Happy Birthday Matthias!

Cousin Matthias turned 3 this weekend so we enjoyed some family time together with our very handsome lil' nephews...

The cute lil' party boy himself...

Benjamin looked a little suspicious of this event...

What could it mean?

In case you were wondering

In case you're wondering....

This is what our daughter looks like in Middle Eastern Dress (genuine national dress our missionary friends and Daddy brought back from his trip last year)

This is what my daughter gets up to while Joshua is doing fractions...

And this is what you find on your camera after your son decides to be goofy...

Just in case you were wondering!

Dogs Breakfast

Here's another dog's breakfast approach to what has been happening in our lives

My belly grows bigger (will spare you this photo this time;) and am beginning to feel a few little butterfly kicks. Rosa constantly reminding me that Baby will come near her Birthday in "Feb-oo-airy'

Enjoyed homestay Korean student -taught him how to bake choc-chip cookies (he loved cooking) as well as muffins and showing him how he could stretch his money this way rather than buying very few for this price pre-made at the shop;)

we showed him how to do a Tim Tam slam (incidentally there are some humourous versions out there on Youtube including the Australian and American version ;) He just loved watching these and asked to see it over and over again before trying it himself.

Josh and Jae engaged in many card games, games of battleships, a traditional Korean game with wooden sticks Jae brought (worked something like heads/tails).. basically they loved all things competative on the game front... two very serious players who had to learn to trust their opponent wasn't cheating ;)

We enjoyed a lovely family day along the river on Ekka holiday - just georgeous quiet spot with some very unique houses nearby... hope this house doesn't belong to anyone I know :)

Spent a lovely day at park with missionary family back in Australia briefly. Most the content on my camera from our day is in video format - kids on little car rolling down grassy slopes - they had a blast ! Nice to catch up with missionaries one -to -one and hear how the Lord is working in their lives.

Dealt with a bit of a burn when Rosa decided to take a sticky beak at some hot stew on the dining table then tip it on her leg. Thankfully the Doctors think there should be no/minimal scarring... just a few trips back and forward to hospital to change dressings... She was very brave.

Jae went back to Korea and was reunited with his family and some familiar Korean food - can just hear him squealing in delight "Korean steak! YAY!"

David's job situation changing dramatically - from what looked a very promising amount of work to a sprinkling... am once again enjoying help with a few jobs around the house;) now he has a few spare moments.

Just beginning to emerge from the first phase of pregnancy - and am thinking I might have hit the energy packed second phase - YAY! Bring on the energy - have a lot of housework to do!! Might even chop down a tree or two (just kidding)...

Have thoroughly enjoyed Ladies Bible study 'Lies Women Believe and the Truth that sets them free' and now need to go back and do the chapters that I missed while doing a different study... Am once again challenged to handle life situations in light of His promises... I know that is very general but I think I would end up posting a whole page if I was to go into that right now... maybe another post;)

Hubby's healthy salad recipe

We interrupt this programme for a recipe from Sharon's husband, Dave. I'm just sharing my favourite salad recipe. I've been eating a lot of this lately.

It isn't my wife's favourite salad at the moment, especially because she's pregnant and reacts to the aroma of some of the ingredients.

Anyway, here goes...maybe someone is brave enough to give this a try :)

1. Put some lettuce leaves or mesculun salad leaf mix and/or young spinach leaves in a largish dessert bowl, rinse and drain.

2. Add generous amounts of sliced capsicum, tomato, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, or even a small amount of blue cheese.

3. Add salmon/tuna/chicken pieces, or ham sliced into strips on top.

3. Garnish with chopped fresh hot chilli (I keep this in the freezer, having chopped it up).

4. Pour on olive oil and some balsamic vinegar to taste.

5. Indulge & enjoy.

SEU (special education unit) sports day

Owen had a sports day (morning) this morning at school. I came home with a smile on my face - enjoyed it so much. Just loved seeing kids who can talk very little, squealing in delight, kids who walk with a limp or with leg braces come first place and to see Owen joining in for a game of duck, duck, goose and being understood by the other kids.

One of the teachers jumped into a wheelchair to see if he could race against another teacher who uses his chair for real. Poor teacher realised just how hard it was - didn't help he had a dodgy wheelchair which kind of collapsed towards the end of the race - leaving the insensitive parents(like me:) on the sidelines in stitches:)

The children were each rewarded with a ribbon at the end of the day. I am left with an overall admiration for all teachers who work with Special needs kids - the patience (huge doses), the encouragement and the support they give is phenomenal!

Owen won one of the races and the look of glee (more from being cheered from the sidelines than from actually winning) was priceless.

Rundown

Here's an overview of recent life under our loud, wild, chaotic roof we call home,

• Our Korean exchange student arrived last Mon. and is staying for a month. He is 9, on the other side of the world from the place he calls home but has very quickly become what I now understand to me the typical 9 year old who loves to wrestle, make noise, compete in everything , loose things, laugh and laugh and laugh some more and knows how to have fun. Joshua and Jae are having a blast and I love to see them playing Jae's traditional Korean board game, chasing each other around the back yard (not inside:) and enjoying each other's company. I pray for Josh to adjust to 'life without Jae' once again when Jae heads home - it is NOT going to be easy!


• I am mostly fully recovered from a horrible, nasty, extremely painful "wry neck" which managed to keep me hopelessly looking on as my beautiful mother-in-law did all my housework, cooking, etc. for a couple of days until I could actually turn my head a fraction with no pain. I have learned that I have a lot to learn about suffering silently - I admit I am a wuss and tears come at momentary, short-lived episodes of pain.


• The household is extremely active and busy with four children in it at the moment - two who love to race through and roar like lions;) while I must constantly try and lull them outdoors and find something occupying enough while also racing to the tub and wash off soiled accidents from the younger two. Ah, but you already know the norm!


• I have thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Lies Women Believe and the Truth that sets them Free' which has challenged me (very appropriate timing I might add) to recognise lies that are easy to get caught up into (ie. "I can't handle x" or "I can't help the way I feel" etc. or "if my circumstances were different...") and to replace them with Scripture. Just love it! Just love it - now to apply it ...;( Must say I agree with 99% of the book - now any cheeky readers out there will just have to read it to find out the other 1% :)


• Have been racing around to what feels like kazillion (errhhh... ummm... perhaps that is exaggeration??) appointments. Fact is, I am expecting! Did you catch that? My faithful blog readers - yes my tummy is growing to the state that it will no longer be secret though I have kept it so for as long as I thought I could. I am joyful at the life inside but feeling completely overwhelmed at the same time:) Another reason why the above book has helped me immensly... reminding me that His Grace is sufficient!

So that kind of summarises life around here of late...

Death of cursive writing

Thought some of you might be interested in this article about the death of cursive writing in schools...

Must admit that I mostly use printing, unless I am in a more, shall we say, fancy frame of mind :) Do like the curls and fancy do's that occasionally show themselves on Charles Dickens movies or the like:) Not sure old movies with modern print would work... but what about cursive style with all the curly-swifty, whooply-do's in modern society?

My mother recalls spending considerable time at school doing 'penmanship' lessons (in USA) and I've only ever known her to use a flowing cursive style to this day...

Interested in your thoughts... do you think there is a place for cursive today or is it old hat?

Smell your baby!

In Joshua's Science program we have been studying bats and all sorts of fascinating things about them. I never realised just how crucial they are to farmers - as they play a huge roll in pollinating bananas, mangoes, and a host of other yummy fruit trees.

Having learned about how mother bats use their sense of smell to find their babies, we did an experiment. In the experiment Joshua had to choose a smell he liked (tropical blossom body fragrance :) and then had to find 19 more scented items from around the house (balsamic vinegar, toothpaste, vanilla, etc.) I numbered cotton balls with each scent and Joshua, wearing a blindfold (this was only because some items had colour as well as scent) had to find his tropical blossom baby amongst them all! I kept the list of each scent hidden away to reveal at the end...

Some smells were pleasant.. bringing to mind sweet meadows of honeysuckle...

Some nearly brought tears.. perhaps the smell of bonjella reminded him of the pain of cutting teeth;)

Others were plain awful , like the smell of balsamic vinegar on Daddy's salads!

I wonder if he could still find his smell in a bat colony of a couple hundred bats?

There are certain times of the day where I can most definitely smell my baby!

mushy melting mallows

Chocky-mallow biscuits

Here is the recipe for these biscuits. I just added a marshmallow to each while they were still hot from the oven. Best eaten warm and gooey!

I must confess to having a weak, gooey spot in my heart for mushy marshmallows (must come from being married to a mush-ball!)

My friend from highschool made these many moons ago and here I am trying them out on our Bible study friends all these years later...

ooohhh... just wondered if i might have made these before and posted them on my blog... think I need to organise my blog a little better so i can find out... ;)

give it your all, Owie

Over the holidays my building contractors put their materials to work:

Owen let out a gutsy song on the bus to his pacemaker check at the hospital... Owen sings loud (rarely in tune;) but always joyfully on such outings. It makes me smile to know he enjoys life so! We are never inconspicuous quiet passengers ;) ah, but who would be when you could be making so many new friends!