The Snow-less Christmas Week

So, I'm super jealous of all the snow blogs from my Northern Hemispherical friends! It's so weird to see photos of snow in real life... like streets of snow and backyards of snow and cars covered in snow. For me 'the snow' is a place you go. In July. It's an 8 hour drive south, then another 40 minutes up the mountain each day to actually find the snow you can play in (and some years there isn't enough snow so they have to make snow so there is enough to ski on on the main slopes).

Anyway, needless to say my Christmas wasn't white this year (one day I am going to have a white Christmas. It's on my list..) It was cold-ish for a summer's day, but not white.

I only took one photo on Christmas day... This is my back deck, ready for Christmas breakfast (well semi-ready). Christmas breakfast has been at my house for the last 5 years (except the year I was in vanuatu...no snow there either). It's a pretty fun tradition, I love having people over!

 

 Here are some other photos of Christmas week to make up for the lack of Christmas day photos.

This is the fun Whale 'taggy' I made for Hayden. I also made Leonard a giraffe and Morgan a sad fish that was meant to be happy.

This is Leonard (his onesie even says Leonard...I got to choose what he wore that day). One of the best things about Christmas holidays is that I have seen my three boys heaps (I just didn't have my camera when I saw my other 2)!
I even got to hang out with Leonard for a whole day this week! Soooo much fun!

Our Morpeth adventure (pre-vomit).
This is me and my gorgeous friends at a cafe by the river. Look we're all eating breakfast for lunch!

These 3 are photos of where we stayed that night. Soooo beautiful!

Oh and look a wallaby!
You probably don't get those at Christmas in America...(don't mind me, still jealous about the snow)

This last photo summarises what I have been doing for the past 2 days of Christmas week... submitting an objection to Council (oh I feel like a proper grown-up writing things like that) against my neighbour's proposal to store junk like this on his property (as you can see he hasn't waited for approval before doing it). This is the lovely view I have from my back deck. My submission is eight pages long. good times!

 

So there you have it, an absolutely snow-less Christmas week!  But it has been heaps of fun! And I wouldn't trade spending time with my friends, family and baby boys with all the snow in the world!

Sooooooo Grateful

So. I have the best friends in the world.

Today, my friend Leah's husband Jason spent 4 hours getting my computer to work. It has been sick for ages and then died on Saturday. I use my laptop for everything and was willing to pay him to get it back in action, but he didn't want a bar of it. I think he even enjoyed the challenge of tricking into working. Thank you soooooo much Jason!

Ok, so another example from this week...

These are my gorgeous friends Anna & Lou (Well these photos aren't from this week, I nicked them off facebook, since I haven't loaded any photos onto my 'new' computer yet).

They are incredible people who I work with (remember how I have the best job in the world).

On Tuesday we had a Christmas Weekend Adventure Sleepover. We went to Morpeth (a beautiful little historic town with the cutest shops) and lunched by the river, shopped and chatted for hours. We then drove back to our gorgeous accommodation and cooked up a roast dinner (mmm), exchanged presents (so spoilt!) and watched Suddenly 30 (such a fun movie).

Well... then these 2 did the most amazing selfless thing...

So. It must be said that vomitting is my least favourite thing. I hate vomitting and I avoid it whenever possible. But it seemed that my hexannual (um... every 6 years) nemesis decided to visit on this particular evening. bleh! I don't remember ever feeling that gross before, but I quickly remembered why vomitting is my least favourite thing.

These beautiful friends, before I even had time to think, had thrown everything in the washing machine, found me clean clothes, scrubbed the room with eucalyptus & then tucked me back into bed with hugs & prayers. How blessed am I?! Who does that for people at four in the morning? Vomit is gross. In my mind, cleaning up someone else's vomit is probably the most selfless thing a person can do (you know, after like taking a bullet or giving an organ...). Soooooooo beyond words grateful!

I've learnt alot about grace this week. The selfless acts of friends are an amazing reminder of the ULTIMATE selfless act of God in sending his Son to clean up the mess we've made on this Earth. Ahh amazing timing!

Anyway, I really just wanted to boast a little bit that I have the best friends in the world.

Oh and also I got my very own (even autographed) copy of Annie Downs' book in the post today! Can't wait to read it.

I went on a scary rollercoaster... twice

This week I spent 4 days on the Gold Coast! The Gold Coast is home to Australia's biggest theme parks. My friend, my sister and I did 3 theme parks in 3 days! So.much.fun!
We went to Seaworld, Movieworld & Wet 'n' Wild.

I have never been much of a scary rides person... I was petrified of speed (and also hills) when we went in the car when I was a kid & spent years saying I didn't like roller coasters. But I decided to redefine myself this week. I am now a scary-rides person (well...to some degree).

Look! This is me! I am on this rollercoaster! (4th row from the bottom... I think).
This is the Superman Escape at Movieworld. It is Australia's scariest rollercoaster, It accelerates from 0-100km/h in 2 seconds, straight up, 40 metres in the air, then comes straight down the other side! eeek! I have since found out that there are way scarier roller coasters out there in the world, but I am still super proud of my fear-conquering! Not only did I do this crazy coaster once, but twice!

So... while I'm on a roll, how else can I redefine myself these holidays? What other fears can I conquer? What parts of who I am can I leave behind and replace with new thinking? I have some ideas. So scary and exciting!

Best Quote of the week:
(Movieworld 4D Movie Theatre) "If you would like a child to sit in your lap, please find a seat in the back row of the theatre." We were soooooo tempted to sit in the back row to see what kind of child we could get.

My Dad

I love my dad.

I also like this photo of me and my dad (I only found it when I was making their anniversary book a few months ago).

Most people say I look more like my dad than my mum. I have also inherited a lot from him:
His love of reading
His dry humour (it seriously took me 18 years to realise that dad was joking, now I think he's hilarious)
His curiosity & hunger for knowledge
His love of travel
His short temper...

I love hanging out with my dad. Together we used to go on bush-walks, he'd take me to piano lessons, he taught me to ride a bike, he helped me buy my house (and move in, and mow it, and maintain it, and re-roof it), together we calculated how many jellybeans would fit in a smart car (and won the car), he introduced me to snow (one of my most favourite things in the world!), so many fun adventures!

Tonight I went to my parents' for dinner. I was just going to pop in then come home and put up my Christmas tree, but then dad and I got chatting... about everything. I love conversations with my dad. We discussed history, books we've been reading (thanks Mindy for the John Grisham conversation starter), work, pay, the sky, how clouds stay up (ok so mostly he just laughed at me when I said that...), world events, movies, church, sick leave, foster kids and pretty much everything else. Pretty quickly I had been there more than 5 hours. I love conversations that make time fly. (and maybe tomorrow I'll put up my tree)

Well that's all for today.
I love my daddy.
I want to be more like him when I grow up!

Oh and incase you're wondering, like I am, how clouds stay up when water is heavier than air (had some fun conversations with my kids when we imagined the reverse was true), I found some answers. I really like it when people have asked the same silly questions I ask.

It Is Finished

Another year of school is officially over! It's crazy how fast these years are getting! I can't believe next year will be my 8th year of teaching (argh! I'm getting so old!)

We had the best "Party Day" yesterday. We started the day by getting the kids, in groups, to make 3 lists: "Places we've been," "Things We've Learnt," & "Funny things that have been said" as a bit of a reminiscing exercise. They came up with the best things! It was good to see them recognise that they had actually learnt some things this year & seeing them re-enact and re-laugh at some of the humorous (why do we drop the u in humour to make humorous? crazy language) moments we have been through together.

Katrina (the super aide, oh I'm going to miss her next year!) and I role-played a court-room scene & they had to present their lists as evidence to convince us that they had had an amazing year in our class. It was super fun! We gave them points for fabulous answers, bonus points if they had chosen the examples we had on our secret list & more bonus points if they sang, dance or used "high-modality words" in their presentation. oh I love my job!

We then had party food! Because we had the 2 wii's set up we told the kids "fill up your serviettes, then just find somewhere to sit and have a chat so you don't bump the wii's" and they did! They sat and chatted (and ate copious amounts of junk food)! They are such amazing kids! I'm going to miss them next year!

We played Raving Rabbids TV Party until lunch, then they all went home (yay for half days!).

Such a great year with such amazing kids! I am so grateful for my job.

Oh and I'm not boasting or anything (maybe just a little)... but look at the amazing presents I got from my kiddlies! mawww I am going to smell so sweet & be about 700kg heavier by the end of the holidays! haha

So anyway! Now I am on HOLIDAYS for 6 and a half weeks!!!!!! Ahhh, Freedom!

I Suddenly Forgot!

Today was Cleaning Up the Classroom, Practicing for Presentation Night & Rehearsing for Seussical Day. Arrrgh! My patience was worn so thin.

I think my whole class left their listening ears at home. Oh so many repetitions of instructions, even the simple ones..."Put this in your bag. Did you put that note in your bag? Why is it on my desk? Why can I see your note on the floor? Where should your note be? I told you to put that straight in your bag." etc.

My favourite, but at the same time most frustrating, point of the day was when some girls from the other Year 3 class came and said "we found these test tubes near the sink, are they yours?" I had sent 2 girls out to wash them 2 hours earlier...
"So M, when I sent you to wash those before recess, what happened?"
"Well, I was washing them. Then N was helping me. And then suddenly I forgot." (such a hilarious picture in my mind of her mid-scrubbing bing! "What was I doing again?")
That pretty much sums up the way most of my kids were thinking today. So exhausting.

But... I got to hold my boss' beautiful, sweet smelling, sleeping baby at our work party tonight, which made everything better!

A Day of Garbage

Today was Year 4's graduation!
It was so much fun!

The service ran fairly smoothly (except the dodgy sound system), kids laughed, parents cried. It was great! My cute Student Leaders did a fabulous job of emceeing & one of my Year 3's prayed the sweetest prayers I have ever heard. She wrote it herself. ohhh I got goosebumps.

After the service we let the kids play for half an hour before recess... and one of my boys broke his wrist! Poor kid! Since last Friday 4 kids have fractured their arms at school! AND not one has been on the Spiderball. ha! Today's accident was a fall on our new "soft-fall" - he was running & tripped awkwardly. oh dear.

So... then it was time for our Garbage Bag Formal! This is our annual (since last year) graduation event where the kids create their own outfits using garbage bags (in a range of colours of course!) & we sit down for an exquisite meal of pizza and hot chips. This year, since I teach a composite class, my Year 3's served as waiters - they were soooooooo cute! The little boys had decided that they needed to dress up to be waiters, so they wore vests & ties and jackets. mawww!

It was heaps of fun & I took about 7 billion photos (or at least 70)... but they are all on the school server. Luckily my amazing aide uploaded some of hers onto facebook, so I can share them with you...

This is Katrina (the world's best aide), Pete who also teaches Year 4 & I in our formal wear.

















You can't tell from these pictures, but I had a 3 tiered black & pink skirt & a black top with yellow sleeves and a pink bow (& do you like the ear-rings one of my girls bought me?). Katrina's was a one shoulder number with gorgeous flowers & a pink tie around the middle. Pete... well his was very creative!
I might add the full-length photos tomorrow - they were on the other camera.


I only have 3 more days with my kids :( I can't believe how fast this term has gone! Oh I'm going to miss this class! They are such a great bunch of kids!

It's Raining, it's pouring...

I am so grateful for the rain today!

It meant our excursion was cut short - we still got to play laser tag and indoor sports (soooo fun!). But we spent the afternoon watching The Little Rascals (best movie ever) because the park was too wet.

This meant I had an extra hour to spend getting ready for our Graduation Service tomorrow - sooooo grateful for that time!

That's all, not all I'm grateful for, and not all of the fun of today... but I need sleep.

Oh, also my Christmas tree is not up yet. This tells me something is wrong, because I usually have it up in October, or November at the latest... I'll have to get on to that on the weekend.

Also I hung out with cute Hayden tonight - who is now 5 months! Mawwwww. I just wanted to keep him, he gives the best snuggles and kisses.

Arrgh, ok. that's all. Night

Things I Love Today.

I love that our staff starts every morning in prayer.

I love that Tuesdays is prayer triplets day.

I love the challenge one of my "triplets" presented this morning about being humble before God, rather than people (still mulling over this one).

I love that this morning my "triplets" prayed that the rain would hold off while we walked to our excursion destination (it was pouring at 8.10)

I love that I was able to share that answer to prayer with my kids as we walked, dry, to the train station 20 minutes later. (God is good)

I love that my kids love to pray, even when we're standing at a train station.

I love that my kids are so amazing.

I love that they are such great performers. Oh so cute!

I love that even when we haven't practised enough & I throw things at them at the last minute, they looked like we'd been rehearsing for months!

I loved that they were able to collectively improvise when they were asked for an encore, and an encore, and an encore, and 3 more. (ohhh so proud!)

I loved watching them interact with the old people. (Some even skipped the ice-cream so they could get back to chatting).

I loved watching their faces light up as they gave the gifts they had been making for the past few weeks to the elderly people.

I loved the responses the kids got. The community centre workers are already planning what we'll do for Christmas next year :)

I loved the unselfishness of the kids, who were so thoughtful and grace-filled.

I love how easy it is to take my kids anywhere. Such a great bunch of people.

I love the staff I work with.

I love how quick they are to offer to help with stuff when you're overwhelmed...

I love Christian community.

I love catching up with church friends. I really should do this more often.

(I don't love that my computer crashed, again, while I was writing this... but that's another story)

Ahhh Weekend

So on Friday my plans for the weekend were to shop & babysit on Saturday & run Kids Church on Sunday. But it ended up being quite a fabulous weekend!

After school on Friday my lovely friends Ann-Marie and Lou & I went out for coffee/super early (like 4.30) dinner. I love catching up with these two. I always come away from our catch ups feeling encouraged, challenged, convicted (in a good way), inspired and full (and not just because we ate a lot of good food). I seriously work with the most amazing people in the world. Who gets to work with their besties? (Just incase you forgot - I do have the best job in the world).

So, Saturday... my pay didn't go in. There was some glitch with the National on Wednesday, which meant our staff pay has gone on a massive backlog list of things the bank needs to sort out....hopefully that will be done by Tuesday... Anyway that meant shopping wasn't an option. I didn't really mind too much because shopping is one of those things I actually don't like doing. I have cheese and bread, that's all I need. haha.

But then, while Phineas and Ferb were building a spa in their backyard I got a text from Leah! She and Cute Morgan came over to sew capes. It was a hilarious few hours as we used Leah's $30 sewing machine (um... it was pretty... but not super amazing at the sewing job) to sew a shiny red cape, while Morgan coughed, laughed, chewed, rolled, drooled and said "rabbit" (yeh he's pretty advanced for a 7 month old...hehe). So this was Leah's first sewing adventure. Pretty impressive hey!

How cute is Morgan?

Anyway, I was meant to babysit on Saturday night so my friends could go see the Jets vs L.A Galaxy soccer (football) game. But an hour before, I got a call to say the kids were really sick so their mum was going to stay home with them... but did I want her ticket to the game?! Woo hoo! I love soccer, but it costs so much to go, so I haven't seen a lot of games. And this was the game with Beckham!

So our little Energy Australia Stadium was full to capacity (except the new bit, which isn't finished yet) & it was such a fun night.

How nice was this sunset!
Oh and look, there's Beckham, he was like 20metres away from us (well when we were sitting in the seats that weren't really ours).

Also, we won! Well the Jets did. woo hoo!

I love how effortless they make soccer look. Like it's easy to kick a ball 100 metres down a field, to direct that ball exactly where you want it to go, to keep running for 90 minutes, to fall, tumble and get straight back up... um yeh they are not easy things. But watching them play it made me feel like I could do that! (and then I remembered the 8 years of soccer I have played....hahaha)
I was thinking about this on my way home when I was following an L-plater who made staying in their lane look like the biggest challenge in the world. I was even beginning to question how I was managing to stay on the right (left) side of the road between those suddenly narrow lines.
It was an interesting juxtaposition. (Is that the right word Ann-Marie?)

This morning Kids Church was so fun! We read the first part of the Christmas story and made angels. The kids today ranged from 2-10 yrs and 5 out of 10 of them had never been to our church before. They were such great kids & even the boy who normally prefers just to watch, made an angel decoration (though it was decorated with skulls). haha. Oh I love Christmas!

I had lunch with a bunch of friends from church & got to hold a sleeping baby for 3 hours....mawww! I think holding sleeping babies is probably my most favourite thing to do. They're so serene and soft and snuggly.

Yep. That was my weekend! It was fabulous!

This week is the last full week of the year! Tomorrow we're starting work on our Garbage Bag Formal outfits! Mine is going to be so pretty!

We have 2 excursions, year 4 graduation, the g'bag formal, seussical rehearsals & the "official" launch of our new playground this week! woo hoo! I think I may sleep through next weekend.

Orientation day

Yesterday was our Junior School Orientation Day. All the kids who are starting at our school in year 1-4 next year came for the day and rotated around the classes with our current kids to do some fun activities. Then in the afternoon the new kindies came too & we had a magic show (the guy we got this year was so good! such a great performer!)

It was such a fabulous day! Orientation day is usually the day I am in bed by 5pm, but we did a few things differently this year and it was so relaxed!

My room was the art room. We made Christmas decorations...

(oh my classroom looks so boring these days, since we've taken everything off the walls)

Also yesterday my new smartboard was installed. It's massive!

BUT the biggest news is... our playground is finally finished!!! How amazing does it look (and only 7 weeks late! oh the dramas)! We're going to have a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday. The kids haven't had a playground since July, so it's going to be sooo fun to see their faces when they get to play on Monday!

Hmm I have heaps more to write, but I really shouldn't still be in my pyjamas at 11am, especially when Leah's coming over soon (with cute Morgan) to make capes!

A Week of Tears

So for the past few days I have felt a tad ripped apart at the seams. I have cried more in the past week than I have since January (when I was dumped for the first time), but I'm not sure why... the dumbest things have made me fall to pieces & I have become cranky, emotional Kaye who is not a whole lot of fun to be around. I don't particularly like this side of me. And I even more hate that people are seeing this side of me.

However, there are some amazing things God is teaching me through (& also despite) this...

- I am human. Who would have thought?! This is actually a hard one for me. In my family there is not a lot of room for error. Perfection seemed to be the expectation when we were growing up, and on the outside my sisters and I didn't stray too far from the ideal our parents set for us. But this mindset doesn't help when I do make mistakes... which does actually happen from time to time (ok, actually quite frequently). Being wrong is so hard. I am realising how much pride there is in my life. It's quite disgusting.

- I am so quick to judge. Arrrgh! In the past few days I have been noticing how quick I am to blame someone else for things. For the way I'm feeling. For things not working out. For... well everything. I so easily see the errors of others & hold it against them. I am realising how often I count the 'good things' I do for others and mentally create a picture of what I am 'owed'. How sinful is this behaviour! I'm embarrassed to write about it.

Earlier this week I wrote this in my journal "My house gets dirty so quickly. I just let one thing slip, then another. I don't remain vigilant with all that needs to be done and gradually the little becomes so much. Similarly in my life I let some 'small sin' slip in, I spend less time in the Word. I become complacent. Soon I am overwhelmed. Or so far gone. I don't remember purity anymore."

I feel that right now I am at a point where I need to really stop just travelling along like everything is ok. I need to be raw before God. Last night I prayed that God wouldn't just help me to stop crying, but to dig into that deeper part of me and tear it out. It hurts to see my sin laid bare. So much of me wants to hide from God, from those around me. But this needs to happen. now.

- I'm learning about grace. again. Undeserved forgiveness. Fresh starts. Unconditional love. From amazing friends (thank you, thank you, thank you) who don't give up on me and from a God who... well where do you start!

- I'm learning that the devil uses my own insecurities (if only that list was a tad shorter) to trap my mind. Actually I learnt this from watching Harry Potter yesterday. Can God teach you things through Harry Potter? um... well He did. There is this one scene where Ron and Harry need to destroy a horcrux. Ron is poised with the sword ready to attack. However, when Harry opens the locket, the spooky spirity things (um) come flying out and start telling Ron all sorts of untruths about Harry and Hermoine, which (as the audience you can recognise) are things Ron has been contemplating for weeks, and despite Harry's best efforts to tell Ron that the horcrux is lying, he still stands there and lets these lies wash over him for a while. The horcrux didn't say "you have ugly hair" or anything like that, though that may have offended him, instead it cut him deep, where it hurt. The lies it told reflected that which he was most insecure about, things he feared. I think in someways this is how we make it easy for the devil to get a foot-hold, by not being secure in the God we trust. So often I spend too long dwelling on thoughts of inadequacy, of failure, of what might/might not be, instead of knowing that God knows the plans He has for me & being confident in that.

- One other thing, which doesn't seem to fit with everything else that is going on in my life right now (but in someways fits better than anything else) is this verse that I have been mulling over since last night. It has really challenged me. "You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you." - James 5:6. This passage is talking about "the rich" and how by living their (our) lives of luxury have been passively murdering others. I've never really thought about it like that before. How do I fix this? How do I give an account to God for the lives that have been lost through malnourishment, curable disease etc on my watch?

I'm not really sure how to end this post.... so...

You Can Always Find Another Use for a Box

Ok, so I think I'm back! (if you can read this I am)
I've had to down-grade to the old version of blog-writing because that new post thing still won't load.
The past few days have been ridiculous. It is report season, which is usually ridiculous (I have easily done an extra 30 hours work in the past 2 weeks), but I am also still recovering from my dumb cold and... my computer also got really sick. Arrghhh! I won't bore you with dumb computer details. Oh and there's also only 9 more school days... which is exciting but also super-overwhelming when I consider the bazillion things I need to organise in that short time. eeek!

Ha anyway, so the past few days I have been in crazy land. But tonight. My reports are handed in (well mostly), and I have refused to do any work just for one night! Ahhhhhh!

Well, I promised you a fun story. It's probably not as fun 4 days later, but here it is...
Ok, so it was 10:45 am Saturday morning, Phineas & Ferb was on (I LOVE that show!) and I was cooking pancakes in my pyjamas ... when there was a knock on my door (which NEVER happens). It was a girl from school (year 1) who lives down the road & her dad (who I haven't seen in 4 years...long story). Arrgh! Yep I greeted them in my pyjamas with an egg in my hand.

So C started telling me some story straight away, when her dad interrupted and said "so it's ok if she stops by for a bit? I'll pick her up at 12." Eeeeeeek! My house was disgusting (um this week's excuse is... I was sick). So anyway I spent the next hour and a bit with a 6 year old. We made pancakes, stuck up my snail chalkboard, drew on it, made some Christmas ornaments, played with my cat, sang along to our school cd and talked about the romances of Year 1. It was actually fun, despite my "arrgh I need to get started on my reports" and "my house is so messy" brain.

It turned out this little person was a bit of a blessing in disguise. She concluded that it was because I didn't have a husband that my house was a mess (haha), and at her house she is good at cleaning so she could 'easily fix this.' She quickly started making piles and pushing things against the wall of my lounge-room. My favourite moment was when she picked up an empty tissue box and said "you can always find another use for a box!" and then picked up my junk mail catalogues, rolled them and stood them up in the tissue box. hehehe

Here. Now you can share the joy of my catalogue-holding tissue box.


Don't be jealous, I can share, we can take turns. I could probably even make you one!

So that's how my weekend started.

In other news:
-I think my cat has finally realised that she is a cat.
-Today when I had to come up with an on the spot lesson plan I gave my kids a blank piece of paper & told them to do whatever they wanted with it to respond to this morning's BTN episode & Origami Documentary. It was amazing! They had so many unique ideas.
-I love sunsets
-James is a great book, full of so much goodness

oh! I have such a fun story to tell, but the page won't load properly. :( hehe I wonder how much you can fit into this title section... no limit yet, or yet... or yet. arrgh! i forgot to hang my wahing out. do de do... no loading page. no end to the title... I have spent way too many hours writing reports today, my head has gone a tad crazy. that's all.

I Informed You Thusly

Well this week I have been sick.

Last weekend was my Grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. 60 years is a long time! Apart from coming to the sobering realisation that I will never have a 60th wedding anniversary (well it's highly unlikely) & that I am the oldest child-less cousin (even my baby cousin is expecting his 2nd child in April), it was a fabulous weekend! I really wish I got to hang out with my aunts more often, they are so fun and lovely!

The down-side of the weekend was that sharing a room with my sick sister meant that I caught her cold/flu/horrible illness. This week I had 2 days off work. I never have days off work. Actually, that's a lie, I did have 2 days off in June also, but 4 days in one year is the most I have had EVER! I got so bored! I watched so much tv and checked my emails and facebook way too much and took everything I could to get well as quickly as I could. I love work so much!

Because I haven't blogged in a whole week here is a summary of the things that have happened since last Thursday:

Funniest conversation:
This happened while I was teaching my kids how to sew buttons today
"Miss F, I have a bit of a problem with this..."
"Oh, you've missed one of the holes in this button"
"No I haven't" (I love when actual facts are not relevant)
"Um... look closely, see you've missed this hole."
"No, I remember I definitely went in all the holes"
"It's ok, we can fix it, see how you've gone through three of the holes, but this one..."
"I don't know what you're talking about"
(I reached frustration point soon after this)

Funniest work sample of the week: (they had to fill in the missing words)
Daniel was thrown into a lion den because he was caught by mischief by some of the king's helpers. But God protected him by keep-ing the tigers away from him. When King Darius saw this he made a law that everyone should behave and he threw his officials into the den. They were immediately angry.

Dumbest thing I've done all week:
I fell off my lounge. I was sitting on the arm of the lounge as part of my "oh I'm sick, so I should clean my house" window cleaning frenzy... and somehow overbalanced and landed on the floor, on my back, with a sore arm. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. No-one was watching, so I did both.

Verses I've been pondering this week:

James 4:1-4 "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill & covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." A good friend was sharing with me what she learnt from these verses the other day. I love that God can teach us each something different through the same passage. I have been really challenged about my motives in asking God for stuff. Especially about my future husband and kids. Why do I want to be married? I think honestly a lot of it just for social acceptance, to be part of the 'married' club. hmm

Jonah 4:2 "I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity." This verse makes me laugh because it is said in anger! He's mad because God gave Ninevah a second chance... um hang on Jonah, didn't God give you a super big second chance just a chapter ago? I love that the accusations he brings against God are his kindness. hehehe. You're such a human, Jonah.

Jonah 2:8 "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs." So true! How many things to I cling to that are keeping me from God's grace!? hmm...
I do wonder what Jonah was thinking as he prayed this in the fish? Was he thinking of his own selfishness, or others? 

Proudest moment of the week:
My gorgeous soccer gala day girls! They were absolutely beautiful! They had the best attitudes all day, it didn't matter if they won or lost they were lovely & had fun! They encouraged each other and helped out with carrying things and took care of their sick teacher-who-technically-should-have-been- at-home-but-really-didn't-want-to-miss-the-gala-day. I love my kids!

Most encouraging words of the week:
From lovely Cass...
"My favourite thing about you.. you are always happy - even when you're not! You are totally open about being insecure about some things & it makes you come across as the most secure person in the world!!!"
mawww! I have the loveliest friends in the world.

Anyway, that's my week. Sorry this post was long. It's hard to summarise a whole week.

PS There's only 12 more teaching days, 3 excursions, 1 graduation day and 1 party day to go till I'm on holidays again! eeek!

Cheese-cake & Cheesy-jokes

Sometimes, after school, Ann-Marie and I make yummy Mars-bar cheesecake. Well, actually just this one time... and it happened to be today!

Mmmm so tasty!

We really should be on Masterchef...haha






Of course, cooking in the staffroom meant we were not short of helpful taste-testers...

Haha... after taking this photo of myself I said 2 things "Oh, that's right I have a sun painted on my face!" & "Wow! Look how red my ear is!"

See! It's really red!
Maybe it was too close to the sun... haha (yep cheesy joke!)

Why did I have a sun painted on my face I hear you ask. Well today my class performed at the local shopping square. They sang "why does the sun shine?" which I've talked about at least twice already . So of course we had to have suns painted on our faces! My girls also did a beautiful performance of "Butterfly" from the Hannah Montana movie (they choreographed the whole thing themselves!)

It was probably not the funnest performance ever, there were only about 15 people shopping between 11 & 12o'clock today it seems. It was raining most of the day (but not while we performed, thank you God!) so everyone was probably staying at home in bed.

We did, however, do an encore performance for the office staff. The girls made some of them teary (they do look super sweet), and the exec are going to try and fit them into the Presentation Night schedule!

I am so tired.

Tomorrow it's Seuss-Friday again! My kids are running assembly, we've decided to do the whole thing in rhyme... just because that's what we do.

Boy Germs

Today my kids had a "dance" assessment. For the past 3 weeks we have been teaching them the 'evening 3-step'. Today they had to pair up with the opposite sex. It was hilarious!

The other Year 3 and 4 class got over themselves fairly quickly and actually seemed to enjoy it. Not my kids though! For the past 3 weeks they have been planning ways to break limbs (one girl actually did injure herself badly enough yesterday to need crutches), lose teeth, vomit etc so they wouldn't have to dance with each other....

So as I put them into pairs this afternoon I was met with groans and moans and horrid (maybe horrified?) faces and even a spot of dry retching. 2 of my boys worked themselves up to a state of tears and they all generally did their best not to touch each other (ah the good old waltz-hold-by-correspondence). It was hilarious. I am the meanest teacher in the world.

One of my girls, afterward, said "Miss F, girls and boys DO NOT MIX! It just ISN'T RIGHT!" hehehe I love that my kids still "have germs"!

A Notable Night

This evening the amazing 5/6 Think-track class held a "Night of Notables". Basically each kid had to dress up as a "notable" person from history & present a 3 minute speech in 1st person. Each character had a little stand set up with props and the audience moved around the room to hear their choice of the 13 speakers who were presenting at one time. Each kid did his/her speech 4 times, taking turns with a partner at their particular stand. (hmm it makes sense when you're there, I think I failed at explaining it though... sorry)

It was so good! 

"Guest speakers" of the night included Abraham Lincoln, Leonardo da Vinci, Mary MacKillop, Moses and Bindi Irwin. The kids did so well stepping into character and presenting the information that they had researched. I was like a proud parent, I had taught at least three-quarters of the kids at some point of their Junior School experience (as their Kindy, Year 1, Year 3 and/or Year 4 teacher... I sort of progressed through Junior School with them :) ). They were so cute and grown-up! I took so many photos and made sure I wrote on as many "comments" forms as I could.

Unfortunately I didn't get to see all of the speeches (the being in 26 places at once is always a bit of a challenge), but their beautiful teacher has invited my class to come to the encore performance tomorrow! I'm looking forward to learning more about history from my ex-students!

Show Your Working

Today my class did their yearly Maths test (while there was a thunderstorm crashing around us).
These tests are hard.
My kids did really poorly at their half yearly...and I have the smart kids. So I've been teaching them over the past month how to show the strategy they used, so that even if they got the wrong answer it would be possible for the marker (me) to see where they were going and give them some sort of credit for the attempt.

It was so interesting to see how the kids think! There were some kids who used the traditional strategies I had taught them, some who had completely forgotten that I had taught them anything and used half a page to work out that if 7 balls cost $56 then 1 ball cost $51..., and there were some whose mathematical thinking was so superior to my own that it took me a while to figure out what they were doing and how it led them to the correct answer!

My favourites were the kids who didn't know how to 'show' what they had done, so they wrote it instead:

"I plused the hundreds then I plused the tens then the ones then I plused the answers and !" 

(I love that her "ta-da" answer was in the form of an "!")

I just minust 254 from 567 simple!

I worked it out by doing this strategy [vertical algorithm] but I didn't remember half of it so I just worked half of it out on my own.

The best was this one:

Which was accompanied by a diagram to show that she had indeed worked it out in her head...

Hahaha! I love my kids. They are hilarious.

Kaye and the hunt for the smoke detector

Today I feel bleh.
Probably just a mixture of tiredness and dumb girl hormones, I'm sure it will pass. But it has meant for the past 2 days I have avoided people as much as possible (which is quite hard when you're a teacher :) ). This is probably the dumbest idea, as without other people around I am stuck with myself... which doesn't help when myself is the problem. Hmm. Anyway I'm grateful for lovely friends who make me be social even when I'd rather be under a rock (um maybe a ledge, because otherwise I would have to dig a hole to get under a rock and I really couldn't be bothered) and lovely friends who write beautiful "I miss you" messages on facebook. maww I have the best friends.

Anyway that was a side story. I don't particularly want to delve into the depths of said brain at the moment. Instead here is a nothing-ish story of my adventure with my smoke detector.

Tonight's adventure takes place in my spare room. The smoke detector battery has been going flat for a week or so now (and I forgot, yet again, to get batteries today!). Today it got to that horrible point where it beeps every 40 seconds or so. Once I figured out it wasn't the smoke detector in the entry way that was the problem (this actually took longer than you would think), the search for the spare-room detector began. You see, 4 years ago when I bought my house I changed the batteries in my smoke detectors. But when I took that particular one off the ceiling I broke it. While every other one in the house had a hinge and flipped open, this particular one was a screw on type.

Obviously I must have still changed the battery in it and popped it on the shelf to deal with later.... 4 years on and it was a bit like a game of marco-polo to try and find this detector. As it only beeped every 30-40 seconds, and the sound echoes off walls and the wooden floor it was hilarious trying to track it down. I would wait for it to beep, head towards where I thought it was coming from & wait again. At one point I was sure the sound was coming from the base that is still attached to the ceiling. It took 5 "pip"s for me to find it, on the top shelf behind a wooden duck and a candle holder, and de-battery it. (don't worry everyone, I still have one working smoke detector & I promise I'll buy batteries soon... and maybe even figure out how to re-attach the broken detector...maybe)

Yep that's how adventurous my life gets. I searched for a smoke detector. I think I will go to bed now.

An Apple For the Teacher (or sorbet)

I realised today how spoiled I am at work!

This week one of the homework tasks I gave my kids was to cook. (I'm a bit caught up in the Junior Masterchef hype ... those kids are incredible!!!) They were sooooo excited! (they are also a bit caught up in the Junior Masterchef hype)
So this week my aide and I have been brought piklets, chocolate muffins, rainbow biscuits, cupcakes in cute chinese boxes, sweet & sour rocky-road (yum!) and this morning a thermos full of pina colada sorbet! yum! I have never been a fan of pina colada flavour...but this was DELICIOUS! I may just have to hire that kid to keep me in constant supply!

Not only have my children kept me well fed, I was also so blessed at lunch today when a boy I taught last year (who was actually quite difficult) ran up to me and asked if I needed any help with the massive box I was carrying. He took it from me and carried it all the way to my classroom, then came back for the key when I got stuck talking to a colleague. Who does that?!

I am convinced that I work in the most amazing place in the world!

In other news:
It's 1 week until we perform our rendition of 'Why Does the Sun Shine?' It is starting to look impressive! I can't wait!

Happiness in a Film Clip

I've decided my favourite band is Ok Go. Mostly because I just love their film clips!
Such amazing creativity! And they're not rude or crude or semi-naked. Just fun.
Here are my favourites:



Same song, different really amazing clip!



The treadmill one that everyone's probably already seen, but I still love it



Sometimes I wish life was this fun.
Actually life is fun, but not quite this choreographed.

:)

30 years

Today it is 30 years since my parents got married!
Weren't they cute!

My mum was just 22. oh so little! 

Congratulations on your "pearl" anniversary mum & dad!

30 Snails Had a Race...

This week has gone so fast! 2 weeks down, 6 to go until our Christmas holidays! Yay! (Although if weeks are going to keep passing so fast I don't know how to fit in testing, writing reports, three excursions, two gala days, Year 4 Graduation... oh and teaching).

This term we're doing a Science unit called "Science Experiments" (I know, super creative name). Each week we do some sort of amazing experiment and write about it. This week we poured water into our plastic test tubes, added a fizzy colour tablet & added oil... I so thought this would flop, I was sure my kids would think this was the most boring experiment. But the Year 3 teacher assured me that his class thought it was amazing... and so did mine!
Before each step I made them write a prediction of what they thought would happen. Some of their predictions were hilarious! One of my boys was sure that when oil was added that there was going to be a loud bang and an explosion... even after he had watched me pour the oil into every other test tube with no such reaction he still covered his ears & winced when I came to do his. They all thought it was incredible that no matter how many times you tipped up the test tube (they have lids) the oil would still rise to the top! Magic! I love the wonder kids find in the things we just take for granted!

Yesterday I gave my kids a Maths test. There was one particular question that at least 8 kids came to ask me about. Basically they hadn't actually read the question, so all I had to do was read it to them and they were like "oh! I get it" arrrgh! I quickly learned that question off by heart, and my aide and I were quoting at each other across the classroom "30 snails had a race. On the way 4 fell asleep. 2 ate snail bait and died. What position was the snail who came last?" Good times.

This evening I graduate! I've completed my 12 month graduate certificate in gifted education (yay!). Yesterday afternoon 3 of my beautiful friends spoilt me with a graduation celebration... pretty much an ice-cream overload - ice-cream, with a side of chocolate covered ice-cream & an iced chocolate mmm. After that I had dinner with 2 of my other gorgeous friends and two of my boys - Hayden & Morgan (I got to see all three boys this week!!!). I'm pretty sure I have the best friends in the world.

Well they were the highlights of my week. I will leave you with a picture of Seuss-Friday (our school is putting on Seussical the Musical next March, so each Friday we are allowed to wear our official Seuss shirts... of course I made a matching skirt)

The Wheels on the Bus

I was recently trying to help 2 boys at school talk out some problems they'd been having with each other on the bus to and from school. Neither boy was telling me the whole truth, their stories weren't even close to matching up and I was getting more and more confused as to what the actual problem was.
Me: "So what did L say to you on the bus?"
J: "Well I can't actually remember, but it was probably something mean."
Me: "L do you remember what you said that might have upset J on the bus?"
L: "I said 'I'm sorry and I hope that we can be friends'"

I thought I finally had a starting point of what had actually happened when J mentioned that a particular girl was sitting behind them... "Oh, so you were sitting next to each other when the problem started?"
J: "Yes, he was on the seat next to me."
L: "No, actually I was 3 seats in front of him and diagonal."
Arrrgh! I was laughing so hard on the inside!
I some how led them to some sort of resolution which included "ok boys, for the next 3 weeks you can't sit near each other on the bus."  Both boys cheered and said "YESSSS!" as if I had just told them they had won $1000 each. My brilliance amazes me! hahaha. Who would have thought that if you were having a problem with someone on the bus you could... um... sit somewhere else!

Fine-print, schmine-print

bah!

I have spent the last 2 months (well not 2 months straight) creating a photo book for my mum and dad's 30th wedding anniversary. It was a free photobook (snapfish.com.au), all I had to do was eat 3 packets of crumpets. But I don't feel bad about giving them a free present because I spent ages stealing, scanning, uploading & editing the photos.

Of course I have left it way too late, since their anniversary is next weekend. But just as I clicked "add to cart" I realised that I have made the 20x28cm book instead of the 20x20 one I was meant to make. ARGHH! Even though they are the same price, the voucher only covers the 20x20 one. bah! if only I had read that a little more carefully before now.

So anyway that's my rant. It'll be ok. maybe it can be a Christmas present. haha

In other news:
Tonight I went to "chicks at the flicks", it was heaps of fun! We saw 'Life as We Know It" and got showbags full of goodies!
Yesterday was Leonard's dedication. Oh he is soooooo cute! His parents wrote a song for him and sang it at church, it was the sweetest thing!
This week is super busy, but fun & on Saturday I graduate again :)

Ok bedtime.

The Grass is Green...

This week I literally noticed how green the grass is... and the trees and plants. Maybe it's because it's been non-stop raining lately. Wow! So much green everywhere! Green has never been one of my favourite colours, but I am growing in appreciation for the freshness and life it breathes! Anyway that's my random thought for the day, but it sort of relates to the end of this blog...I'll get there soon.

This week has been super busy, and exhausting, but so fun! It has gone so fast, but I feel like I've done a month's worth of planning and organising and teaching. On Tuesday I got told that I have a new role next year - GATs (gifted and talented) co-ordinator. eeek! so excited but nervous!

Today my cute class and I discovered something called 'energy beads' - they are these plastic beads that start white, but the UV rays from the sun react with the beads and they become brightly coloured (and go back to white when you are no longer in the sun)! Magical! My kids loved them! I made them get a 'white-bead' out of each container, which they thought was ridiculous (but they are used to me and the random things I make them do) & they threaded them onto a leather strap. Most murmured that they were probably 'glow-in'the' dark beads, but I gave nothing away & just sent them outside... and immediately heard shouts of "THEY'RE GLOW IN THE SUN!" So cute. We spent the whole morning discussing UV rays, testing whether they worked in water and glass and under mud (um...), how UV-protective my sunglasses are (not very) & whether sunscreen actually protects you from UV (it does). So interesting!

Ok we're getting closer to the grass connection...

Tonight my church started a '40 hours of Prayer' weekend. There are 10 prayer stations set up around the hall and you book in an hour to spend in there. I only got to 3 stations (even though I stayed well after my hour was up).

I started in the 'Tabernacle'. It was a tent with some candles and a wooden cross. It was amazing just to sit and contemplate the sacrifice of Jesus and the huge-ness of God! It's so easy to think of God in terms of what I can see and what I need. I think of God as the creator of our planet (which He is), of pretty sunsets, amazing animals and such, which is huge! But not even a blip on the radar of who God is! When I consider that our planet, of 7 billion other individuals (each with their own issues and relationships and dreams and such), could fit inside Jupiter 1000 times. My brain doesn't come close to fathoming this. But then Jupiter could fit inside our sun 1000 times. Our sun which is 93 000 000 miles away (I learnt this in the Why Does the Sun Shine Song). And our sun is just a middle sized star... in a galaxy  that is just one of numerous galaxies! anyway it made my head spin that the God who is so much bigger than all that loves us enough to send his own Son into the creation so save us! wow.

Anyway then I went to the painting station and painted the two verses that were swimming in my head:

Psalm 8:3-4 "When I consider your heavens, the moon & stars that you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"

&

Hosea 11:8b "My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused." Hosea is such an interesting book! I love this picture of a God who can't give up on his people even though they have given up on him so often!

Lastly I went to 'post a letter to God' table. I really felt I needed to pray about the singleness of my beautiful friends & I, so I wrote God a letter about it. Being single and in your late 20s has such a stigma attached to it and I have spent many nights crying to God about this - the 'what's wrong with me?' , the 'it's not fair!', the 'where's my prince charming' etc.
Tonight I prayed differently, it was a bit of a culmination of the last few months of pondering and praying and learning and reading I've been doing.
I thanked God for this season. I prayed that God would continually remind us of his love, our worth in him, the ministries, relationships and opportunities that are unique to being single. That he would help us to not believe the lies satan (& the eharmony ads) tries to throw at us.
It's so easy to see the grass as being greener, to want what we don't have (random side-note: I was talking to 2 friends with one year olds the other day. Both were complaining about their kids were constantly mucking around with the phones and remote controls. One said "it's like whatever he's not allowed to touch is what he constantly trying to play with," the response of my other friend was so true: "isn't that we all do, even as adults? we're never happy with what we have, we're always want what we can't have!"), to cry when the girls that you used to lead at kids club get married, to not want to give the snuggling baby you kidnapped back...

But as I prayed I realised how important it is to notice how green your grass is. (Mine is super green right now! literally & metaphorically)

Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work I go! Yay!

Back to School today!
Oh I love my job! I work with the most amazing people, it was almost like a family reunion coming back after 2 weeks of holidays!

Term 3 seems like it was months ago, but once I got into my classroom it was like I had never had a holiday (in a good way). My kids are so fun! I really like them! This morning I got them to write expositions (persuasive essays) on whether students should wear a school uniform. My favourite was a very passionate (she even used capitals for emphasis) "when we don't wear the right uniform we get DEHYDRATED by the teachers!" Um, yes that's right, if you wear the wrong shoes to school we take all liquids from you! haha.

During the holidays our Junior School playground almost got a make-over... but the special rubber stuff they were putting on the ground became bubbly (it's not meant to), then the guy got gastro and now the foreman's apparently quit, so they only got a 2 metre strip done, so the term has started with the playground roped off... BUT there is an amazing new 3 metre tall 'spiderman' climbing frame in the playground! I so can't wait till we the kids can play on it! It looks like this, but is red with blue web:

It's such an interesting shape! Of course, I made a lesson out of it! We spent the afternoon discussing 3D-shapes, edges, corners, faces (even invisible ones), polygons (did you know that the 'gon' in polygon actually comes from the word for 'knee' hehe! so 'polygon' = 'many knees', my kids love that definition), pyramids, prisms and -hedrons. I got the kids to count how many edges the new play equipment's frame had, and come and get that many matchsticks off me to make a 3D model of it. Well we obviously need to work on counting in my class, some kids only needed 18 sticks, while others asked for 54. hmm. Well we're going to finish the models tomorrow, I'll try and take some photos to post.

After the kids went home I had to make my own model (curiosity was too much for me!). It was harder than I thought. But I did find out that there are 20 (invisible) triangular faces, 30 edges and 12 vertices on our spider-ball.  Anyone know what shape this is called? Google had to help me out with this one. It's (don't tell my kids, this is their homework for tonight)... an icosahedron.

There ends the maths lesson for the day.

I meant to clean my room today...

Does anyone remember this book from 20-ish years ago? My little sister owned it.

Pretty much the story is about a little girl who "meant to" clean her room, but she kept getting distracted... by a rollerskating sheep, a pig in desperate need of a bath, a roaring lion and so on.

This is the story of my life.

I am... (I am about to confess something huge & if you know me in real life I know you will be so shocked you will fall off your chair...) I am... reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaally bad at tidiness. I am the opposite of a neat-freak. Not because I don't care, mostly because it just doesn't occur to me to tidy & put things away AND when I do put things away I forget where they are, whereas if I leave them filed on the floor I know exactly where they are AND there are usually a billion other things I could be doing (such as visiting cute babies, hanging out with amazing friends, watching tv, facebooking, sleeping or even marking or programming...).

Anyway, I decided these holidays to be super selfish (but not in my usual super-selfish way - which would be to visit, hangout and catch up with everyone I know) and stay home and clean. I have spent 3 whole days tidying, sorting, chucking, building shelves, sticking things up, washing & vacuuming. I have discovered so many treasures - for instance who knew one person could accumulate 3 hole punches, 7 pairs of scissors and 15 rolls of tape (fifteen!?!!).

Just because I am so proud of my cleaning efforts, here are some photos of the finished, tidy bedroom of mine...

Oh yeh, not too bad... doesn't really look that spectacular, you might think.

Ok, well here are the before pictures...

please do not lose all respect for me.

I am good at other things...

*deep breath*

This was my bedroom day 1 of these school holidays...

 

Eeeek! Oh I'm exhausted just looking at those photos.

Just be glad I didn't also share the photos of my lounge-room and kitchen! (but trust me, they are also super tidy now!)

Well there you have it. Confessions of a serial um...messy-person (hmm), with 6 more things to high-light of her holiday to-do list!

Also I found this quiz so you can find out if you are a neat-freak (though I think it is one of those things you have usually worked out by the time you are a grown up...

My Type of Gardening...

This afternoon my dad showed up at my house with his mower and whipper snipper.
It's back to dad mowing my lawn these days (since my lawn-mowing neighbour died a few weeks ago). I could save up and buy my own mower, but i think deep down dad likes helping out at my little house... maybe.

My role was the whipper snippering. I'm not super good at it... considering I've only done it about 5 times before. But, this time I did manage to avoid the hose and tv aerial cord (um...). I did, however, accidentally slice one of my rose plants...oops!  Of course this inspired me...

One of the things on my to-do list these holidays was to sort out my garden. I have learned that when you leave your garden to its own devices for 4 years it tends to become a little unruly. Well, holding that whipper-snipper gave me amazing super powers of gardening... I whippered everything! It's the quickest type of gardening there is! Yep my "garden" has been been cut down to size and looks really tidy! I am aware that cutting weeds just means they'll grow back even meaner (sort of like shaving)... but for today I don't care. There's one more thing I can high-light off on my to-do list (high-lighting is happier that crossing things off).

Well I'm off to bed. Hopefully I will be able to move in the morning! My arms were so jelly-ish this evening from the whippering, it was even hard to lift fork to mouth... oh dear, definitely need more weights training at the gym :)

My Three Boys

This year 3 of my besties had baby boys within 3 months of each other.
I think they are the cutest little people in the whole world & love hanging out with them so much!

This is Hayden

This is Leonard

This is Morgan

Sometimes (um...ok, so maybe constantly) I wish I was a mummy, but that is not my story for now. I love that being single and kid-less (apart from the 26 kids I spend 30 hours a week with) means that I get to hang out with my gorgeous boys and their amazing mums heaps!

Hayden and Morgan

I soooo love their snuggles and smooches and watching their new tricks each time I visit... giggles and rolling and sitting and hair-pulling and growing! I love that even though they are still under 6-months, they already have their own little personalities. Hayden's my snuggler, he's loves the airconditioner and wall-hangings. Morgan has the funnest giggle & finds everything hilarious. I don't get to see Leonard as much cos he lives so far away. He didn't like me until last Saturday, but he sure made up for it, I got soooo many slobbery kisses and tons of cuddles!

Hanging with Morgan

Smooches from Leonard

I love dressing them up, finding cute toys & clothes for them when I'm shopping, bathing them, bottle feeding them, hugging them, watching them play, taking them on adventures, trying to teach them to say "Aunty Kaye" (it's never too early)... I love having these 3 boys in my life! 


Oh they make my heart so full!

Pretend Camping by the Beach

our tent!

To start the school holidays a friend from work and I spent the first 3 days "camping" at the top of the cliff overlooking the ocean in Bonny Hills (near Port Macquarie).

The amazing view! (at 7am)

our delicious dinner (except the veggies... they were realllllllly gross)

Of course this was camping in the loose-est sense of the word... yes we stayed in a tent. But in a caravan park with toilets & hot showers, and although we cooked a few meals on the camp bbq, we also spent some time in town eating amazing sundaes and pancakes.

the yummy sundae

mmmm iced chocolate with pancakes for breakfast!

How amazing are the clouds?!

It was absolutely beautiful! The weather was PERFECT and we had the most relaxing time. Such a fantastic way to unwind from term 3. On the first night the moon was incredible. It was massive and orange and reflected in the ocean & was 'right outside' our tent. We seriously sat on our air mattresses staring across the Pacific just in awe of God. (My camera did not do this justice! It was amazing! trust me!)

The incredible orange moon (use imagination when viewing this one)

Chilling on the beach

This bird kept us entertained for ages

Our adventures included walking the length of the beach (it took around 3 hours), a rainforest walk, art gallery, lots of crazy shops, a visit to the sick and injured koalas at the koala hospital, napping, and I read a whole book. I actually read 'The Shack'. It's been on my list of books to read for ages (and a lovely friend lent it to me months ago...).

Here are a few of the things I learnt from my camping adventure and reading The Shack...

• Nature wakes up way earlier than I like to
• You can't boil water on a barbeque
• I don't spend enough time outside
• I don't watch enough sunsets (or sunrises for that matter)
• Not much matters when you're laying on a beach or looking out at the ocean from on top of a cliff
• Rainforest plants are really violent (just in real slow motion)
• The ocean never stops (ok duh! I know this is obvious, but it actually overwhelmed me to think how many billions of litres of water were constantly churning in waves at the bottom of our cliff, I can't even fathom keeping the waves and tides sorted for one beach let alone the crazy billion-gazillion (really big number) beaches and cliffs and coasts around the world.
• Relaxing is possible
• Who cares if someone steals your juice
• God loves
• God's love is not conditional, even though it's so easy in my humaness to see it as conditional
• God's love is not hierarchical
• 'Truth' as seen by us is biased, flawed and too often ego-centric. What is true to me can change. God's truth does not change.
• It's not my job to judge
• Jesus' death changed everything
• We have been designed to live in community with God and each other
• Sometimes even the 'good stuff' in our lives needs to be removed for God to purpose something better
• God is 'especially fond of me'