely having them over. I hope he recovered ok from the enormous cuddles Owen dished out when he arrived!

lions, monkeys and banana cake (for my little cheeky monkeys)

Joshua has been dying to go and investigate a circus that has just set up camp at the end of our street. After his art lesson yesterday I decided it was a perfect opportunity for some outdoor time. Joshua took his kite along too, so we had a nosy around the circus and the off he went to enjoy running around with his kite. We discovered what a risk taker our little Rosa is when we put her on the slide. She kept signing "more" and would go down on her own - head first almost every time!

At the circus camp we discovered some lions, monkeys, shorn alpacas and geese all caged in (thankfully - those big king of the jungles looked like they might eat Rosa in one little gulp!)

I spent some time early this morning turning some very ripe bananas into banana cake. So here are all the pictures step by step. Owen went and grabbed his boardmaker picture of "eat" and came over to express exactly what he had in mind with that banana cake in sight! I couldn't resist the opportunity for a photo!

hmmm - need to learn how to rearrange photos in right order - sorry

back to school after big party weekend

Rosa had her big party over the weekend. It was so lovely to have family and friends together. The kids romped around in the back yard and we adults managed to catch up in between nappy changes, checking on kids, etc.

David preached at our local church on Sunday too. He went over and over his notes and I caught a photo of him revising one last time on the staircase before leaving for the service. He preached from 1 Thessalonians (broad overview) and was encouraging believers to really persevere in their faith and to watch their lives and doctrine closely. I would have loved to have been in the service but thought that if I was then no one else might hear it at all for my noisy little Rosa! The pastor kindly sat near the boys so I could be out with Rosa. I did strain to hear the service from the back room but was thankful that David had 'practised' his sermon on me already at home. I think he did a fantastic job of presenting God's Word (though of course I cannot claim to be free from bias!)

Uncle

Samuel was very helpful in testing Joshua on his spelling words and reading to him. It is great to see Joshua with an Uncle who loves the Lord and who loves to play with him, is happy to swing him the way he likes on the swing outside (really high so that he almost touches the neighbours fence:) and who is not too big to get down on his belly so he can crawl inside his special cubby (with very small opening!)

Take a look at our stage 3 "Take N' Go" restaurant! Owen thought the mats were just as fun!

Sambo and Valentines Day

It has been a drizzly, indoor sort of day. We have continued to enjoy our reading of Jim Elliot book together. Josh read a bit and I read a bit and we made our way through a chapter discussing the challenges Jim faced deciding where to focus his life and where to serve the Lord. He was very passionate about sharing the gospel and used as many opportunities as he could. He also had missions constantly at the back of his mind - ie. at one stage his brother and sister-in-law asked if he could help build their house and he was keen, knowing that building skills might later help him in his mission work...

In the afternoon we headed to a Bunnings craft activity. My friend, Susan, kindly organised this activity with the staff at Bunnings. They were happy to cater for some home schooling families and so the first session today was related to Valentines Day.

My brother, Sam is here with us for a couple of days. He came down to attend a work conference. The conference is now finished so he is having a couple of days with us - much to the special delight of the boys! Joshua waited out by the gate to see him arrive. When he did arrive, Joshua heroically offered to carry his luggage and then ended up falling over from the weight of it as he was trying to load it onto his bike.... I was inside and happened to glance out the window. Honestly it was quite commical!

My Time (well kind of)

Today I went up to Owen's ECIP for my first session of 'My Time' which is a government initiative to help parents of Special needs kids to learn some skills/talk to other parents, etc. A couple of teacher Aides mind the children during this time. I really enjoyed it, we had some help making and laminating little pictures to help us communicate with our kids. They use a program called "boardmaker" which has little simbols/pictures of various things like household routines (brushing teeth, etc.) I made a little strip of pictures to put in the car to help Owen when we go out. I find it quite a challenge just getting him into the car. He tends to just wander and get distracted on a toy on the floor of the car, etc.

Joshua took along his school work and complete with some classical Chopin music on a little MP4 player (he calls Chopin "Cho-pin") he managed to write out his spelling words, do a tad of maths and even joined in for a little bit of outdoor play and singing a frog song!

The Exodus

Today David read the Bible acount of the Israelites, the plagues and their eventual exodus from Egypt. Amazing how many conditions Pharoh put on them - the command from God was that they ALL leave, including little ones, cattle, etc. Pharoh at one stage says they can go but must leave their cattle. Another time he tells them that the Men can go but they must leave their wives (now what Men wouldn't come back to their wives and little ones??) It was also a test for Moses to see if he would really follow God's instruction right down to taking their cattle along too. While David read quite a few chapters from Exodus at the breakfast table I could just picture the people of Israel as they awaited the day they would finally leave. What a day it must have been. I have been thinking about it all day. The Lord's loved Israel and wanted her to worship Him without the bondage of slavery to the Egyptians...

Not quite Sizzling in Sizzler

Well over the weekend we went to Joshua's awards night run by ACA. Last year Joshua did his homeschooling through Australian Christian Academy. Parents who planned to come along to the Awards night were asked to write what awards they would like their child to receive. Joshua received his award for 'Friendliness and improvement in neatness". Cousin Timmy was there too and was very excited to be getting his certificate for completing his preschool program.

Today we had fun in English writing a letter to the Queen! I decided to demonstrate a formal letter to the Queen apologising for sneezing on her royal caviar! Joshua wrote a letter apologising for breaking a precious vase in her palace. Deary me, the poor Queen has had a rough week!

Ahh, have a look at our "Take N Go" take away restaurant stage II. I cut out a rectange, Joshua traced around them (alternating so as to make our building "strong") and we painted them together. Keep a look out for stage 3 coming up!

We also celebrated Dad's birthday by taking him to Sizzler tonight. It was nice to be all together again (though we missed Mum, of course!) The poor kids began to get quite chilly in the air con. and so eventually we packed up the shivering bodies and headed home.

Grandma, Grandpa and Grampy all in the one day

Ian and Emilia returned today from their visit in the USA with Stephen and Beth. It is so good to have them back again! We have all been missing them. Even Owen has been looking out the window from time to time and if a car pulled into our driveway he would call out "Manma!" only to be disappointed. But not today! All his dreams have come true.

and

We also had Grampy here with us today too! Dad came down to Brissy to go to a funeral and decided to drop in and say hello! Well Joshua and Owen were quite excited (Rosa was still coming to terms with who this Grampy really is). Joshua even managed to talk Grampy into helping him build his new model aeroplane. Joshua now proudly displays it on his desk. Only, for some unknown reason we only seem to have one propeller... We searched high and low but to no avail!.... never mind... it sure was nice having Grampy around to help put it together! He tells me it is a Lockheed 10 Electra (hmm... whatever that means to a somewhat aviation illiterate Mum!)

Ugghhh

Wednesday and Thursday are just a kind of blurr in my memory. I was feeling quite rotten due to a case of mastitis and so set Josh some school work he could do without much help from Mum. I put Rosa down for an early morning nap and Owen in my room with toys to play with and they were all really good. Joshua got quite a lot of work done, Rosa had an extra long nap and Owen fell asleep on the bed beside me.

Joshua brought me flowers he picked from the garden to cheer me up. He constantly offered to bring me drinks of water and even sat and stroked my hair! I did manage to slowly scuffle around by the afternoon but was very thankful for leftovers in the fridge to feed the family for dinner!

Little neice Julia had her 5th birthday today! Happy Birthday Julia!

A birthday girl, a keyboard lesson and a case of Mastitis

Well our sweet little Rosa turns one today! Unbelievable. I have spent some time reflecting on my pregnancy and birth and ahh - it is so good to have our little one here with us. She is crawling everywhere at quite a pace. We put her on our bed, as is our tradition after her feed each morning so she can enjoy some time alone with Dad and Mum before the boys get up. She just soaks up this time and loves 'landing' on Dad and Mum and getting tummy blows. This morning the boys were just so keen to come and join us. We gave in a bit and let them gatecrash our bedroom so we could give Rosa her birthday cuddles all together! Joshua sometimes comments (usually after getting an elbow in his ribs) that Dad and Mum's bed just isn't big enough!

Joshua has a new keyboard teacher this year. I was initially a bit disappointed about this as he has had a few changes of teachers... Kristy is very sweet though and Joshua doesn't seem phased by the change.

I decided to give Rosa a late feed tonight as we ended up giving her an early night. After giving Rosa some 'mother's nectar' I ended up getting severe shakes and to cut a long story short Mastitis set in and poor Dave ended up calling up the hospital just to ask their advice. We decided to see how it went... (in retrospect should have dealt with it early on). Ugghhh - never quite had mastitis to that level before....

Lessons from the Garden

Today we took our school work along to another medical appointment at the Royal. I was quite pleased that it didn't take nearly as long as expected so that we could continue our day here at home.

We have had rain off and on but only in little drizzles. I am so thankful when I look outside to see how beautiful and green everything is becoming. We finished our art lesson (making aerodynamic /non aerodynamic planes by using foam shapes) and decided to try and fit in a little gardening while the sun was out. It was really lovely. Joshua's little garden is growing really well (as were the weeds:) We dug the weeds out together while Owen and Rosa had their afternoon naps. It took some encouragement to help Joshua persevere with those nasty weeds... We had a great discussion though on how our lives can become full of weeds and how the Lord wants us to come to Him so that he can help us remove those things that clutter and get in the way of His love for us. How easily I can get tangled in the weeds of worldly stuff and even the daily stuff of life rather than bathe in His love.

Josh and I began decorating our cubby house under the stairs. We made the cardboard wall there some months ago from bike boxes with trap doors to the boys specifications (ie. Dad and Mum can't easily climb in!). After we were given some nice big architectural paper from some friends we decided to glue them to the front and eventually decorate it. So today we did just that. We discussed what sort of a dwelling it should be and Joshua declared it a take-away shop. He thought we should call it "Take N' Go!" We looked up some children's books to get some ideas for decorating. The story page above was our inspiration. We decided to take a before and after photo too... So keep watching for updates!