Blogg-ed Issue

Did you know Jos is six months already!  Six months!  I know it is completely cliche to say, but time just goes so fast.  I don’t know where the last six months have gone.

To celebrate turning six months we’re pretty sure Jos is teething.

(ps the photo is a bit starker than reality)

In other news…

Cayley likes cream cheese.  I have to get a video of her saying this.  It is hilarious.  I didn’t know that four words (I like cream cheese) could be said with so many variations in tone and expression.

Tonight she also announced to Brett, “I’vefinishedIloveyouCanIhavesomesweets.”  Subtle.

Elisha has brought his portfolio home from kindy and is totally loving showing it off to all and sundry.  He’s also totally smitten with Where’s Wally (or Waldo depending on where you are).

The last eight weeks we, as a family, have been going through the rigors of an elimination diet, trying to determine a few different things.  Speaking for myself, it has been really tough.  Speaking for everyone else, it’s not only been tough but bland.  Mum A calls it the extermination diet.  She’s not far off the truth.

For the last eight weeks my mind has been very consumed with thoughts of food.  Not very interesting food, but food nonetheless.

At the same time I have been listening to a series on Titus 2 : 1-5 (I’ll put it at the end of the post if you’d like to read it) from Revive Our Hearts Radio.

It has been an interesting, sometimes overwhelming combination.  In the last eight weeks of being on the diet I have prepared almost every meal we’ve eaten, when we go out I need to think ahead and take food with me, Elisha has had two birthday parties to attend which I prepared food for, a special morning tea at school, church every week, various other gatherings…

In that same eight weeks I have had a husband recuperating from knee surgery and then working quite a few extra hours on a journal paper, a baby who is feeding multiple times a night (working on that one at the moment!), everyone getting a cold… twice!… everyone getting gastro…

At the same time I have been trying to love my husband and children… be busy in the home… serving my husband and children with love and joy, not mindless mechanical duty.

It has been a battle and much food (ha ha) for thought.

I want my family to know that I do the things I do not only or primarly because they need to be done, but because I want to show them that I love them.  It doesn’t mean that sometimes doing the same thing over and over (and over and over and over…) isn’t boring but I’m learning it’s not the doing it’s the how I’m doing the doing.  It’s early days in this new thinking and I reckon you could say there’s been some testing, some walking through the fire and flood!  But He has called me by name.  He knows me.  He is with me.  He will not leave me.  He loves me.  And that is everything!!!

Brett has finished his journal paper for work and is taking a week off.  I’m looking forward to some relaxed family together time.

¹ You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. ² Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

³ Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. ⁴⁵ to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

And Jos has discovered his toes!

I am so thankful
* for my children, they’re unique personalities, and the gift of watching them grow
* my husband, I love him today more than ever
* my camera, to be able to capture a small part of these memories
* craft a creative outlet
* my home a place for fun, relaxing, family, friends…

Took some photos of the kiddies for Mum A for mothers’ day. The children were not very cooperative at all!

Also didn’t have the camera settings quite right and everything came out very blue, have had to fiddle with the photos a lot.

Here’s the best of the many many many that I took. And yes, I did try to get a photo of the three of them together, but they did not work at all!

Here’s an original untouched group shot, just to show you how bad it was!

Happy Mothers’ Day to both our mums.  We love you both, and really appreciate everything that you have done and continue to do for us.  We pray God’s richest blessings to you.

There has been a lot of secret mothers’ day stuff going on at kindy this week, and Elisha has been FANTASTIC at keeping the secrets. There was one thing that I was allowed to see however, and that was his portrait of me.

I don’t have a picture of the picture to share, but I had to tell you what he’d written at the bottom.

The prompt was “I love my mum because” and Elisha’s response? … “she’s beautiful”.

Melt my heart moment.

Just been going through some old photos and came across this little video clip of Elisha.  It is too cute.

It is hard to believe he has grown so much since then. I need to get another camera with video so I can catch these moments with Cayley and Jos.

We did something a bit different for Easter this year.  Or maybe that should be I forced everyone to do something a bit different for Easter this year.

First, we got together on the Saturday, not Friday or Sunday

Second, I only put on sandwiches for lunch.  No big spread.  Nice sandwiches, but just sandwiches.  Oh, and hot cross buns (of course)!

Third, we invited a couple of extra people – Aunty Kathy and Uncle Peter

Fourth, no one was getting away with being a wall flower, not even me!

We made Easter Bonnets!!!

I do have more photos of people wearing their bonnets, but I wasn’t too sure how everyone would feel about the photos being out there for the whole wide world to see!  So (parents) if you’re happy for me to put you out there, let me know!

We also had an awesome Easter Egg hunt, but I think we’ve already got enough photos.

Thanks to Skip to My Lou for the table setting printables, and LottieLuLu via Crafty Crow for the bonnet inspiration.

Elisha went to a birthday party on the weekend.

The whole class was invited.  That’s some very brave parents.

Actually, they were very clever.  They had a magician come and entertain the children.

He was fantastic, and kept the audience of many, many four/five year olds entertained, along with a sampling of other age groups mesmerised too.

At one point, somewhere in the middle of the show (after several magic tricks had been performed) he was ‘having trouble’ making a trick work.

“I wonder what the problem is?” he mused.

“You’re not really magic!” came the prompt reply from a young member of the audience, who’d obviously forgotten what he’d already seen.

Things I’m thankful for…

*I’m thankful for a much slower  paced weekend than the rest of the week was
*I’m thankful that I survived the busyness of the past week and enjoyed it too.
* I’m so thankful I could catch up with some friends whom I hadn’t seen for such a long time.
* I’m thankful for Revive Our Hearts Ministry and the Counter Cultural Woman series that I’ve been listening too and finding so enriching and edifying
* I’m thankful for the time I’ve had to catch up on some housework and complete SIX layouts this weekend.