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!