priceless artwork

pink glitter pen is LP's favourite choice of medium

Here's Turtle's Battle of the foods..... Healthy vs Unhealthy

Doodlebug depicts "Ginga the Ninja" with his sidekicks "Lolli the Pop" and "Candy the Cane" defending Gingerbread Valley against the approaching M&M army...

I love the kids' imaginations and I love their artwork and treasure it.

The new craze in our house

is making minibooks. LP and I sat down to make some books and had a lovely time. We made some experimental ones, and then we made one for LP and another for her friend's birthday.

LP is already putting hers to good use. I think that she is going to be the first of my children to embrace the art of journal-writing. Don't know if it's a girl thing, this love of stationery, but LP loves her notebooks - especially now that she is learning to write.

I love LP's little princess/fairy/girl drawings that she is doing at the moment. hair curls, dresses and jewellery. And I also love her first little journal entry.... the last one to go into cyberspace.

cricket season is on again

This year we have all 3 children in the local cricket club. Doodlebug played last year and his year group are advancing from 1 day match to 2 day matches, batting one week, fielding the next. Each match is still "only" a couple of hours long. But, on a beautiful spring or summer day, there are worse places to be than on a picnic rug with some refreshments and chatting with other parents.

Turtle is in a team of some beginners and some who have played before. It's a mixed team with 2 girls playing which is fun. Girls seem to be in minority in the game of cricket. Their matches are shorter, limited number of overs, and both teams get to try their hand in batting and fielding.
Here's Turtle warming up before going out to bat in the 3rd pair.

After his team finished batting, Turtle disappeared. His team-mates were all out fielding, but Turtle was nowhere to be found. I did what I usually do when any of my children are missing, I look up... tree-climbing or other climbing is popular. Sure enough, Turtle was exploring the local vegetation. He informed me that he only likes batting, that fielding is boring. (I tend to agree with him there.... there is a lot of standing around waiting for a ball to come your way). But after some negotiating and reasoning - team sport, help your team mates, get to do some bowling as well etc etc - he wandered onto the field again.

LP starts Kanga Cricket in a couple of weeks. This is where the little ones learn the basic skills and rules of the game. As luck would have it, they will be playing on an oval a couple of minutes' walk from our house which is handy. The Little Possum is quite excited about it all.

yo-yo...

I thought I was doing allright, having mastered "Walking the dog", "the satelitte" and "around the world".... then Peter sent me this clip:


Yo-yo's were really popular when I was in high school, and I hope they come around again (boom-boom) for my kids to play with and maybe become as skilled as the guy in the movie. Until then, we will just continue working on the skill of tying shoelaces....

as if I needed any evidence of my aging.....

On my travels around blogland, I now visit the blogs of these two:
Katrine and Jaran.
I had the joy of being their babysitter what seems like a few short years ago, and here they are with beautiful children of their own!
.......And here I am with a grey streak that makes me look like a red-haired Morticia :)

Having it all, doing it all.....

I grew up in an era of militant feminism - the 70's. We were raised to believe that we could indeed have it all - except a bra, which we were expected to burn... (thankfully, by the time I had one to burn, the mighty bra-fires were a thing of the past).

This week I have been preparing for my input to our quarterly Enrichment Meeting in Relief Society (the women's organisation at church). It is our "Springclean for Body and Soul" meeting and it is going to be great! As women we are so often in charge of caring for and nurturing others, but running on empty ourselves. We can't serve from a void, and so this activity is all about how to take care of ourselves. The mythical Superwoman looms. In believing that we can have it all, we are often trying to do it all.... in one go. I'm on that particular hamster-wheel often. But, having said that, the reality of attaining Superwoman status for me is different to the ideals of my teenage years as I find my priorities changing with the changing seasons of my life. Career took a backseat to my children, although I still work part-time. My paid work was replaced by voluntary work in the form of church and school responsibilities. My days and evenings can be very full, indeed!

In a moment of immaculate timing as I was thinking about Saturday's activity, I heard the first interview with our new Governor-General, Quentin Bryce. This woman has a resume that makes me exhausted just to read it. She is amazingly accomplished - First woman to teach law at the Univ of QLD, first director of QLD Women's information service, QLD director Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission, Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Governor of QLD and now the first female Governor-General of Australia. Somewhere in all of this she is also a wife, a mother of five and grandmother to five.

As I was listening, I was impressed with her, but my ears really pricked up when she talked about the importance of women putting themselves at the top of the family agenda (and also later how she came to learn that the hard way).

"I've been saying to young women, you can have it all but not all at the same time, and how important it is to take very good care of yourself, of your mental and physical and spiritual wellbeing,"
(...)
"It's hard to do. It's easier to be a workaholic than to have a truly balanced life. It's very tough for a lot of women teetering on that tightrope of balancing too many responsibilities."

Some responsibilities come with the territory of family and work. But then there are the responsibilities we add along the way. I think it's necessary to review the responsibilities according to our priorities and (to go along with my last post) put first things first. And then we need to get over the feeling that putting our needs first sometimes is selfish!

"When a mother is well, the family is well". I might just write that inside the cover of my journal as a reminder to take a little time out for myself.... and I am starting with Saturday!!

Musing the passing of time

On Saturday I was in the car with Turtle and LP, going from one cricket match to another (can't wait for Kanga cricket to start in a few weeks.... then we'll have 3 places to be each Saturday!).

Turtle was watching the digital clock in the car and it read 12.59. He said "that's the very last minute of 12 o' clock, soon it will be 1 o'clock". For Turtle it was a simple matter. He is just becoming confident with clocks and time, and each hour has 60 minutes. I took the opportunity to point out that this particular minute would never come back again. Turtle and LP's eyes glazed over a little as I went on to talk about the importance of making the most of the moments and enjoying them.... But I sat there for a while feeling grateful that a simple observation from my child would give me a valuable moment of reflection of how I spend my time.

I was reminded of one of my favourite gen.conf. talks elder Richard G. Scott's "First things First"

"Are there so many fascinating, exciting things to do or so many challenges pressing down upon you that it is hard to keep focused on that which is essential? When things of the world crowd in, all too often the wrong things take highest priority. Then it is easy to forget the fundamental purpose of life. Satan has a powerful tool to use against good people. It is distraction. He would have good people fill life with 'good things' so there is no room for the essential ones. Have you unconsciously been caught in that trap?
(...)
"Each of us needs to periodically check our bearings and confirm that we are on course. Sometime soon you may benefit from taking this personal
inventory:
"What are my highest priorities to be accomplished while on earth?
"How do I use my discretionary time? Is some of it consistently applied to my highest priorities?
"Is there anything I know I should not be doing? If so, I will repent and stop it now.
"In a quiet moment write down your responses. Analyze them. Make any necessary adjustments.
"Put first things first."

So, this morning I sat down and wrote some cards and letters to people who have come to my mind often along with impressions to do something for them by way of expressing appreciation or encouragement. So often the thought comes along and then I am distracted by something and I don't act on my impression.

To finish - the words of John Wesley:

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

Live well this week!

Monday morning word cloud

I love making these.... this one's a Wordle

my little indulgence...

I have a certain fondness for the tisanes from T2 and it's a small indulgence that I allow myself. I love the aroma as I open the tin, a promise of the scrumptiousness to follow. Some tisanes, like peppermint look ordinary while others look a bit like what I find in the vacuumcleaner bag... all dustballs and bits of fluff. The "relax" tisane falls in this category. But the combination of chamomile and other herbs and flowers does exactly what it says on the box - it is wonderfully relaxing. But my favourite by far is the Passion experience.

Just look at this:

It looks like potpourri, doesn't it? Its gentle fruitiness is delicious, and it doesn't even need biscuits to go with it (did I just say that?!). Now that summer is coming, I look forward to drinking it chilled, perhaps mixed with a bit of Turkish cherry ?.... aaah, the possibilities are endless!

Fairy Birthday - rampaging dragons and one beautiful little fairy

I'm a little short on photos from the party itself since auntie Jane took most of the photos while I was doing facepainting and other things. The party went really well, thanks to my helpers and despite the rampaging dragons......

here's the birthday fairy, looking beautifully poised and quite regal....

and here are rampaging dragons. I was quite pleased with how the dragon costumes came out - and so were the boys.. On the day of the party they were dressed at 7am ready for action. I did not give in to their request for blow torches that they wanted for authentic flame breath, though......

Turtle tried to lift off with the help of the helium balloons, but discovered that 12 balloons were not quite enough - thankfully. He will be the one to set off on a deckchair tied to balloons, I'm sure!

yearbook fun

Thanks to Teemu who set us onto the website of Yearbook Yourself , we've been belly-laughing for hours playing with our photos to change our appearances. I find myself married to this handsome specimen

I realised I have been letting myself go, so I went and spruced myself up with a lovely beehive to match!

I think the early 60's suited me well. By freaky (or not so freaky) coincidence, I look a lot like my mother did then....

The 80's were a little scary with the perms, so I find myself drawn to the no-fuss bob of the mid 90's.... Come to think of it, I did have a no fuss bob then.... except I wasn't blonde. Looking at it makes me want to cut my hair short again!

Just look at our beautiful offspring:

And another hour went by at the computer, but much hilarity was found....

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Peter!

This poor man always gets a little left behind because Father's Day falls right after LP's birthday. There was no time for breakfast in bed this morning before church, so we had a little Father's Day picnic in the garden with left over party food at lunchtime instead. The kids had all made Daddy something special - LP had made the tie, Doodlebug painted a canvas and Turtle made a special drawing.

They all came to pose for photos one by one.... by birth order oddly enough.

party preparations...

tissue paper flowers, butterflies both large and small

tooth fairy boxes to decorate and head pieces to wear

and a specially grown chupa chup tree to eat

I think we are just about ready...... except for the birthday cake.....!