Monday 31 December 2012

It Is Well! (New years resolutions)

Well Christmas is done and dusted!  We went away as planned and came back early as Bear didn't cope very well. 
The trip home was HORRENDOUS, save for a little visit with The Bumpiest Path and a dunk in their pool.
WA is having a bit of heat wave at the moment so it was HOT and the aircon in our car died long ago.  There are no spare seats in our car so the kids were crammed up with each other and we took the dog with us so she took up about a third of the boot space which meant the luggage encroached into the back of the car too.
We got home late so everything was just dumped into the house and we got to bed late and the little ones didn't sleep too well (and haven't really since we got back) so I woke up the next morning tired beyond all belief and with my house...which I went to great lengths to clean before we left...pretty much trashed.
With the heat we have had this last few days the kids have been unable to play outside, so they are cranky and still tired from the trip and all the hype building up to Christmas so I have found myself feeling very discontented with my lot in life...in fact I've been downright CRANKY!



Then we went to Church yesterday and they showed a little slide show about a man named Horatio Spafford.



Born in 1828, he became a prominent lawyer in Chicago.  He married Anna Larsen and together they had 5 children...4 girls and a boy.  In 1870, they lost their only son to pneumonia. 
The following year they invested heavily in real estate but lost it all later that year in the Great Fire of Chicago.
In 1873 they decided that they needed a holiday and Anna and the girls boarded a ship for England, with the view that Horatio would follow once he had tied up all his business in Chicago.  On the voyage, the ship sank taking 226 lives with it...including all 4 of their daughters.  Upon receiving a telegram "Saved Alone" from Anna, Horatio set sail for England to be with her...and as they approached the place where the ship had sunk he went down into his cabin and wrote the words...

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

(Refrain:) It is well (it is well),
with my soul (with my soul),
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
(Refrain)

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
(Refrain)

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pain shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
(Refrain)

And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
(Refrain)


 What on earth have I been through that can compare with THAT!!!

NOTHING!

So my new years resolution this year is to be more content with what I have cause my life really ain't so bad :)

The Spaffords went on to have 3 more children, one of whom also died.  They continued in the Lords work running soup kitchens, hospitals and orphanages during and  after WW1

Friday 28 December 2012

Family!

Over the last few months I have seen other families get so busy that "family" goes out the window.

In one, they actually gave away their kitchen table because they never had time to sit and eat together anymore, a sad thing when the children are only young (aged between 2 and 8).

I've seen life become so full of other "stuff" that the kids no longer have time to just go outside and play.

I've seen a mum who works shift work, who is at work from before the kids get home from school until late, and is still asleep when they leave in the morning, so if she works for 4 or 5 days straight then she doesn't see her kids (3 of whom are still in primary school) for that period of time.

Now I am not passing judgement, not at all, I know these families really well and they are just trying to make ends meet, and to make it through.  But when I think on it, it makes me extremely thankful for what I have in my life.

We seem to have been busy here too but we have been so blessed to have been able to wind things back a bit and still make time for family.

There are a lot of things that irk me about living in a small town, but there are also a lot of things that I love and I think the thing I love most is the size of our yard.  We have a half acre, and while it's not real flash...actually there's still a LOT of work to do...there is so much room for the kids to run and play and I take a huge amount of pleasure just watching them at this time of year doing things like...

having an after dinner game of cricket (and I use the word cricket very loosely...I think any cricket player worth his salt would NOT derive the same pleasure I do from watching)...


slip sliding on the slippery dip...


jumping on the trampoline...


playing in the sandpit...






or in the blow up pool.



And of course our recent purchase of the MacGyver box set makes for hours of family time.






Mahjong is also one of our favourite family passtimes, which has admittedly taken a little bit of a back seat this year with 2 toddlers in the house! (but I am planning on trying to dig it out this holidays)

I am looking forward to swimming lessons being over (which start next week) so that we can have a couple of weeks before school goes back just to be at home and I am extremely grateful for the time that we have together.

Friday 30 November 2012

The Conversation!

Yesterday we had a meeting at the high school about Bears transition (I should add that trying to communicate with this high school is like beating your head against a brick wall)

Anyway during this meeting there was a conversation which I felt pretty much sums up the past (almost) 11 years...

DCP Case Worker - You have to remember that when working with Bear you are not just working with an autistic child you are also working with a severely damaged child, those years of abuse and neglect would have left him with some level of Post Traumatic Stress.

Head Teacher - Well is someone working with him for that?

Case Worker - No.

Head Teacher - Well why not?

Case Worker - Because basically no one really knows where to start!


Thank you!

Have I mentioned that we have the BEST case worker!

actually I really mean that!  When Bear first came into care he used to have contact with his Mum at one of the local daycare centres and at that time our case worker worked at that daycare so she has actually cared for him HANDS ON and seems to REALLY understand that when we say "this is what is happening" then we mean that "THIS is what is happening" and I can't thank her enough for the support she has shown since she started working for the department :)

Sunday 25 November 2012

The Christmas MacGyver

Last year I REALLY struggled to find the Christmas spirit and while this year I have been able to feel a small tingle of that familiar excitement underneath all the stress for the most part the stress has taken over and the Christmas spirit has remained just a tingle.

Until about a week ago.

Our kids are growing up and it is a constant battle to find tv programs for them that are age appropriate but not the CRAP that they seem to spew out  by the truckload, full of attitude and disrespect for authority so the Geek and I had discussed it and had decided that when our family tax benefit went in this year we would buy the full 7 seasons of MacGyver on DVD for the kids. 

So we did, and it arrived a couple of weeks ago and come Friday night we decided to have a "Macgyver night" complete with popcorn and fizzy drink for some "quality" (?) family time.



Well what a blast from the past and the Geek and I both had a good old chuckle at some it but with all of our family (even Bear came and had a looksee) gathered together and enjoying each others company I really felt the spirit of Christmas.



No there was nothing Christmassy about those episodes of MacGyver that we watched but the feeling of togetherness and family is what Christmas should be about...aside from the obvious of course...the birth of Jesus...and it really did turn out to be QUALITY family time.

Since then our kids have become real Mac fanatics and with Tiger being a bit of a science nut I do worry that we are going to find things being "MacGyvered" all over the place but I guess as long as he doesn't blow anything up we can probably cope with that :)



So Christmas here I come!

Sunday 11 November 2012

Life!

Life at the moment is tough!

This last couple of months it has been one thing after another, after another, after another. 

There have been several big things going on in our lives...Bear's high school transition - HUGE!  It affects everyone in our household and I am expecting the fallout to last at least a year...not to mention that the special ed teacher at the high school just seems to have no idea (or doesn't care) and won't include us in the process!

Closing down the business - HUGE!  There were lots of deciding factors and we put it off as long as we could but once the decision was made we just wanted to get the stock sold and get it closed.  So when the time came to announce our closing I wrote a nice little blog post about it and did a nice expensive promoted post on facebook, so what happened next?  Gremlins attacked our website and it crashed...about a dozen times in the first 48 hours of our closing down sale!  People were messaging me left and right saying they wanted to buy from our sale and couldn't get on the site...many asked me to put their orders through for them, which I didn't so much mind, except the toddlers could feel my stress and got crazy cranky, Chicken somehow managed to chip her front two bottom teeth and need to go to the dentist (easier said than done when you live at least 50km from anywhere) and then of course Tiger and Monkeys birthdays were coming up and we had a big double party planned so I had heaps of baking to do too! 

Ducky (now 19) is having a really rough time.  She is struggling to find her place in the world and I can tell you now that there are very few things in this world that are harder than standing back and letting your children make their own mistakes.

And then of course there is Christmas sneaking ever closer...We are heading on a 700km road trip with 6 kids, 2 of whom are under 2.  This in itself is something I am DREADING, along with the fact that we are staying at the geeks parent's place (as we usually do without a problem) only this time the geeks brother and his family are staying there too and the house just isn't big enough so I really worry that Bear is NOT going to cope, especially after everything he has been through this last 6 months.  But not only that.  Because we are going away for Christmas we are having my side of the family's Christmas get together about 3 weeks early.  At first I was really looking forward to it, even when it was decided that it would be at our house.  But my Mum has taken over and started "planning" and "inviting" and this thing is going to be bigger than Ben Hur!  I've gotten to the point where I don't even want to think about Christmas cause I just can't deal with one more thing.

But for every thing that's gone wrong over this last couple of months there is 1000 blessings.  Every giggle that comes out of our toddlers is a joy and a miracle (even if they have us pulling our hair out most of the time), we have a comfortable home on a big block in a fantastic neighbourhood.  I can't even express how grateful I am for this.  That the kids have space to run and play and when they want to ride their bikes up and down the street it is safe to do so.  I have my garden, okay it has a few more weeds than I would like at the moment, but it's also the time of year when the flowers are starting to bloom and they are beautiful.  We are planning lots of baking projects with the kids this Christmas and I am REALLY looking forward to just being a mom again.  To spending more time with our kids and just spend more time as a family.  We are blessed that as poor as we have felt we have never gone without, there has always been food in the house and the bills have never gone unpaid.  The Christmas shopping is more than half done and will probably be finished within a couple of weeks.  I have an awesome husband (even if he has me pulling my hair out most of the time hehe) and healthy children and a God who is bigger than all our problems! 
And I am thankful, sometimes I need to remind myself, but yes I am thankful!

Tuesday 6 November 2012

I've Been Slack

I have been SLACK!  It's been a FULL ON year with foster kids out the wahzoo the beginning of high school transition for Bear and a BUNCH of other little bits and pieces and I have neglected you :(

But we are closing down the business so that we will have more time and less stress so I am planning to make my best effort to get back into this, if for no other reason than to get my plethora of thoughts out of my head and down on paper...or into cyberspace at the very least :)

So to start with I will share 2 conclusions that I have come to this week (I'm pretty sure I have known them for a while)

1...There are not enough hours in the day!

2...I need more wash baskets!

And right about now that's about as profound as it gets :D


Sunday 24 June 2012

The Gift!

Two weeks ago we had a pretty big storm come through.  We lots power for about 18 hours and with the threat of another one two days later our local school closed for two days.  We also had a two birthdays in the space of 3 days that week.  These things combined with the fact that it is almost the end of the school term and that it is getting close to time to hand three of our foster kids over to their grandmother have worked together to send our kids NUTS....and I mean NUTS.  And they've stayed that way.


If you've ever struggled with your children going a little crazy then just picture NINE of them going crazy for TWO WEEKS STRAIGHT!  Suffice it to say we are KNACKERED.  Both physically and emotionally drained.

But as big as our problems seem there is always someone in a worse situation than us.  I have a friend who has just had one of her parents diagnosed with cancer.  Those of you who know me will know that I have been there and done that and I don't ever ever EVER want to go through anything like that again. I'll take my 9 crazy kids any day.

But when I was chatting to her last night she mentioned that she has made me a gift...even with all that she is going through herself she took time out of her day to do something nice for me.

I was speechless...in fact a little teary even

and all I can say is THANKYOU :)

Tuesday 29 May 2012

I Swear I My house Was Clean Today!


I swear my house was clean today
I promise that it's true
I swear my house was clean today
Until the kids came through

This morning during school time
I vacuumed and I mopped
I folded all the washing
And the dishes all got washed

But when the kids came home from school
My clean house disappeared
I've been a mum for 18 years
So I shouldn't think it's weird

They dumped their bags and shed their shoes
And helped themselves to food
But when it came to cleaning up
They just weren't in the mood

But when I sit and take it in
My hard work, all undone
I wouldn't change a single thing
Not any single one

For my babies all are precious
And their time with me not long
My heaven given blessings
And the reason for my song

The mess will still be here tomorrow
So I guess I'll just clean it up then
So that when they get home after school time
I can say this all over again!

Thursday 5 January 2012

A New Year!

Well it's only the 5th of January and already the year has gotten away from me!

I had been thinking for weeks about my new years resolutions and I think I've come up with some good ones but an ill-timed visit from auntie flo has had me feeling a little blue and a lot lacking in motivation!

Now that auntie flo has mostly left the building I am determined to start afresh and while I may yet put my new years resolutions down on paper (or cyber space as the case may be) I thought I'd kickstart a fantastic year by writing a Thankful Thursday kind of post, for I have much to be thankful for :D


I am thankful for a husband who loves me...and puts up with me when I'm cranky.

I am thankful for 6 very special, healthy children to drive me nuts during the holidays.

I am thankful that I have a reasonable sized house on a fairly big block (as much as I often complain that I need a bigger house, I don't really, I just need to learn to utilize my space better).

I am thankful for my garden...even if it is a little neglected.

I am thankful for simple things like hot running water and flushing toilets....and a good many other things that I take for granted that, when you consider the number of people worldwide who don't have these things, are really a luxury.

I am thankful for 3 meals a day, though I'm sure my body could survive on less :D

And I am thankful for a Lord who will take all my burdens from me...if I will just hand the jolly things over to him!!!

I could ramble on for hours but you get the idea, I've got it pretty good when push comes to shove if I focus on that fact the world will be a much brighter place :D