Saying goodbyes

... and a few of the recievers of the previous gifts...

Owen has had a fantastic year at Prep (he attended Thurs. and Friday) and has been taught by a lovely bunch of ladies.

Here is Owen's teacher from last year

And Owens teachers this year

... and our handsome Owen soaking in the Christmas break-up party!

There are so many other wonderful ladies, too. We have been invited along to various school events like the Teddy Bears Picnic, Music lessons, etc. They have also been most friendly to Josh and Rosa who they were happy to have along as well during school hours. I have been very grateful for their inclusion as I wondered how the staff might respond to the weird 'homeschooling' thing...

A number of ladies asked if we would keep in touch. There is always a special encouragement to see how a child you have taught has grown and developed. We'll have to get Owen on his new bike and cycle down there from time to time next year!

Christmas gifts or gifts for ladies any time!

Another Christmas gift idea. I made quite a few of these for the lovely teachers/therapists and aides at Owen's Prep.

They are magnetic shopping lists. I have been using mine and hope it is helpful for these ladies.

I bought a pack of thin craft wood rectangles, covered them in pretty paper using a glue stick. I coated them with 'mod podge' (this step isn't essential but just makes them a little more durable). I covered a basic note pad with card (scoring card to fit over the top neatly) and then embellished the front. I attached the pad to the back using a little silver clip. I also added a few ribbons to the top of the clip to match the papers.

On the back I put a poem and photo of Owen. In each corner I put a small circle magnet (attached with superglue as this seems to be only glue which really holds it on)

Here they are ready for Owen to deliver.

Oh, and they are easy to refill when you run out of pages - just replace pad with same cover and off you go again (I guess you do have to find the same size pad or be happy to discard the cover)

sorry the photos are not the clearest - camera doesn't like close up very much.

RE for Special Needs Children

Today I discovered something that really got me thinking... to be honest, it kind of makes me feel a bit angry...

I went to drop Owen's enrollment forms in to his new school (state school)for next year. When I was there I asked about RE in schools - and discovered that students in Special Schools do not receive any Religious instruction at all (at least in this particular school) , unlike the rest of the students in the school. I suspect this is the same in all Australian schools. Does anyone know?

This got me thinking... and made me sad to think that all over Australia there are children with Special Needs, precious souls who also need to hear the Gospel, but simply don't. I know Special Needs kids are not easy to teach. There are many who have severe intellectual impairments... but who knows what the Lord could do in their lives, if only they heard? I think it is also important to say that not all Special Needs kids are intellectually impaired either. Because a child is restricted to a wheelchair should not mean that he cannot hear the Gospel!

It is also important to note that No Private Schools (from what I have learned) can adequately cater for children with (significant) special needs. They simply do not get the government funding they need to address their needs. So it boils down to the only option being a school where no religious education is taught to your child. Why? Simply because they have some type of impairment.

Hmmm....

Now forget the jolly issues of whether you can use red pen on a child's work... this is true discrimination, don't you think??

Christmas gift ideas

Here's a little Christmas goody I made for Joshua's music teacher - who loves all things Asian...
I picked up the little zip up purse from a craft stall and then made a little not book cover to match.

The note book is just a square pad, with padding compound at top. I just made a cover from cardboard and scored it to fit the pad perfectly. Then I used some shape punches (and I admit to using paint sample cards from Bunnings for these - they have great colours... (is that naughty??) and decorating the front.

Sealed it up in a celophane bag (found at newsagent) then stapled over a rectangle of cardboard and decorated the top...

Ta-dah!

ebay advertising deal

... just in case any are interested...

if any of you are like me and like to get rid of some of that unecessary clutter lying about the house - ebay is offering a 'no insertion fee' for advertising your fixed price sale item between 9-13 December.... More details here

A good time to get rid of clutter!

I think we will try and sell all the left over lattice from our cubby house construction (yes, we over estimated...) plus a number of other bits and bobs.

It really isn't hard to advertise things on ebay - have made some really good sales before (although this latest deal is only for the fixed price you set) - just requires whipping out the camera - taking some photos and then sitting down to put the details in.

...for your interest...

Summer fun

It has been fabulous to have a week away. It came about rather quickly. One of David's work contracts came to and end and we talked about the possibility of seeing if there was any vacancy on the holiday house belonging to friends of ours. There was - the following week. YAY. What a treat to leave the busyness behind and take some quiet time together as a family

Some highlights:

• Singing together in the evenings after Bible stories
  
• Watching Marco Polo together (or rather part of the series - there are quite a few of them...)


• Reading 'The Silver Sword' together as a family (or rather as Owen and Rosa roamed the house to see what mischief they could find while we were so engrossed in a captivating book;). We actually finished the last couple of chapters this afternoon after we had unpacked most of our things

Eating watermelon:

Visiting a lookout over Noosa

Enjoying the beaches

Eating Lebanese lentil soup (yum) with yummy sesame seed and spice covered bread. The kids had lebanese pizza. It met with approval.





Playing in the park

and just hanging out with the broom!

Overall a lovely time to relax, to read (oh and I finished reading 'Stepping Heavenward' for the second time - great book ... see below) and to enjoy the precious little ones given to us as gifts.

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving for the first time with some friends. Inspired by my friend Anya, I thought it might be fun to try. Also found that it has lead me to more thoughts and praise for the goodness of all the blessings I have in Christ.

It was a special treat to have Knox with us. Knox is from PNG. He was diagnosed with some type of bone cancer a couple of years ago (sorry I don't know all the specifics about his illness except that this poor man has suffered much physically and though he is quite a young man it has aged him and caused him to be much shorter than he was) He came to Australia to be treated. He was told by the doctors here that he had a very small chance of being successfully treated due to the nature of the cancer and how far it had spread. His church in PNG have been in constant, fervent prayer for him. He has received treatment here in Australia and so far he has responded remarkably well to the treatment. He was back in Australia for a check up with doctors. We were grateful to be able to share thanksgiving with this Godly man. I was encouraged at his enthusiastic spirit for the Lord, his cheerful disposition and the joy he gets from singing to the Lord with others.

We also enjoyed some precious time of catching up, sharing fellowship, food and Scripture with some very sweet friends.

It was all such a personal treat and left us rejoicing in the Lord as we set off for a week's holiday at Peregian Beach.

Thanks to our precious friends who not only made/brought yummy dessert, punch, fudge sauce and a sweet bouquet, but flavoured the evening with their presence.

... and no need to wait to thanksgiving to offer our sacrifice of praise to our Lord - make a special occasion of it around your table - bringing to each other's mind the blessings bestowed upon each.

Praise offered to God manages to calm me in the fluster of life.

Sudocream

... hmmm... sudocream... meant for nappy rash on little bottoms...

something about it just seems to be bekoning to my little Rosa....
... wasn't so fun being found was it my little smooch?

Keeping little ones occupied

Here is an idea I tried today with Rosa and Owen. Thought I might share it for any who want simple ideas to keep little ones occupied for a few minutes (handy while preparing dinner)

I used a flip-lid box (I happened to get these ones from Ikea at about $1 each - but any container they can get into themselves is ideal - especially something like those click end boxes).

On the outside of the box I stuck little vecro dots or strip - the adhesive ones. Then I collected various objects from around the house - milk bottle caps, pegs, small toys, keys, etc (I found objects with a flat base work well - sometimes I cut the sticky dot in half to fit the surface better). and attached the sticky velcro dots on the side or bottom. Little ones seem fascinated with velcro so they can stick the objects all over the outside of the box.

Here are my young uns' trying them out:

Boys Brigade

Ah, enough to make any Mamma proud....

...and not just my newly found skill in learning to tie a tie (a first for me!)

Josh came home beaming tonight that one of the other boys had handed down his boys brigade uniform. Joshua has been so keen to get a uniform, but having joined late in the year was trying patiently to wait until 2009. He has been dying to try it on and asked if he could wear it Christmas day :)

Ah what a handsome, smoochable chap I have ...

so glad he is not marching off to war...

sniff, sniff... out with the tissues!