Sowing Seeds

This is going to be the year that we finally do it. My boys are old enough and I think I have enough space in our lives and in my head for us to finally become volunteers! It's early days yet and we have forms to pick up and fill out, and initiation to undergo, and one small boy to really encourage but I think we'll finally do it... I hope!

For a few months now I've idealised a happy scenario in which we are volunteering at our local wildlife sanctuary. The scene carries on where we are learning loads through immersion and from hanging with fascinatingly knowledgeable company as well as being helpful contributors to an often overlooked cause. I've thought about the great work ethic we'll pick up, responsibility that is cultivated from participating in such a place - we only have a small part to play but even the small parts are positive and make long term differences.

I believe in sowing seeds.

I want our boys to have great role models, particularly in men and this seems like an excellent way to meet some of the values we wish to have imparted to our boys outside of the family unit.

I believe that many positive seeds will be sown during our time here and we all (maybe not Kangaroo as much :) cannot wait to begin.

The 'curator'/ 'creator' or 'caretaker', I'm unsure as to what to title the guy that runs the place is given but he is enthusiastically passionate and knowledgeable and agrees with me that the education system is failing to impart to our kids the value of our unique flora and fauna. Even as homeschoolers I feel there is only so much we can do out of a book, great dvd's and trips to wildlife parks like this can do and it's a rare bush-walk that will reveal more than some common birds, kangaroos, the odd koala and occasional skink. So I've been idealising that with a little effort on our part, and with open hearts and minds volunteering at our local wildlife sanctuary is going to be a prodigious investment which I'm hoping will pay many positive dividends. Fingers crossed please!

Okay, this is cool, I think I may even remember correctly that this fellow is a red-necked wallaby.

We chatted one on three :) to this awesome man and we learnt an exceptional amount , especially about birds - particularly threatened and endangered birds -, and we talked of the sanctuary's plans for expanding their breeding programs. Kookaburra picked up a valuable multitude of tips and tricks on how to take better care of Hermes his Quaker parrot and he is busting at the seams to wear him out there and get set to work with his 'blue bird on his shoulder' which he has been told he's more than welcome to do.

Today was another special day for our fam. We spent a very wet and soggy evening with our dear Grammy Bear who today has turned an incredible 61! I say incredible because I can scarcely believe it :( I love my Mumma. I have whinged, moaned, complained and definitely laughed about my Mumma's doings but really I should never, ever have. I have the excuse of once being younger than i am and now, I'm a little wiser. She is extraordinary. Of all the tough things she has gone through she has never let any of it beat her and now, when she should be enjoying the quiet and solitude of an older lady's evenings, she is instead wrangling my brothers children and sometimes my brother (he, he :P) and whilst definitely she is not always at peace with the situation, Grammy Bear is making a wonderful difference to my brother and company's lives. I think my mother sets a great example, even when she has lost her temper for the gazillionth time, she is tenacious and won't leave her little family. She won't give up. She's human! Aren't we all :) and is older, she works very hard, long hours and not enough pay and is also lending a big hand in raising her second family. I'm proud of her and that she's my Mumma Bear.

I think there may even be some little seeds in amongst all that too :D.