Anyone for Carrot Peel?

Last night, my son ate a carrot peeling directly off the kitchen floor. The good news is that the floor has been vaccumed within the past week, so it isn't too dirty (just don't think too hard about how dirty a kitchen floor can get in a couple of days!). The carrot peel had fallen there just moments before as I peeled carrots for dinner. And he does not normally subsist on carrot peelings. He is, in fact, a very well-fed little boy! His diet yesterday included: porridge, stewed apple, sultanas, banana, corn cracker, melon, blueberries, fried rice with bacon and egg and carrot, onion, and zucchini, grapes, mixed veges and lamb, and a bit of spaghetti bolognaise. Definitely doesn't need the carrot peel to survive! The other good news is that, for once, he actually picked up something that IS edible by his mother's standards. Some days I wonder if his first words will be, "Not in your mouth!" as I fish yet another bit of cardboard, stone, plastic, string, or other small bit of something-or-other out of his mouth. Much to his dissappointment. I let him keep his carrot peel.

Another recent experiment in the eating department - he likes playing with the onions on the kitchen floor: the box is easily accessible, they are very cool to roll around, and the peel is kinda interesting - only Mummy keeps spoiling the fun by removing any peel and saying her perpetual "Not in your mouth!"

Amy



Wednesday, 23rd March, 2011

A Bit Snowed Under

I am currently trying to clear a snowball. It is a rather large, cumbersome snowball called study. A week with Munchkin and I with colds was enough to just about wipe me out, and I am still not recovered (I'm blaming lack of decent sleep but that is another story). I now have two assignments due in the next two weeks, as well as normal study. So I'm afraid I will be taking yet another break from blogging. In all honesty I just don't have the energy, even if I had the time. Study and baby are taking up all available brain space at present (which I do admit is not much to start with!).

We also have big adjustments happening in our household, which doesn't help my brain space. We feel really good about this decision, but it is not easy living it out day by day. He is in class all day Mondays and Tuesdays and half of Wednesdays and Thursdays. He's also currently still working 27hrs a week, while we sort out student allowances and such...at which point he can drop his hours. But I need to work too, a day or two a week. Not fun. But we do need to feed ourselves and pay rent. We are hoping that things will be this complicated only for this year. I can't withdraw from my study without losing my scholarship and potentially damaging my chances of graduating (due to changes to my degree program), so we carry on. Not that I really want to stop studying as I do enjoy it, I just want things to be a little bit easier.

So that's me at present. I have still not done anything about passing on the blog award I was given. I don't really know where to start. Tell you what, I read very few blogs. I liked the ones Lizzy's Letters highlighted, but have only read them once. I read Rhonda's blog at Down to Earth (periodically these days), and she just received the top NZ/Australian blog award! Otherwise I really don't get 'out' much.

I did manage to write 7 things about myself to share with you all. How about I post it here, at least then you will actually get to see it!

I hope to rejoin you all in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, take care.
Amy
Wednesday, 9th March, 2011


7 things about me:

I had pet snails as a kid. My brothers and I collected them from the fennel near our school, and kept them in icecream containers with gladwrap (plastic clingwrap) over the top (holes in gladwrap for air). We fed them greenery, and raced them frequently. To tell them apart we would put twink marks on the big snail’s shells before a race began. Did you know that snails can eat through gladwrap quite easily? We had various escapees and would periodically find a dead snail on the ceiling or behind furniture. Opps. Hours and hours of fun. I still have trouble squashing snails in the garden. Slugs are not a problem, but I find myself apologising every time I feel I need to get rid of a snail!

I love giving gifts. Always have. I enjoy thinking about what the person might like, and organising to get it, then wrapping it and doing the card. This is why I so enjoy Operation Christmas Child. I get to give gifts that are really meaningful. One year when I was a child, we didn’t have enough money for each of us to give presents so my parents told us kids we were not to buy presents that year. I just couldn’t handle not giving a present! I went out and picked flowers from all around the gardens and put a posie for each person in jars under the Christmas tree, with a little note.

I want 101 children. Yes, you did read that right. People are usually a bit shocked when they ask and I say one-hundred-and-one. But I don’t really plan on having any more biological children. 101 is the number of children I would like to parent, to influence, and personally touch with my life. Most of these will probably be sponsored children, I guess some might be my son’s friends, or maybe children I teach? I don’t know, just that I want my life to count for something this big.

I have terrible hand-eye coordination in sporting arena's (it is okay making cards and knitting!). I used to think I just couldn’t play sports at all. I ended up hating sport and by high school would avoid it whenever possible. But, I have no realised that I can play a few things. The main issue is that I have to keep the ball in front of my face. If it goes down the side, I end up swiping and missing by a mile! The other issue is that it needs to be a sport I am not scared of getting hurt in. No rugby or softball for me! I like to play badminton and table tennis. I am pretty happy to discover that there are some sporty things I do enjoy, so I’m happy to leave it at that!

When I get a cold, I sneeze copiously. All day. Multiple times. To the point that there’s not really any point in saying “Bless You” for less than 5 sneezes at a time! It can be rather frustrating, as the sneezes just keep on coming. I guess it would be amusing to watch, provided you are at a safe distance!

I am a strategic thinker. This has always felt like a bit of a nuisance in my life. It has never really been used, and just gets in the way. For instance, I see things that I know would work better another way but rarely am in a position to do anything to change them. I would see that this action would result in this consequence, but being at the bottom of the food chain in my work, thus any suggestions I made would not usually be taken seriously. Anyway, I have recently decided that I want this gift to be actively used in my life. I want to see it as the gift that it is, and use it! After all, God gave me specific giftings for a reason – He must have things in mind for me that require them. Being able to use the strategic is why I loved my last admin job so much – it constantly required thinking ahead about our next training days, how to get more people on our telephone counselling rosters, and so on. And being at the stage in life we are currently, with a baby, no capital to speak of, and both of us needing to retrain, Boyo and I really need to start living strategically just to have a free hold home by retirement (and we want to do so much more than that!). We’ve never done it before, and you can so tell!

I don’t like swimming in the ocean. In fact, I don’t like swimming anywhere I can’t see the bottom. I did swim quite a lot as a child and teen, but have avoided it in my adult life. You see, there were a few incidents with crabs. I know, silly, they are just little crabs, what harm can they do?!? But that was enough for me. You can imagine my thoughts about the charms of swimming in North QLD – box jellyfish, crocodiles, sharks, sting rays, and assorted other dangerous animals and there was absolutely NO WAY I was getting in that water! Boyo paddled. I refused to do even that.

The Longest Day EVER

Today feels like the longest day ever. I am pretty sure it is not. After all, all days are pretty much the same length. But it sure does feel like it. Boyo has been out today you see. All day. I am so not used to being on my own at home with Munchkin all day. We went for a walk this morning, he's had two (very) short sleeps, we've had morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. He has been a really good kid. But it still feels like the longest day. Why, oh why, did I have to come down with a cold last night!?!? Ah, now that might have something to do with the fact that my small son came down with it on Friday. I have concluded that it is almost impossible to avoid getting the same cold when you live in such close proximity as we do. I spent Friday night in Munchkin's room...pretending to sleep on the spare bed in between his crying, sleeping with me, and more crying. He obviously felt a bit better Saturday, enough for a couple of long sleeps during the day and a really good sleep overnight. Last night he was gluggy though and took a few hours to really settle for the night. By the time he was semi-happily asleep I was feeling decidedly miserable. I don't know how a cold can possibly hit so fast, but it felt like one of those European express trains ran over my immune system! I spent most of the night on the couch, so as not to disturb Boyo too much. I must say that we have a really nice couch for such necessary occassions. But I did miss my bed between feeling hot, achy, dizzy, sore-throaty, and generally gross. The arrival of morning saw an abatement of the majorly nasty conditions, with my current state consisting of a blocked nose that also wants to run (where, I don't know!), a slightly sore throat, and feeling rather flushed and tired. Yup, I do feel rather sorry for myself. I also feel much more sympathetic to my poor boy who experienced all this just days ago without being able to tell me how awful he felt! So it's the longest day ever. I am even thinking of resorting to us watching Hairspray for the rest of the afternoon (a sign of true and absolute desperation on my part!). I think we will be having cheese on toast for dinner. On the bright side, Munchkin is greatly improved over a couple of days ago so I am cherishing hopes that this might be a violent, but shortlived attack. Life will carry on! And Boyo will hopefully be home in an hour!

Amy

Monday, 28th February, 2011

ps - I have not forgotten about the Stylish Blogger Award...I have my post half written and was meant to be doing it last night. I went to bed instead. So hopefully next weekend?

The Art of Letter Writing

Letter writing is coming to be a lost art, I do believe. I have just today written to our sponsored children. And realised that they are the only people I actually ever write letters to! Everyone else receives text messages, or emails. But there is something so tantilisingly, spine-tinglingly delightful about receiving a letter in the post. Or a card. Or even a package! Ah, now that is a delight few of us receive these days...unless it was something we ordered off Amazon or Ebay! I must make a mental note to pop a card in the post to a few friends over the coming weeks.

The reason I wrote to our kids is that I read the Tear Correspondent yesterday. It left me feeling a little uncomfortable. Convicted, perhaps? Definitely motivated. You see, I have this personal belief that our sponsored children shouldn't just be a social obligation. Send your money off and you've done the deed. Uh-uh. No way. These are real children, with real dreams, real problems, and real emotions. So I've been trying to make sure that I treat them as extended members of my family. Kind of like a cousin. Only to be honest I have very little contact with my cousins. Maybe more like a neice of nephew. I have one neice...a recent ah, 'aquisition'. I made her a toy at the same time as I made my son one. I enjoy watching videos of her latest developments (such as climbing the stairs this week!). I very carefully chose a good birthday present for her and have already sent it on in case we couldn't make it for the big one year old birthday and dedication. But we have decided we will make it anyway; these things are important. So you get the idea. I've only seen her twice, but my neice is an extended part of my life. I like to know what is going on with her, and I do hope that she will feel comfortable and loved in my home (I cherish secret ambitions of cousinly sleepovers when they are older!).

This is what I want my relationship to be like with my sponsored children. I want them to feel part of my life. The issue is that they are so far away. And so easy to forget. I mean, they are not sitting beside me crying (like my son sometimes is). They don't fuss or create over pretty much anything. Neither do I get to see their eyes light up with joy as they run and chase a ball, or learn a new word at school.

Tear Correspondent addressed this issue so well. Helen Manson wrote, "It's hard to feel close to someone you have only ever seen in a photograph and who lives on the other side of the world...When it came time to write back to him, I would sometimes begrudgingly sit down for five minutes and frantically search my brain for something relatively interesting to say that would fill up the 20 lines on the page...Then we moved to Uganda (where her sponsored boy lives)...Here standing in front of me, was this beautiful, precious little 12-year-old boy who was not just a picture. He had a beating heart, dreams and desires; he has things he wants to do and be. He feels sad and happy; he was so...human...If you sponsor a child, my prayer is that you would engage. Engage with them, think about them, make their photo big in your house - give it pride of place, write to them with joy when you get their letter. They are WAITING for your reply! A letter from you, even a sticker, is a treasured item - worth far more than you realise..."

Needless to say I made time to write to my kids today! The letters are sitting there, waiting to be posted tomorrow. It didn't take me very long. And once I sat down and got started, I didn't have to think too hard about things to say either. After all, it is only around 10 simple sentences. I find photos help. I write about the things around us, birds, things we grow and eat in the garden, things Munchkin is learning to do. I printed a whole bunch of photos out awhile back and laminated them into small cards the kids can play matching games with, so I've been sending a few new cards with each letter and talking about the pictures. And I try to write something encouraging or moral - like how good it is that our sponsored boy was helping his grandma, or that I pray for our sponsored girl to reach her dream of becoming a nurse.

We do have our sponsored kids photos up on the wall beside our family ones. But I am finding it all too easy still to forget about their existence most of the time. Yet I know that I can make a profound impact in their lives. Just imagine the difference it makes knowing that someone loves you enough to pay for you to go to school, get immunised, and have a vege garden. But imagine how much MORE impacted a child is when they realise that this person doesn't just have time to send money, but time to give of themself. That this person wants to know what they are learning at school, what food they grow, what games they play, what they want to be one day. That this person is encouraging and believing in them. That this person prays for them regularly. That is what motivates me to try harder, to keep writing letters and to think of some way to include them in our daily prayers as Munchkin gets older. I hope one day in the coming years we will be able to visit our kids overseas. I think that would be the experience of a lifetime, and one I am really looking foward to sharing with my husband, my son, and my sponsored children!

Amy

Saturday, 26th February, 2011

Moving On

I have just finished sorting all my son's outgrown things ready to sell. I find myself feeling a little melancholic. I am having to remind myself that we still have our gorgeous boy. He sleeps peacefully in his recently lowered cot while I am busy out here in the lounge. The cot is lowered because he recently pulled himself up against the couch a few times..don't want him to land headfirst on the ground when he first works out how to get upright in the cot now, do we?! He has just sprouted two top teeth, and is trying to work out how to get the tv cabinet open. He loves the peg container and patting the lino floor in the kitchen, or banging his wooden spoon on whatever object happens to be convenient. His daddy loves that he can sit on the floor in the mornings and call to Munchkin, and the little guy will more often than not come crawling over to say good morning (aka slobber over Daddy's foot or arm!). I love being able to kiss and cuddle and wriggle around together without the constant worry of being puked all over. It does still happen, but only occassionally now. So nice not to smell of puke. So, so, so nice to feel I can be affectionate and let him have his face up close to mine!

My son is well and happy. So why I am sad? He is just growing up. It's not like I want him to stay a baby forever. On the contrary, each new phase he gets to, we like more than the previous ones. We are not really 'baby people' you know (some people just LOVE babies, other people - like us - do not). We are super pleased to have survived the first 6months and are really looking forward to getting to know our boy more and more as he grows.

I think I am sad because this signals the end of a dream in some ways. We aren't planning on having another baby any time soon, you see. No point keeping clothes for three years or something, for an event that is highly debatable at present. I would like another child, but I do not feel in any way, shape, or form physically (and therefore also emotionally) up to the whole process. I did not enjoy pregnancy. By all accounts, I didn't have a particularly bad one either, but to me, it was a bit nasty. Mostly due to the huge fluid retention I suffered and the toxic-something-or-other illness I had at the end, which resulted in the awful labour. Which I think I could survive again, if I had to, but not with the pregnancy and post labour issues I had. My body is till kuput. I don't even know if that is considered a proper word, but read it as stuffed, up the creek without a paddle, not a-okay, and you get the general idea. So the thought of another baby freaks me out, big time.

I realise I may feel completely different about this in a few years time, so we are not rushing to conclusions just yet. But the likelihood is small. Small enough that there is no point in storing the containers of clothing Munchkin has grown through in rather a great rush. Hence the decision to sell them. We are fairly tight on money at present, and he needs clothes for this winter, and the coming spring and summer. Knowing him, probably quite a few different sizes too (he is a bit of a bean pole!). So we are selling off the old to a local second hand baby store, in order to buy new. Might even buy them from the same store!

Having written all this down, I am starting to feel a little less depressed about the whole thing. After all, I did say to God that if he chose to only give me one child, I would be happy with that. My son is an incredible blessing, a miracle baby, and I am so grateful to have him in my life. And only God knows what the future holds for our family.

Amy

Wednesday, 23rd February, 2011

Award!

I recently received a blog award! Very excited!!!
It is the "Stylish Blogger Award" from Elizabeth at Lizzy's Letters.
But I honestly have no idea how to pass it on properly or pick up the cool icon/picture thing (do I sound completely ignorant here, because I so am!), so I will have to find out and get back to you all. Grin. I have yet to learn how to link posts - have received info on how to do it so now I just need to sit down and have a go some day...it is on the to-do list. As are far too many things these days.

I am apparently meant to share 7 things about myself with you too, as part of the award. I will have to put my thinking cap on over the next week. Be ready, same time, same place, next week! Hmmm....now what should I share, and who can I pass the award onto?

Amy

Sunday, 20th February, 2011

Some Personal Goals

While on the subject of goals, I thought I would share two personal goals with you. I have been finding it hard to come up with goals this year, not knowing Boyo's work situation yet. But these two, I can do anywhere!

1. Keep the dining table clear.

2. Have flowers somewhere in the house at almost all times.

There. Pretty simple, huh? Not quite. Our unit is small (well, okay big for a unit, but still a unit). We don't have a lot of storage space, nor $$ to organise more right now. The dining table seems to end up with a pile of stuff on it. Stuff to be attended to. Stuff that needs to be put away. Stuff that should be in the rubbish or recycling bin. You get the idea: lots of stuff. I find it messes with my head. I actually like things tidy. But I am messy. I admit it, I am not good at keeping things tidy. But I find the dining table particularly important. It is the symbol of family to me, I guess, as we always ate as a family when I was growing up, and Boyo and I have mostly done that too. I hate sitting down to eat (even if it is just lunch on my own) and having to stare at last week's junk mail, or that bill we still have to pay, or the box of panadol that still hasn't made it back into the cupboard. I find it unsettling. A clean table, on the other hand, leaves me with a deep sigh of contentment. My world is somehow in order if my dining table is.

The issue has been that there's not been anywhere to put things that are 'in process' so we end up with a growing pile, that just too easily gets added to. I had given up on it. Then I realised: most of the stuff actually doesn't need to be there. It is there from laziness. Some stuff does, but most I can easily find other homes for. I have therefore decided to add 'clear dining table' to my housekeeping responsibilities on Wednesday nights (which currenly consist of the usual post-baby tidy up and cleaning the bathroom and loo). I figure if I get in the habit of doing it every week, it won't take long. Boyo got home to a pile of stuff sitting on his computer for him to sort through this week. Grin. There's still stuff on the table. But way less. And I can handle that. At least now I don't have to push things out of the way to put my plate down.

Flowers in the house has been something I've been umm-ing and ahh-ing about for ages. I love fresh flowers! But I keep thinking that I should be spending money on something more 'important.' Like food, for instance. But flowers are food. They are food for my soul. Every time I walk past a vase of fresh flowers, I drink in their beauty, savour their colour and shape. I am satisfied. My soul is somehow filled with good things. I have therefore decided that flowers are an acceptable investment of my money. Not lots of money, just a little every few weeks. With a few flowers in the garden, and flowers bought at the local farmers market (for just $4-5 a bunch!), I should be able to have fresh flowers somewhere in the house right through summer. I currently have a bunch of asters sitting on the dining table. Deep pink, dark purple, and creamy purple/white with gorgeous yellow centres. I smile whenever I look at them. Which is often.

Amy

Sunday, 20th February, 2011