Mayana is Five

My beautiful girl.

I can’t believe that you have been in our lives for five whole years. I somehow feel like I have always known you, but also that these last five years have gone by in the blink of an eye. How can it be that my wrinkly little 5lb 2oz baby is all of a sudden this great big girl, so clever and confident and beautiful, about to start school!

I’m so proud of you my girl. There are so many times each day that I look at you and my heart feels like it literally is swelling in my chest with how much I love you. You are seriously gorgeous, with your long blonde hair and your sparkling blue eyes. You have the most delightful smile, and your giggle never fails to bring a smile to my lips.

You are so kind, and you care so deeply for people. You are really invested into your relationships with friends and family, and people mean everything to you. You love to think of ways to include other people in the things that we do.

I love the kind of sister that you are. Sometimes your brother is awfully annoying, I know. He can be so rough with you, and he LOVES to touch your things, especially when you don’t want him to. Most of the time you are so patient with him, and you try to include him when you can. Just today, he was playing with your brand new stroller that Grandma Suki bought for your twins. You must have told him 200 times these last few days that you don’t really want him playing with it. Today, instead of yelling at him to put them back, you decided to involve him in your fabulous imagination instead, and invited him to babysit your girls while you were getting ready for the day, which he did ever so beautifully for you! You love to hold hands with him across the back seat when we are driving somewhere, and if he won’t give you a kiss and a cuddle when he first sees you in the morning, your heart is almost broken. You truly do adore him, and I hope and pray that you two will always love each other and be close. I can’t wait to see how this new more grown up version of yourself will be with your newborn baby brother when he arrives in a few more weeks!

I think one of the things that you are most known for Mayana, is your incredible imagination. I love how creative you are and how absorbed you can become in make-believe. Sometimes it frustrates you that other kids aren’t able to keep up with what’s going on in your games. You can’t fathom how they can possible not see the pretend baby you are asking them to hold, or why they are not passing you the lettuce so you can finish making your burger!! I love listening to you play with your toys, when you give everyone different voices and have them involved in complicated situations and conversations.

Your other big love is learning. You are genuinely very clever (and I’m not just saying that because I’m a proud Mama). You love to ask questions and figure out not only how things work but why. You like to know things from every angle, and you retain everything you’re told or hear. Sometimes I’m surprised at the things that you know! You particularly love letters, and the thing that you are most excited about with starting Prep this year, is learning to read. I think you’re under the impression that you’ll be an expert by the end of day one. You already can name all of the letters, and tell what sound they make, and have started to figure out how that relates to reading. I catch you sounding out words, or using the first few letters on a sign or book to figure out what the word says. You can write the names of everyone in our family, and you constantly ask me how to spell certain words so you can write stories  underneath the amazing pictures that you draw.

You are still a little girl in so many ways, thank goodness! You love fairies and princesses, and Peppa Pig, and Bananas in Pajamas and Playschool (actually pretty much any show on ABC4Kids is okay with you!). You still love being creative and doing any kind of artsy-crafty activity… especially painting. I don’t think a day goes by where you don’t at least have your drawing book and textas out – and your pictures are delightful! You love all the colours, but still have a soft spot for pink, and you like anything that’s girly – especially if it has a bit of bling or sparkle!

You also love Jesus, and have an unquestioning faith that is both humbling and inspiring. Your immediate response upon hearing that someone is sick or hurting or sad is to pray for them. When I told you on that morning last October that Oma had passed away during the night, you asked me why I was crying when I knew I would see her again in Heaven. There was no doubt in your mind of the fact, and I know that the way you comforted many of our grieving family members (including myself) with such compassion during the days around Oma’s funeral, was extremely touching and special to them. My sweet, kind girl.

Oh Mayana, I am going to MISS YOU when you start school next week. Next week! This has just arrived far too quickly, and I’m afraid I get a huge lump in my throat and tears in my eyes that spill over more often than not when I think about it too much! We have been the best of buddies for the past two years, and done so many things together and learned so much together. I still wish we could have done more! I know I’m going to be the kind of mum who relishes school holidays for the time I’ll get to spend with you, precious one.

I love you, my beautiful daughter. I’m so proud of you and the way you are growing up. I have loved getting to know you and watch you become your own person over the last five years, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for you! As you say to me, “I love you around the whole planets and back a hundred times”. I really do.

Love Mama.

You can view Mayana’s 5th Birthday Interview HERE:

Her 3rd birthday video is here. Prepare to melt from all the cuteness!!

Changes

{image credit}

Over the past few weeks I have had four dreams where I have discovered strange rooms in our house. Like, rooms I didn’t know anything about, and suddenly there was this whole new section to our home that I’d never seen before. The first one was just weird, and I put it down to pregnancy, but when it started to reoccur I grew curious. So I turned to Google (what would we do without it?), and amongst a whole lot of borderline creepy new age-y stuff, and the above picture, I found that the thought is that these kind of dreams happen when your subconscious is getting you ready for surprises in your life - new interests, goals, potential ventures, and/or unexpected possibilities, and whole unexplored parts of yourself that you never knew existed.

Weird. But then I thought about it more and began to realise how much our life is about to change.

The obvious one is a new baby. Having three children is definitely going to be a big change in our life. I remember reading an article once by this mother who was totally overwhelmed by the idea of having more kids than hands, and I can tell you now that I completely relate. I feel somehow like this jump between two to three is going to take a bigger stride than the one between one and two. It’s going to mean changes in our home too; we’ll have to shuffle bedrooms and the ‘Making Room’ so that we can all fit. Lots of change, in lots of ways.

Reuben is finally having his endoscopy procedure next week. We will hopefully have his diagnosis confirmed, and, God willing, can hopefully get the answers we need to start to close the door on that yucky chapter of his life. This will definitely be a good change.

We are also entering a new phase in our life that is going to last for many years. School. We will for the first time be ruled by a strict routine. Little Tadpole is going to have to fit naps wherever they fit, because there will be a school run to consider! It’s going to mean earlier nights and earlier mornings, lunchboxes, homework, uniforms, commitments.

And then there’s Mayana. My beautiful girl who is, as I write this, at her very last day of Kindergarten. Who in about 52 days begins her schooling journey. I’ve written before about how confronting I’m finding this season. It’s one of those things that has always been looming.. you know it’s coming and you try to prepare yourself for it, but all of a sudden, it’s here! Those seemingly endless days of full-time Mayana, where I’m her number one and we get to play and learn and do everything together, they’re almost over. I know some of those things will stay the same but I also know it will be different. Almost like I’m handing over the reins to another person to help bring her up. Mayana is so excited, and I know that she will thrive at school. She cannot wait to learn how to read (I think she believes it will magically occur after her first day), and told me last night that she plans to read to our whole family every single night. She is going to make lots of friends and learn so many new things and love every minute of it, I have no doubt about that. But I am going to miss her.

I keep thinking about the year that I worked, and Pete was at home with her. I remember on my first day, it was so overwhelming… meeting all these new people, learning about my new responsibilities and systems and how things work, and all the time with this huge dull ache in my chest, thinking to myself what am I doing! I should be with my baby! My baby is not my baby anymore. She’s a confident and self-assured, outgoing and bubbly, beautiful, kind and friendly nearly-five-year-old. How on Earth did that even happen! I could never keep her from this just because I don’t feel ready, and the thought hasn’t even cross my mind. But I am finding it a lot to process. I’m an over-thinker, I always have been. My brain literally never stops. Ever.

We took her to her Prep orientation the other week and she was so excited to meet her teacher, whom she greeted like royalty, and happy to recognise some familiar faces of kids who will be in her class. She spotted dress-ups and was adorned in a flowing princess gown before we knew it. She coloured in and played with playdough, did a painting, decorated a biscuit, and played with her Papa in the playground. She looked right at home. We bought her school uniforms, which will probably not need replacing until about grade three by the looks of how big they are, and she just about was bursting out of her skin! She’s so ready for this. And I am nearly ready to let her fly. I love watching her grow, I always have. She’s a seriously cool chick, and I’m so genuinely proud to be her Mama. Of course, I’m going to be pretty much eight months pregnant and surging with hormones on her first day of school and can pretty much guarantee that there will be tears.. but also that they will not be from her.

So maybe my weird room-dreams do make sense. I think I have a lot to learn about me, in this new stage of parenting – the one with three kids and the one with a school-aged-kid. Hopefully those new parts of me will be as cool as the random rooms I discovered in my dream house.

How do you do meals?

 

In our home, mealtimes are a really important part of our family time. For breakfast and dinner, the four of us sit down together every single day, and eat as a family. We say grace, (even Reuben holds hands with us, bangs our hands up and down as we say the familiar words, and pronounces ‘A-men!’ at the end), and interact together as we eat our meals. The children eat what we eat and when we eat. At lunch, I sit down to share a meal with the kids too. It’s just what we do.

Growing up, my family did the same. I maybe didn’t value it in the same way when I was in highschool, being woken up at 5.30am so that we would have time to get ready for school, have family breakfast at 6.30am and be out the door and off to the bus at around 7am. We would hold hands and say grace, and have a family devotion when we finished eating. Family dinners always happened around the table, with the TV off. They still do, at my family’s house. Dinner around the Buma Table is a Thing now, and so many of our friends love to be a part of it. My family eats great food, and has great conversation that almost always ends up littered with raucous laughter and borderline inappropriate jokes. But it’s so much fun.

When Pete and I first got married (and both moved out of home for the first time), we did get into a habit of eating our breakfast and dinner on the couch together, while watching TV. When I became pregnant with Mayana, we talked about it and made the decision that this was a habit we had to break when she arrived. And it was such a natural thing to do once she was born. Even when she was a tiny baby we would have her in her lay-back highchair up at the table with us, and as soon as she was eating proper foods she would join us properly at meal times. We have very rarely had the television on during mealtimes since, and we never watch TV in the mornings anymore.

I remember being on a teaching practicum once and talking to the kids about healthy eating habits. We talked about where we eat dinner, and I was genuinely shocked at the number of kids who proclaimed to never eat dinner at the table. Literally more than half the kids (who were around 8-9 years old) always ate dinner from their laps or the floor in front of the TV. Admittedly, we do that on occasion, as a special treat if we are having a family movie night or something, but I know it will never, ever be a normal thing in our household. On one level this could just be out of pure selfishness, because I really do value the concentrated quality time our family gets to experience when we sit down together to share a meal. There are no distractions (other than our food I suppose) and we get to talk, catch up or plan our days, share stories, and enjoy each other’s company. But on another level I really do think that it promotes lots of positive habits and healthier choices to our kids.

I can reflect on this as a person who experienced family mealtimes throughout my growing up years, and also as a mother who also provides the same experience to her own children. Eating together as a family provides an opportunity every day (for us twice a day) for concentrated conversation, where attention is divided only between the people who are at the table together. It’s bonding-time at its best, and most definitely promotes family unity.

There are simple things, too, like table manners. Something that I think is disappearing a little from general society. And if my prac class’s mealtime habits are any kind of indication, it kind of makes sense for people to not have table manners when they’re not eating at a table! Dinner around the table is where we learned the little things like to not chew with your mouth open, and not to have your elbows on the table (I still don’t really get that one, although I have been known to say it to Mayana!!), not to interrupt people mid-conversation (although my family is a terrible example of this… we talk over the top of each other all. the. time, it’s just how we roll!). Mayana has learned already how to properly set the table, with the knife to the right of the plate and the fork to the left, and she also helps to clear the table and tidy up after the meal.

When I was searching for the image at the top of this post, I keyed into Google “families that eat together stay together” and dozens of articles appeared, full of research and quotes and statistics attesting to the truth of the statement. Plus, eating together, talking together, laughing together… it’s FUN!

A few weeks ago, my family celebrated the 50th birthday of my dad and the 21st birthday of my sister. Many of their individual friends and our family friends who jumped up to the microphone to honour them with speeches spoke about our family, our togetherness and hospitality, the way we welcome anyone in not just as a guest but to become part of our family. And pretty much everyone who spoke of these things referenced the way we have dinner together, because most of them have at some point (or maaaaannny times) shared a crazy meal around our table. I LOVED that. It made me so proud, and so much more determined to embed that tradition into our children, and make it a key element of the way that my own little family works, too. I have some great role models in my parents on how to make a family great, and I know that this is one simple thing that can have a huge impact on my family, and our togetherness.

Are mealtimes important in your family? Do you eat around the table often or just for special occasions? Maybe you could challenge yourself to make a point of eating together every night for a week, and see what effect it has on your family dynamic.

My Clever Kid

Mayana loves to learn. She has loved books basically since she’s been alive. She will ask me at least twenty times each day to read her something. She can count to 20 and knows her abc’s almost it seems by osmosis.

Her most recent request has been to learn some Dutch words, and after acquiring a fabulous app she hasn’t looked back. She now will only use the words ‘banan’ for banana, ‘drie’ for three, ‘vier’ for four. She will sit for an hour at a time going through the app, and copying words back to it in Dutch, running to me occasionally to tell me, “Mama! Did you know that blauw is blue?”

Mayana starts prep next year (*insert heart palpitations here*) and I am working hard to find the balance between encouraging her love of and absolute desire to learn, and not letting her go far enough that she will be bored next year. I have no doubt that if she and I worked together she would be reading quite fluently by the time she hits school. As a student who was an early reader and placed in the ‘gifted and talented’ basket early in my school career, I have vivid memories of being bored out of my brains for half of my primary school life. I had a handful of teachers who were able to stretch and challenge me, but many others I’m not sure quite knew what to do with me, and mostly set me a whole lot of ‘busy work’. As a teacher I realise that my teachers had 25-30 other kids, many of whom were struggling, to focus on, and it’s easy to pay less attention to the ones that ‘get it’. As a teacher I’m sooo mindful of those kids in my class, but not all teachers are. I don’t want Mayana bored. By the same token, I don’t want to hold her back, either. And I DO want her to keep loving learning.

I have had many conversations this year with other mothers of children who will be heading to school next year, about what they do or don’t do at home, and even what they’ll be expecting their child to do next year. As  someone who has written and administered an entire Prep distance education curriculum, I have a pretty good idea of what to expect, and I know that some of these parents are going to be shocked. I personally believe that while play most certainly has its place in early-years learning, many people grossly underestimate exactly what our young people are capable of when we heighten our expectations of them. It is so exciting to me to see children soaking up learning like sponges, and I truly believe that it is imperative to hook them… engage them in learning now while they’re ready and interested and in Mayana’s case, asking for it.

So this year, at home, we’re easing into things. We’re dabbling in early reading skills, and boy does she blow me away with how quickly she can pick things up. One of the things we do each week is work on our Alphabet Book. We are loosely following the Letterland program, and we’re up to the letter ‘N’. Mayana somehow has picked up most of her letters already though. I did a test that I used on my beginning Year One students last year with her last week, and she was able to not only tell me the names of all 26 letters, but also the sounds that all but 4 make. I was actually quite shocked! If I give her a word, she can easily tell me what letter it begins with, and then will give you a list of other words that start with that letter too. She is becoming proficient in forming most of the letters, and one of her favourite things to do is writing, where she asks me to spell out long words and writes down the letters as I give them.

Here is an example of what we do in our ‘learning time’:

Last week we learned the letter M. Of course, being the beginning of her name this is Mayana’s favourite letter and she already knew quite a lot about it. I allocate four pages for each letter. On the first page I write the upper and lower case forms of the letters in bubble writing. She writes inside of it, and then has a go at forming the letter independently on the page around it. Sometimes (but less often lately) she asks me to ‘do the dots’ for her to trace. We have a memory verse for each letter which we stick on this page. I found them at this website, and I have been so impressed at how well she is able to remember scripture! Next, we brainstorm a bunch of words that start with our letter. When we first started doing this we would look through catalogues or magazines and cut out pictures which started with the letter, but lately Mayana has been more interested in writing the words she thinks of by herself. You can see on this one that I wrote a few of the words for her, but she is getting so good at forming her letters! I try to do little illustrations next to each word to help her remember what they say when she shows her book to her Papa later. Next, I do a ‘find the letter’ activity. I usually have 10 letters of the week for her to find (5 uppercase and 5 lowercase) all mixed in with every letter of the alphabet. I’m going to have to find something more challenging to replace this soon, because she does this activity in about a minute flat. Lastly we do some kind of art activity. I look for inspiration on Pinterest (I compile my ideas on this board) and in teaching resource books that I have. This week she has been bugging me to draw patterns and shapes for her to practice cutting out, so I figured I’d incorporate that interest into this week’s activity, and had her cut out the very tricky and angular M. The Letterland character for M is Munching Mike, a monster, so she turned her M into a monster of course! Once we have done this we use the Australian app ‘Eggy Letters’ on the iPad for some more practice. She selects the letter of the week and completes all of the activities which accompany it. Most of them are to do with forming the letter, and then there are two activities where you have to indicate whether a given word starts with the letter. She loves doing Eggy Letters, and it’s a nice way to finish off our little learning time.

I often will do a numbers activity through the week with Mayana too. She is a good counter, and can count through to 21 with one-to-one correspondence. I think that she could probably go further, but lately that’s as far as she’ll go as my sister just turned 21. We have a few little pre-school math books with simple addition and subtraction, and lots of practice forming numerals. Any kind of learning that’s made available to her, she’ll take it!

Given that I have written Prep curriculum, I’ve had lots of people asking me (and assuming) lately whether I will home school Mayana using the program I wrote. I asked her what she thought of the idea and she looked at me ever so patiently and said, “Mum. I have to go to school.” When I asked her why, she replied, “Because I need to learn to read!” I told her that I could teach her to read and she jumped off the bed and ran out of the room. I asked her what she was doing and she called back, “I’m grabbing some books so you can teach me right now!” The answer for us is no though. As much as it freaks me the heck out that I am sending my baby off to school next year, I know that it will be the right fit for her. She is so incredibly excited about it, and I couldn’t hold that back from her.

So for now, we’ll do our little bits of learning at home, I’ll encourage her in her interests, and challenge and teach her the best I know how. And pray that next year she gets a teacher who will continue to do the same. And that my beautiful and ever-so-clever girl always has the love for learning that she does at four years old.

Do you believe in doing any kind of formal learning at home, or are you happy to leave that for school? Does it make you want to cry when you think about your baby going to school or is that just me!?

Happy {fourth} birthday!

Last Friday, my baby girl.. that tiny little 5lbs 2oz baby… turned four years old!

I’ve said before that I’ve never really felt sad as Mayana has grown up; I’ve enjoyed every age, and loved watching her grow bigger and learn new things. While that is still true, this year I am feeling a little more nostalgic. I don’t know if it’s just the knowing that this is her last year at home.. her last year she’s *my* little one before she goes off to school and starts a different facet of life without me. I’ve never seriously considered home schooling before, but I’m beginning to understand its allure! (not that I’m seriously considering it now I don’t think… Mayana would be devastated, she is SO excited about starting school).

I have and do love watching Mayana grow up. I was looking at some of her baby photos today, and am struggling to reconcile that wrinkly teeny tiny baby girl with my big four year old, full of laughter and chatter, with a wicked sense of humour, wild imagination and infectious giggle. With her lanky long arms and legs, hair closer to her bottom than her shoulders, and just so many brains. Four is just so BIG!

I really do feel blessed to be that girl’s Mama. She is so sweet and funny, and has so much love. She challenges me… she is so clever and understands so much and I just so want to make sure that that part of her stretched and given a chance to develop. I just know she is capable of so many amazing things, and I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds for her.

Mayana’s fourth birthday was a lovely day. Peter was given the day off work, and Mayana was so excited to have her Papa home all day. With so much anticipation and counting down in the weeks leading up to the big day, we had expected to be woken at the crack of dawn, and were surprised when the clock rolled over past 7am, with still no sign of the birthday girl! In the end we had to wake HER up, with protests of, “I just need a little bit more sleep!” Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Kami and Opa FaceTimed with us, and watched Mayana open her bazillion birthday presents in our bed, which included lots of jewellery, some nailpolish, a few books, a home-made dress and a puzzle. After presents, we went out to the dining room where Mayana was very excited to see the way I had decorated it for her…

and even more excited when she walked around the corner and discovered just one more present…. a big girl BIKE!

We had plans to meet friends at the pool at 8am, so we decided to postpone breakfast (though we fed Reuben of course) and get ready for our swim. Mayana wasn’t hungry yet, and the thought of going for a swim before breakfast was very appealing to her! We had a lovely morning at the pool with our friends, and when we came home Papa made pancakes for breakfast, as per the Birthday Girl’s request. We offered ice-cream to put on the top, but she refused, preferring butter and ‘make-up syrup’. Funny chook.

Next on the agenda was morning tea out at a cafe with another friend. Mayana was wearing a ‘birthday girl’ badge, and when her morning tea came out, her babycino was pink, and her cupcake had a birthday candle in it!

She thought that was very special. She also of course enjoyed having some time with her friend Hannah.

When we got home we had to pack our bags because we had a big weekend ahead of us! We left for Noosa in the afternoon, where we had a special birthday dinner planned. Mayana had requested spaghetti, and Alexie had gone all out, making three kinds of pasta (bolognaise, carbonara and pesto), followed by a chocolate cake with vanilla icing (as requested by the birthday girl). Yum!

On Saturday the birthday celebrations continued. We had to make a trip to Brisbane, as the son of Mayana’s godparents was being baptised on Sunday. We decided to make a weekend of it, and hit Ikea (we needed a few things and it made sense to go when we already were headed that way), and then Southbank. We took Mayana on the Brisbane Wheel, to the Southbank Beach and to Max Brenner as part of her birthday fun.

We had a lovely family day together, and it was topped off with dinner and a sleepover at her Godparent’s house.

Next Saturday our celebrations will round off with a special celebration…. Mayana’s birthday party! She has asked to have a Mermaid party, and I have made an awesome costume for her (even if I do say so myself) and she’s hoping that all of her friends will dress up as either mermaids or sea creatures. I have been working hard on decorations and the sea-inspired menu… I’m really looking forward to it and hoping it doesn’t rain!!

In the meantime, I’m enjoying Birthday Week with my beautiful big four year old. The house is still decorated, and we’re trying to do something memorable every day.

I love you my Mayana Berry. I love you more every day and week and month and year. I love the little girl that you are and the person that you are becoming. You are my sweetest, funniest, loveliest girl, and I’m so thankful every day that I am blessed to be your Mama.

Love you!!

Another year’s over…

Is it just me, or did 2012 seem to fly by?

And here we are… already a week into 2013. That’s the first time I’ve written that.

2012 was a good year for us. The year of Reuben. Our life changed again… Pete became the worker, I was back at home, and now with two kids instead of one! We moved house again. We became more involved in our church and cemented some really fantastic friendships in this town we live in. I feel happy with how 2012 has gone. We have grown and been stretched and overcome the difficult patches. I’m happy. We’re happy. We like where we live (despite the rough patch that got us here) and how we’re living, we love our friends and family, we adore our two kids and each other. Life is good.

I’ve been thinking about my goals for this year. My goals – our goals. It’s soooo clichéd to do New Year’s Resolutions, but I do like the beginning of a new year, and after all the hustle and bustle of the wind of of a year, it makes sense to reflect on how life has been and make some choices about how things could be different.

I think this year, I’m more going for some overall philosophies in my New Years ‘Resolutions’. Lifestyle changes… or even tweaks… that I hope will help send me and our family in the direction that we want to go.

I’ve noticed a growing trend for bloggers is to choose a ‘word’ for the year, that will be their focus… like maybe trust or choice or courage or expect. You know me though, I talk way too much and one word…. will it just wasn’t gonna cut it for me. I’ve decided to choose a scripture instead. You can’t get a more powerful word than one straight from the Word of God! So, my overall theme for 2013 is this:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord {Colossians 3:23}

I think that just about covers it. I can apply this scripture to any and every area of my life. It’s not an easy one, that’s for sure. It’s going to require lots of attitude checking, I can already tell. If I was doing my housewifely duties for the Lord, I probably wouldn’t be calling my husband a nasty-so-and-so under my breath for forgetting to take out the garbage again and leaving the lids off the vegemite and butter for the eleventy-billionth time that week. If I was parenting for the Lord, I would be speaking with a heck of a lot of love and patience and grace in my tone. So this is my ‘Word’ for the year… whatever I do, I will do with all my heart – no half-heartedness here folks! – and with an attitude that would be pleasing to the Lord. Thankfully God has grace in abundance, because I know I’m going to fail at this daily, but hopefully I will learn something along the way!

I’ve also been reflecting on five key areas of my/our lives that I would like for us to work on.

1. Spiritual

Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord {Deuteronomy 8:3}

A pretty important little sentence there – especially when you consider that Jesus himself quotes it over in Matthew when Satan is taunting him in the wilderness.

This year I want to devote myself to spending more time with God. Whether it’s reading the Bible, listening to teaching podcasts, reading books that teach me more about Him… I want to rekindle the fire, and build my relationship with Him.

2. Marriage

We will celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary this year! I love my husband very much, and love parenting and doing life with him. Life however seems to develop a busyness that can leave relationships by the wayside. We have days where we realise we’ve spent maybe ten minutes actually talking to each other… between Pete’s working, parenting, running the household and having some down-time, the days seem so full that we’re scratching to find space for quality time together. We need to do that, SO much. I would love for us to go back to our ‘date nights’ that we did for the first few years of our marriage, where we would have a date on the 10th of every month (we were married on the 10th). Nothing fancy – we were super-poor uni students back then and sometimes a date was just a picnic on the lounge room floor –but it was scheduled, quality one-on-one us time, and just what we’re needing right now.

On this topic, and I guess to also tie in with my first point, I’m reminded of this scripture:

Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. {Ecclesiastes 4:12}

God is so much a part of our marriage. I don’t want to be at risk of leaving Him by the wayside either. Pete and I need to involve Him more in us.

3. Parenting

Of course this is a big one. My kids are my world. I see them as the ‘talents’ God has given me, and when it gets to the part where God looks at what I have done with what He has given me, I want to hear Him say, “Well done good and faithful servant!” When I think of parenting, the verse from Proverbs-

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it {Proverbs 22:6}

is often in the forefront of my mind. I want to show my kids how to love, and be patient and kind and gentle, show grace, and to be in relationship with God. I need daily to remember that

a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger
{Proverbs 15:1}

I need to remember that my children learn their cues and reactions from me. Scary though some days! I have so much to learn.

4. Health

I remember learning this scripture in my Sunday school days:

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you…. Therefore honour God with your bodies. {1 Corinthians 6:19-20}

I’ve made (probably half-hearted) resolutions before about losing weight and getting fitter…This year, I just want to commit to being healthy. I want to learn the right things to put into my body, and eliminate things that are hurting me. I want to exercise, and build my fitness to make my body stronger and healthier. I want to be able to run around and play with my kids. If I can stick to this, losing weight and gaining fitness will be a bonus, but I don’t want to make that my goal and turn this into a dieting thing, I just want my body to be healthy, and I want to feel good and know that I’m looking after it.

5. Stewardship

I guess this is the one that is overarching all my previous four. We live such a blessed life… we are blessed with each other, with a beautiful home to live in, health, family, relationships, jobs, finances, possessions… I want to be a good steward of what I have been given. Again like in the parable of the talents that I quoted above – I want to be good and faithful with what God has given me. All of it.

Like I said, not so much resolutions this year as I guess a new philosophy. Maybe not even new, but this year it’s intentional. I want to learn this year, and grow as a person. I’m so excited about what this year holds!

Are you getting all reflective this New Year too?

Chores + Pocket Money {+ a free printable!}

Mayana is four in twelve days *sob*. She is getting to be such a big girl, and very capable. She’s a great helper, and makes my life easier in many ways. She is learning to help around the house, and is especially helpful in entertaining her baby brother when I need him distracted for a few minutes!

I really want to encourage Mayana in her attitude of helpfulness (she generally LOVES to help), and Peter and I have decided that we would like to reward her with some pocket money for the help she gives us.

The three of us had a chat about some jobs that she was already doing, and some jobs that she could learn to do, and decided on eight things that she can do daily to help out around the house. We talked to her about how it was important that everyone in our house has responsibilities to help make our lives run smoothly. Mayana know that if she helps me out with my chores in the mornings (ie washing up, sweeping the floor etc) then I have more time to play with her. She also knows that I shouldn’t have to be picking up her dirty underwear from the bathroom floor every night!

I’ve made a chart for Mayana, and each time she does one of her special jobs, she gets a stamp or a sticker. I actually plan on laminating this and sticking it on the fridge so that I don’t have to print one every week. Mayana has eight jobs she can do every day, plus I’ve given her an extra space for ‘Being an Awesome Helper’… so that I can reward her extra for things like looking after her brother, helping with grocery shopping… and okay… maybe I’ll be able to use it for a little bit of a bribe when necessary.

The rest of the jobs are mostly things that she was doing already, and a few things that she just needs a bit of encouragement to remember. She doesn’t do all of these jobs independently – for example she’s only really in charge of unpacking the silverware from the dishwasher… not the whole thing. She hangs the nappy liners on the clothes airer while I do the rest of the laundry (about 6 pegs per liner, if you don’t mind) and at this point she’s only really clearing her own dinner dishes from the table.

At the end of the week, Mayana will get 10 cents for every job that she has done. I’m under no illusion that her chart will be full of stars every week, but if she ever manages that, she has the potential to earn up to $6.30 in a week. We’ve talked to her about tithing and giving to God, and she’s excited to think that she will have money each week to put in the offering bucket as it goes past at church. We’ve also discussed saving money, and she’s already eyeing off a few Lala-Loopsy things that she’s quite like to save up for!

I’m excited to see how she goes with this. It’s been motivating so far in her keeping a much better attitude when I ask her to do a job. She loves going to get a stamp when she’s done something, and is offering to do things before I’ve even asked her. I’m hoping that it will help to ingrain some of these things as habit. As she gets older, she will get chores that are more age-appropriate, and these simple things will become more of an expectation – the things that she knows her her responsibility for helping our house to run smoothly. I also like the idea that she can learn about the fact that we don’t just always get things because we like or ask for them, and that sometimes we need to work hard and save to buy things that we want and sometimes even need. There are lots of learning opportunities involved in this too… learning about money is so confusing, and exposing her to different units of our currency is going to be good. She was so disappointed today that her fifty cent coin was only half of one dollar, and that she had to give both of her ‘dollars’ to the lady when she bought her cookie cutter!

Anyway… I thought that someone else might find it useful to use a sticker chart like this. So you can download it for free as a PDF printable if you click HERE!

I have only changed one thing from the original one above… I know not everyone has chickens so I’ve changed that to ‘feed the pets’.

If you use the sticker chart, I’d love to hear how it worked for your little ones!

us right now

I’ve been somewhat of a slack blogger lately, and I thought I’d just pop in a quick update of us, right now.

{Peter}

Peter has been working in Early Childhood almost all year now. He moved over to a new centre not long after Reuben was born, and love love LOVES it. He is the kindergarten teacher, and is thoroughly enjoying almost everything about his work (EC teachers have a LOT of paperwork – he’s not so in love with that!) and adores working with the age group. It makes me so happy to watch him going off to work each morning excited about his days.

He has introduced a lot of great stuff with his kids, including a literacy program – and is so proud that he will be sending almost all of his kids off to Prep next year with the ability to recognise all of their letters, tell you the sounds they make and recognise and write their own names!

Pete came home very excited last week because a brand new mobile interactive whiteboard had been delivered to his room. He mind instantly was full of exciting and engaging learning he could do with his kids using this great tool. Then on Monday this week, he was delivered four iPads and a new laptop also for use in his room! Add this to the mini computer-lab with three PC’s and his kindergarten classroom is more technologically advanced than most primary school classrooms I know of!!

His biggest time consumer at the moment is writing Transition Statements, which are basically like report cards that tell you where your kids are at in regards to the Kindergarten Curriculum before they start school. He has set himself such a high standard with these, and each one takes him hours. It’s paid off though, because he has gotten some really great feedback from his regional director, and been told that his are the best quality of any of the other centres in her care! I believe they’ve even been used as an example to some other teachers who are struggling with what to include.

I’m so proud of him, and all he has achieved and accomplished this year. I love how much he loves his students, and how hard he works to make sure that they are learning and playing and having FUN!

{Me}

As you know, I’m loving life as a stay at home mum. My days are filled with playgroups and playing with my kids, baking for my family and keeping house. I don’t know how I could possibly do everything that I’m doing AND work!

I am eligible to have (unpaid) maternity leave until term 2 in 2014, which is the year that Mayana starts school. Next year is her last at home, and I really don’t want to miss out on this special time with her. I have decided that I won’t be returning to work in 2013, at least on a full time basis. I’m considering putting in for relief work at some local schools, but only being available 1-2 days a week. I’m still undecided as to what I will end up doing in 2014… who knows, maybe by then we’ll be ready for a Baby Three!

I’ve also started doing Mary Kay. This is mainly because myself and my mum and sisters have fallen in love with the product, but it’s also turned out to be a great way to meet people and get out of the house and talk to adults (you know what I mean Mums, right?) and make a bit of pocket money. It’s just something a bit fun on the side.

Now that we’re mostly settled in our new home, I have a hankering to get back into my sewing and maybe see what I can do in reviving my little online business. We’ll see. I don’t want to get too deep into anything other than being a Mama for my two kids. They are definitely my number one priority.

{Mayana}

Mayana is growing up at an unbelievable rate. My heart hurts a little when I think about her turning four in a few short months. She’s definitely not my baby anymore.

She’s a genuinely delightful little girl, and I love spending time with her. She’s a real girl, and loves princesses and mermaids and fairies and all things pink. This year she has done a dance class on Tuesday afternoons, and her year’s work culminated in a concert last Sunday. I don’t think I’m being biased, but I’m pretty sure she was the cutest little dancer in her class. While not the youngest in her group, she is certainly the smallest, and just looks so darn cute in a little fluffy tutu, even if she is half a step behind everyone all the time!

Mayana still loves to learn, and is enthralled by letters. She is always saying things like, “dog…. d-dog starts with d. Dippy Duck (a letterland character for the letter d). What else starts with Dippy Duck? d-dump truck, d-dimple……” and so on. She’s so clever, I just want to do everything I can to stretch and challenge her and  make sure she doesn’t lose her love for learning.

Mayana still is at kindy two days a week. She really enjoys playing, and is benefiting from the social aspect of dealing with kids her own age. Next year she will advance to the Kindergarten room, and I’m looking forward to seeing how she enjoys that new level of learning. She’s already excited about going to Prep when she ‘gets five’, even though it makes me a bit teary thinking about it – yep, I think I’m going to be one of those parents!

For now though, I’m enjoying this all-to-short period of Mayana, my little girl, who still calls me mummy and loves nothing more than climbing into my lap with a book or six.

{Reuben}

This boy is also growing at a rate of knots. He’ll be seven months next week, and I’ll do a big post all about him then. He’s just delightful, and developing a very spunky personality. He’s baby-hood is whizzing by and I’m afraid that if I blink I’m going to miss it!! Like I said, lots more about our ReubsCubes and how he’s going next week!

So there you go, you’re all caught up!!

What have you been up to?

blueberries + cruskits and how they saved my life

I’ve been at this parenting gig for nearly four years now. And only yesterday did I realise the power of food.

Since I’ve had the two kids I have hated going grocery shopping. I used to love it, and I had no problems doing it with just Mayana. But with two kids, man, what a nightmare. We’d get through half of it okay, but then inevitably by the time we got to the register one of them would lose the plot. We’d have screaming or arguing or nagging, and annoying Aldi checkout person who doesn’t wait until you’ve got your trolley around before they start scanning… (seriously, what is their problem! It’s not like they even have to pack the bags! A little bit of patience for a poor woman with a screaming baby in a sling and a whinging pre-schooler in the trolley goes a looooong way – oh sorry, I’ll save that rant for another day). Suffice it to say I am NOT a fan of going solo grocery shopping with two kids. Yesterday though, we were in a pickle. We were running out of food and other necessities (like baby wipes – and Reuben needs baby wipes a lot. The kid does number twos about 16 times a day *le sigh*). So I had to face it. I let Reuben have his sleep, spent some time playing with Mayana, and fed them both before I left the house.

When we got to the shops, I put Reuben in his trolley mate, and enlisted the help of my very big girl Mayana to be my very special helper, armed with her own shopping list. As we walked around the shops, I slipped Reuben pieces of cruskit. He loves the things… absolutely devours him. And you know how they get kind of sticky when they’re sucked on (trust me, they really do), well he enjoys exploring his arms and hands and trolley mate to find the bits that have stuck in places other than his mouth. They occupy him quite effectively.

Mayana lasted well until the checkout, where she had a mini-meltdown over who knows what. I calmed her down with the promise of blueberries. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned before but I’m not above bribery, and at the end of any successful shopping trip Mayana is allowed a treat. She generally chooses a ‘sausage’ (twiggy stick/salami) or little packet of nuts or sultanas (they have them near the register at Aldi). Even in the face of lollipops and chocolates, these are her treat of choice. Love that kid. Anyway, she usually gets to have her treat once we get in the car. Yesterday, I had a stroke of genius. I asked the lovely young cashier (oh I’m going to line up for young Joshua every time I go to Aldi now. He waited until I had the trolley around and the children settled and went slow enough for me to pack my trolley properly as I went… the perfect Aldi specimen) to scan the blueberries first. I sat Mayana down on the floor next to the trolley and opened the punnet. I handed Reuben his last piece of cruskit. Aaaaand I didn’t hear a peep out of either of the children the entire time my huge load of groceries were being scanned and packed. The lovely Joshua even commented on how well behaved my children were. Mayana ate nearly the whole punnet of blueberries but meh, a good hit of antioxidants isn’t gonna hurt her, and they were only $2.49. $2.49 well spent if you ask me!!

I survived shopping, with two kids. There were no tears, no hair pulling, no arguing, no whinging. Pure, pure bliss. My lesson is learned. From now on, there is always, always, going to be food in my bag.

And that my friends, is the story of how blueberries and cruskits saved my life. Or at least my sanity.