Lucky

Kangaroo wanted to be a horse yesterday :) So we covered him
in body paint and gave him little white hoofs, a star and a patch.

Lucky to have escaped Queenslands' Flooding Disaster intact, unscathed, sheltered and protected.

Drawing constantly at the moment and developing beautifully.
Depth, perspective and technical. It has been very
interesting to watch.

Lucky that our biggest fear has been a shortage of fuel, food and supplies as our communities have become isolated due to our roads being cut by flood waters.

His 'Fierce Face' cracks me up!
After watching Little House On The Prairie today,
our boys played Indians happily up a tree for an hour or so.

Lucky and Thankful that my family and friends are safe.

Embracing the theme enthusiastically :)

Lucky that as we are able to, I know we'll give what we can to help rebuild our community and our state. Financial or a hand in the work of cleaning up.

Lucky that our boys were pint size witnesses to our community at work providing for those who momentarily cannot. They see our hardworking Emergency Services as important and are in awe and inspired by them. They respect the work they do.

Lucky that life for us has gone on relatively as normal. So sad and heartbroken that this isn't so for everyone affected by the flooding.

Please pray for our lucky country. That we will rebuild and be strengthened. That those who have lost will find comfort and will not despair.

Thankyou to ecoMILF for the links :)

Rockets with The Fantastic Mr E

You'll need:

:) bicarb soda

:) white vinegar

:) sticky tape

:) a tube like the berocca tubes we used with a snap on lid is great or try an empty milk bottle


Instructions:

:) Place about a teaspoon of bicarb soda into the clean, dry lid of the container you're using.

:) Loosely place sticky tape over the contents and secure at the back of the lid, this is so the contents can slowly mix with the vinegar giving you time to place the tube upside down securely and get some distance between the rocket and yourself.

:) Half fill the tube with white vinegar.

:) Secure the lid to the tube and place on the ground upside down allowing the vinegar to slowly react with the bicarb soda.

:) Take another sweet shot of Dada showing Kangaroo.

:) And... well... remember to move fast to get some room between you and the rocket and be prepared to experiment with the mixture ratio and definitely wear glasses for eye protection because these rockets really got some height.

:) Try various other containers and mess with the bicarb soda and vinegar ratio until you get


an awesome explosion like this!!!!!

:) Make sure all pets are well back and feeling pretty cool about the proceedings!

The Fantastic Mr E introduced these simple rockets to our boys over his holidays and the kids had a great time hanging with their Dadda and talkin' up the boy stuff. We didn't get heavy into the science side of things because our boys understand that a reaction is occurring when the two substances come together and most importantly, we are showing them that science can be very fun!

Trust, Hmm...

...Vulnerable = No Can Do Compadre!

I might get hurt!

Came across this today

"Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results."

James 5:16 (NLT)

and thought 'Yep, more honesty would be good. Less of the unintentional belittlement through 'helpful' advice on how I could be doing something so much better if only I did it their way because it's so perfect :P!'.

I may be the only person to feel this and I'm going to be okay with putting it out there and may enjoy the near silence with my friends the crickets but I think that if there was more real support and less judgment and empty talk then I wouldn't feel so cautious about having real, open and honest relationships with others. I've become so protective since becoming a mother that I know I now bring a somewhat cynical, at times, attitude to my friendships.

I know!

That's so bad right?!

You don't have to tell me, I live it :S

It's an inner attitude which really frustrates me. Hmm.... I'm worried I'm not making a clear point of what I feel... I guess I'm trying to say that I have been the victim of and yep, I'll be honest, a perpetrator of, using a shared problem to gain support in a backhanded manner instead of receiving or giving the support that I or my friend needed .

What I'm getting at is if I was to share a problem with A (A is nobody by and by, but it could actually have been me :(, A would console me nicely yes but would in fact unintentionally turn the situation into something about themselves by pointing out how well they're doing with their family (children) and really I should be doing it their way because it is, The Way. So what's happening is that I'm actually supporting my friend A by making them feel great about what they're doing because if only I was doing it their way then I would get it right. Except there are no right ways, only different methods which are unique to each family. Sure we can definitely learn from each other and trust me, oh my goodness, have I! But golly gosh, gee heck, I would love to feel less judged, more supported and have a more open and trusting heart to give better exactly that. That which I dearly want and recognize that I have been fortunate to receive.

Back to 'The Way', I respect and admire differences. Ideas are what keeps our world moving forward. Could you imagine a cookie cutter world in which we were all the same. Yech! Well, only if you were like me! Bahahaha, so kidding!

The verse sounds so lovely doesn't it. We confess in all honesty that not only are we imperfect but despite that or perhaps because of it we will be loved more by our friends - when we're vulnerable, trusting, honest and real.

I'll share my pain, confusion, frustration and heartache and I will be helped into spilling my tears. Then I will be lifted up in Prayer to the one who will heal and forgive. And I know that when my friend is in need, I may not have the right words to say but I'll be needed there and I will readily give the same. I'll wrap my friend in love, I'll protect and care for them when they are in need. I will lift them in prayer and pray for their forgiveness and healing as they have done for me. I can be counted on to not judge. There will be no convoluted wording to build my self-esteem at anothers expense and I will control the nasty little voices that try to crowd out what is right and I realize that others suffer similarly.

Maybe I have the interpretation of the verse wrong but I guess I'm taking what I need from it tonight and when I next come across it, I'll learn something else again from it but tonight I know that I need to trust more, love more, pray more, be open more, be real more.

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.

Crazy Kids

I've been thinking that perhaps I should rename our blog space something a little more literal, like maybe 'Our life in Pictures'. I love so many of our photos and I'm in love with our photo diary that anybody who visits our little neck of the woods may have to grin and bear it... pretty please! :D because I'm unable to help myself.

We made it to the cycle velodrome today and our boys had a blast. It was hot, sticky and sweaty work though. Half a dozen laps each and they were done and it probably took up less than a half hour so I'll be using it as a distraction when lessons become a bit much. A break and exercise and some laughter is sure to equal released endorphins and happy kids and we all feel pretty good after a bout of exercise right?!

Then we spent a few happy hours hangin' with our Cool Cousin Crew.

Princess Calamity in all her comedic splendour

At the moment Kangaroo is in love with Princess Calamity and will be marring her in the near future but he says he is always going to love me the best... aww, shucks! xo

Today Danger Mouse turned 5!
Happy Birthday Little Man!

and we went to out for a play

and to the cinema to celebrate :)

The Crazy Kids are having a great holiday and we so very, very much don't want it to end :)

Lovely Little Lads...

...well, I'll be honest. Lovely little lads, when the mood takes them :) Can I boast and say it's been more often then not lately? It's so nice when things are up, so maybe it's best not to talk to me maybe sometime next week. Things may have cycled round by then, but I'm hoping for happily ever after.

We took our boys to the Bunnings Warehouse
Family Christmas Party in December

Kookaburra took Kangaroo's hand when they went on the
Treasure Hunt

It makes us grin from ear to ear to see our two little lads getting along so well. Thank goodness for blogging so I can look back on the great times when things get a little tattered around the edges.

Time for Something New and Other Thoughts

Late last night I was snuggled down under the covers in my comfy bed devouring my latest book with the thought of our early morning start nagging at the back of my mind. Stubbornly and maybe a tad selfishly, with a good mix of defiance for wanting something completely for me, I ignored the fact I should be sleeping and continued to read.

.
I'm regularly amused by how my life works. I feel led to things - ideas and opportunities - and even when I want to turn away from it, the message is going to find me anyway.

Back in September, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert was a cinema must do but, well, I tend to shy away from whatever the latest 'thing' might be. I've never been cool and I can't be bothered starting now. But, faithful, loving daughter that I am :P found that my Mother wanted to see this movie. I Googled a review and the commentary was mostly negative. Basically the review boiled down to, if you're unhappy in your life, with your job and your partner, don't see this movie as it will likely be a negative and unsettling influence on your life. I'm happy, I just choose what to put into my head proactively - if I can. So despite my Mother's wishes I made it clear I had no intention of seeing this movie which then changed when we both visited my Sister Sunshine. She shared our Mother's sentiment. Ultimately, I'm pretty easy going so we ended up at the cinema watching, with initial misgivings, this said movie and... I Loved it :)

Ha! Hilarious!!! :D


Then for Christmas I was gifted the book in a Secret Santa. So hopefully, after all my rambling, someone may see how I come to feel that I've been led.

I'm only a dozen or so chapters into Ms Gilberts' novel but have found myself struck by her ideas on God, because they are similar to my own. It's kind of a Hallelujah moment for me. I have for so long wanted to identify my thoughts with someone elses' faith path. To know I'm not alone in my intuition. Until now I was yet to find anyone else who thinks the same or even remotely similar to myself. I won't be going into the details of Gilbert's ideas on God because I don't want to get into a theological discussion and come off the short end for my lack of knowledge :) I just wanted to share how I'm enjoying my own increasingly gaining strength in my right to my beliefs and perhaps encourage others to be strong in their own journey.

Although the book has kept me awake at night and interested, I haven not been enthralled by some of the authors life choices but I can appreciate the journey she has taken and be amazed by the courage she had to make drastic changes in a life that, to her, was really broken.


So that was what kept me up late last night but why was I out of bed and out the door so early with my boys this morning? Six thirty am we were in the park blinking blearily in the harsh summer morning light ready for our first Tai Chi lesson with my Awesome Aunty. Awesome Tai Chi teacher, cool crafty chick extraordinaire. Both boys made it through the warm ups pretty well, about fifteen minutes, but Kangaroo took a swift exit for brekky about then while Kookaburra and I continued.

Kookaburra intently watched my Awesome Aunty, concentrating hard and imitating as his interest took him on and off for the remainder of the hour. Kookaburra really seemed to enjoy the lesson and has said that he's keen to go back next week but then too, that could be because we played in the park afterwards. I'll give them the the benefit of doubt hey?!


Today was a great day for trying new things. After Tai Chi and our park play we packed up our craft projects and headed to my Aunts craft group for company and a devoted time for crafting. My boys each had a little box and an inexhaustible supply of collage materials and set to work creating little houses complete with wallpaper, doors and windows, floor coverings and even pictures hanging on the walls. Pleased with the results we made little wooden peg people to play in the houses. Great fun and my boys stayed put creating and concentrating for an hour and a half.


When we said our goodbyes, we noticed a cycle velodrome in the same area we were visiting and discovered that the gates are unlocked so take a guess what we're doing tomorrow morning!


By the way, Happy New Year all!