168 hours

Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 09:52:00 +0000

Here are some photos of what we got up to in the school holidays. Dave was working, so the kids and I found things to do in Sydney. It was just the right combination of rest and adventure, and for once I didn't overschedule!

we enjoyed some of our local parks

We visited the zoo and the National Maritime Museum...

...where there was an interesting exhibition about whales.

We went to Luna Park for a belated birthday celebration for Elsie (along with a friend from school).

We even managed to fit in a trip to the dentist. (That's our fabulous dentist in the shot!)

My favourite outing was a trip to Cockatoo Island in the middle Saturday of the holidays. Just a short trip by ferry and we arrived in this fascinating place with layers and layers of history.

It was a prison for convicts and later a girls' reformatory...

...and later again had an interesting industrial history as a ship-building yard. There were 'clue trails' for both aspects of the history, which the kids enjoyed.

Plus, it has some beautiful views!

We do live in a beautiful city! It was nice to spend some time enjoying it and seeing it with fresh eyes.

Jesus stood by the road and he cried

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 11:13:00 +0000

My three year old is a big fan Colin Buchanan fan. (She follows in the footsteps of all her siblings in this respect!)

Recently we bought a new 'Colin' CD and it's been played over and over and over again in the car. There's one song on it that's a bit of an oldie - I don't know the precise date it was written, but it has a kinda 70s feel! It starts: "Blind man sat by the road and he cried..." and goes on in a subsequent verse to speak about how "Jesus stood by the road and he cried... 'I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life'...".

The other day, when the song started, she started requesting the 'Jesus' bit. Not the blind man bit or the lame man bit or any of the other verses but the 'Jesus' one. I thought at first that it was just that she was more familiar with his name. But a few days later I came to the conclusion that the reason was a bit more complicated. As she sang along, I could hear that she was singing: "Jesus stepped on the road and he cried". Then she sighed at the end of the song. "Poor Jesus".

Then it hit me. She had interpreted the song as being a sad story about Jesus. Poor Jesus was having a bad day. He had stepped on the road and he was sad and he cried. Just like she cries from time to time for reasons ranging from big to the small (like stepping on the road).

So I filed it under "fun things that kids say" and smiled at the comical way in which she had missed the point of the song: when Jesus 'cries' in this song he is proclaiming, not weeping.

But then it occurred to me that there was a truth buried under her misunderstanding that was good for me to be reminded of. The message that Jesus teaches to the disciples and proclaims to the crowds is not a cool or emotionless message. When he 'cries out' to the crowds in John 12 (in similar terms to the message that he teaches his disciples in John 14) there is a note of heavy sadness that carries across into his words from the surrounding context. It is only a chapter earlier, in John 11, that he is weeping with grief and sympathy beside the tomb of his friend Lazarus, and in Matthew's gospel and Luke's gospel, in contexts not unlike the end of John 12, Jesus is weeping over Jerusalem because of the way in which they rejected God's messengers and refused his Messiah.

I'm glad that the Jesus I meet in the gospels not only 'cried out' in proclamation but also 'cried' with real, human tears; that he preached with a sympathetic and a heavy heart, and that he understands the pain of the world into which he came to bring salvation.

So maybe Lydia didn't get it completely wrong after all!

My 'baby' turns three

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 11:11:00 +0000

My littlest turned three this week. It's hard to believe she's not a baby anymore!

We had a little 'party' with some of her friends from church during the day (while the big kids were at school) and then had a family celebration at night. There are more family celebrations to come this weekend with the extended family!

Ten toys I don't regret buying

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 13:09:00 +0000

I was recently having a conversation with a younger mum and commenting on how I could look back on the almost 12 years I have been a parent and identify plenty of toys I regret buying and some that I definitely don't regret buying. She asked me to write a list of those I didn't regret buying. So I've had a think about it and came up with this list.

1. Lego and Duplo

It's not necessary to have loads and loads of these toys (though one of our kids would happily be given lego for every birthday and Christmas present from every member of the extended family!), but all four of my kids have loved playing with these. Not only is it wonderful because of its durability (my mum and dad still have the stuff we had when we were kids), but it encourages imagination and co-ordination. There are some other construction toys and blocks we have also enjoyed, but I still think Lego/Duplo is my favourite in this category.

2. Wooden train set

A couple of our kids in particular have loved our wooden train tracks, but I also notice that most kids that visit love playing with our trains. We had a Thomas the Tank Engine enthusiast in the family so we ended up acquiring a lot of that brand, but the cheap IKEA ones are pretty popular too. They last well and appeal on a couple of levels - first there's the fun of making the track and then there's the fun of creating stories around the train set. Our son loved creating crashes, or acting out the Thomas stories he'd been read. Our youngest daughter tends to a more improvised style of story-telling, with lots of dialogue. Either way, it's fun!

3. A doll's house / garage / castle with little people / animals

We have had a couple of houses that the kids have enjoyed, but I've seen some great garages or castles which fulfill the same function. Often they can be expensive, which is where eBay is a blessing! I just bought a second hand one for an upcoming birthday for a fraction of the original price. I've found that (like the trains), these toys have been wonderful for imaginative play. I also like Little People sets for younger kids and Sylvanian Families for older kids for similar reasons.

A basic set of plastic animals also provides hours and hours of entertainment!

4. Sandpit

We've had two types: a bigger one that Dave made out of Koppers logs and (more recently) one of the plastic shell-shaped ones. Both have been great. The plastic one is smaller and less sociable, but one plus is that it is easier to keep the rain out (if you remember to keep the lid on!).

5. Good quality puzzles and games

Jig-saw puzzles and similar games are good for fine motor skills and problem solving, but some are better than others. Most of the ones sold at the educational toy shops (not the big chains) are pretty good; if you don't lose the pieces they last and last! They can be a bit expensive, so I look out for them in op shops and on eBay. We also try and swap with friends from time to time.

7. Basic sporting equipment

At times in our enthusiasm to initiate kids into this sport or that we went out and bought things that we didn't end up using much, so in hindsight we probably do regret some of the more specialised bits and pieces (e.g. the t-ball tee that broke the first time we used it, and the softball mitt that hardly got used at all). But a few decent quality, basic bits of sporting equipment (e.g. a soccer ball and a netball) can get used over and over and over again. We've also got tons of use out of the netball ring that we attached to the side of the house.

8. Bikes and scooters

I have found it was worth buying a decent bike for each stages (decent enough so that it isn't too heavy and has good balance and can then be passed down to the next kid). Scooters have also been a hit in our family. Both have the advantage of encouraging gross motor skills and helping the kids to stay fit. We've only recently bought our first balance bike, for for our youngest (we discovered them late!) and I highly recommend them.

9. Trampoline

When I asked the kids this question about toys we don't regret, my eldest immediately suggested the trampoline. I'm not sure if it counts as a toy, but he's right - I've been so glad we bought them a trampoline. They all use it every day without fail and it's so good for their general fitness levels. It's great fun too!

10. Doll, doll clothes and pram

A basic doll (nothing too fancy), some dolls clothes (I've been buying them off etsy lately for pretty reasonably prices) and a pram are also great toys. I'm keener on the baby-style dolls that you take care of than the Barbie-style dolls that you just dress and undress.

So that's my list of ten. I deliberately left off anything craft- or book-related as I would have ended up with a longer list. And things I do regret buying probably would number more than ten, I'm afraid.

What do you think? Any you would add?

Mothers' Day

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Wed, 14 May 2014 03:51:00 +0000

Me and my mum on Mothers' Day.

Caterpillar parable

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Wed, 14 May 2014 03:50:00 +0000

My son was unwell and home from school the other day and we found ourselves sitting in the backyard, soaking up some Autumn sun. As we chatted I noticed a stick in the arch of jasmine over our back steps moving in a way that seemed unusual. Intrigued, we investigated. As we got closer to the stick we observed that it was the end of a cocoon of tiny little twigs, and the caterpillar was just in the process of sealing himself into this painstakingly made creation. We spent a few minutes admiring the work put into this little cocoon, counting the number of twigs the caterpillar had collected then stuck together before shimmering his way inside. What a lot of work! How lucky we were to be able to see the final stages of this phase of his life!

Then we got on with our days. I had to get some housework done and my son showed his younger sister a few birds in the backyard. Then, half an hour later, I heard a shout from my son. "Mum, the magpie we were watching has just eaten the cocoon!".

This may sound crazy, but I found myself feeling quite sorry for that little caterpillar. All that work he put into the cocoon, only to have it all destroyed within half an hour of completing his job. The futility of it all was heartbreaking. Not only that, but he would never become a butterfly now (or moth, as the case may be). His life was cut short just before the beautiful climax that had been the point and purpose of it all.

And I started contemplating how often I'm tempted to have similar fears about my life. In my weaker moments, I find myself wondering if I will have anything to show for my work at the end of it all.

The Bible study group I'm part of has recently been doing some thinking together about the meaning of Jesus' resurrection for our own lives, and the little caterpillar-tragedy that transpired in our backyard turned my mind back to those studies. All those labours of the caterpillar, intricately constructing his cocoon for his anticipated metamorphosis, are like a kind of parable for the labours of a Christian - the things that we do for the sake of the coming kingdom.

If there is no resurrection, if the kingdom is nothing more than a beautiful mirage, then we are (according to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians) as much to be pitied as that little caterpillar. But if Jesus really did rise from the dead, and if his resurrection is the first-fruits and the promise of our own, then a big part of the resurrection's meaning has to do with the things we spend our life on. It is Jesus' resurrection that gives me a reason to spend my labours on building something for the age to come, rather than just devoting my whole life to consuming whatever pleasures I can in the present. And because I will rise one day with him, I can keep gladly devoting myself to that work, knowing that my labour is not in vain.

Holiday

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Fri, 09 May 2014 02:39:00 +0000

We managed to get away for a few days in the second week of the school holidays. I was still recovering from my tonsillectomy but was out of bed and was well enough to make the trip. Sitting on the beach in the warm sun was a lovely place to continue my recovery, and we had the added bonus of grandparents to play with the kids as well!

While I read on the beach the kids had a great time exploring rock pools, making sandcastles and enjoying the chance to swim in the ocean. We were blessed with beautiful beach weather!

with grandad

The kids also did a spot of fishing with not much success, but J did manage to catch a couple of small fish that we threw right back in!

My family comes from the north coast, so I had the chance to catch up with various aunts and uncles and cousins who I don't get to see too often, which was great. I also had the chance to go for a drive with Dave one afternoon (thanks mum and dad for babysitting!), to a tiny cemetery outside of Coolongolook and track down a few of my ancestors' graves. The one I was really keen to find (and did!) was that of Joseph Woodward. He was one of my many convict ancestors I discovered in my family tree research last year. He was found guilty of incendiarism as part of the Nottingham riots in 1831 and sentenced to death, but eventually had that sentence changed to transportation on appeal. While we were living in the UK we visited the place of the crime as well as the court room where he was tried and the gaol in which he was kept (here's my blog post about that little expedition if you're interested!). Once he arrived in Australia and had served his sentence he became a respected community member and lived until he was over one hundred! That was an amazing age to live to at the time, and even more amazing when you think of how close to death he was. It was wonderful to go to the place where his story ended, and reflect on just one of the many incredible stories that form part of my family story.

And now we're back to reality. We've had sick kids since we arrived back home, including one who still hasn't made it back to school yet! Still, I am grateful for a few days when we were all well and could enjoy some time together.

Resurrection

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 23:00:00 +0000

O God of my Exodus
Great was the joy of Israel's son,
when Egypt died upon the shore,
far greater the joy
when the Redeemer's foe lay crushed in the dust.
Jesus strides forth as the victor,
conqueror of death, hell and all opposing might;
He bursts the bands of death,
tramples the powers of darkness down,
lives for ever.
He my gracious surety,
apprehended for payment of my debt,
comes forth from the prison house of the grave
free, and triumphant over sin, Satan, and death.
Show me herein the proof that his vicarious offering is accepted,
that the claims of justice are satisfied,
that the devil's sceptre is shivered,
that the wrongful throne is levelled.
Give me the assurance that in Christ I died, in him I rose,
in his life I live, in his victory I triumph,
in his ascension I shall be glorified.
Adorable Redeemer,
thou who wast lifted up upon a cross.
art ascended to the highest heaven.
Thou, who as man of sorrows wast crowned with thorns,
art now as Lord of life wreathed with glory.
Once, no shame more deep than thine,
no agony more bitter, no death more cruel.
Now, no exaltation more high,
no life more glorious, no advocate more effective.
Thou art in the triumph car leading captive thine enemies behind thee.
What more could be done than thou hast done!
Thy death is my life, thy resurrection my peace,
thy ascension my hope, thy prayers my comfort.

From The Valley of Vision, p 48.
Pic from istockphoto.com.

Tonsillectomy - day 11

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 05:45:00 +0000

Eleven days post-tonsillectomy and I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel! For some reason tonsillectomy in adults is quite a nasty operation to recover from, compared with the same operation in children, so it will still be a while before I've fully recovered. It hurts to talk and eat and I and am only eating tiny amounts of cold food, but at day 11 at least I can talk and eat a little now. A huge relief! I won't scare you with all the gory details - there are enough other internet sites that can do that (just google 'adult tonsillectomy' and you'll see what I mean!) - but let's just say it hasn't been the best week and a half of my life.

That being said, in a strange kind of way, being in the midst of such a hard time has made me more conscious of the good blessings God has given me. I'll share a few with you:

* A good medical team - no problems so far anyway!

* A very supportive family. Dave has been amazing - juggling caring for me and the kids and work over the past week and a half. I'm especially lucky to have a wonderful mum, who came and stayed with us (on and off) for the first week. I don't know what I would have done without her: she looked after the kids while caring for me too, keeping up a constant supply of icy drinks and ice packs! My kids have been supportive and helpful and suitably concerned for their poor mum who suddenly can't talk at more than a whisper.

* Pain medication! I was on some pretty strong stuff for the first week and it gave me a lot of relief and helped me to be able to get a bit of sleep. I see it as a blessing!

* That I had prepared myself for the recovery period. I've been very glad that I did my research before the operation (as scary as those internet sites are). That meant I wasn't surprised by how hard the first 10 days after adult tonsillectomy are. I also picked up a few good strategies to manage the pain: my advice, for anyone contemplating similar adventures, is that ice is the key!!

* Friends who helped in various ways (picking kids up and taking them places, cooking meals and snacks for the family) and who let me know they were thinking of me in different ways.

* That this was temporary. Seriously, I was more conscious than ever of what it must be like for those who live with constant, chronic pain. ...

* That this will (hopefully!) improve my general health. It will be nice to be off the antibiotics after three months of them!

Thanks to all who have been praying for me. I really appreciate it!

Regina's response

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 00:50:00 +0000

One of the conversations which Carolyn Weber shared in her book was one between herself and a woman (Regina) who was a fellow at Oxford. She was a respected historian who had been married to another historian at Oxford. Regina had stayed at home and raised four children while writing and teaching part-time. When her husband died suddenly, she stepped in and marked the assignments of his students, but then eventually was given his position. As a Christian she had also taken Carolyn under her wing. At one point Carolyn asked her why she stayed at home and forfeited a promising career. I liked her response:

What does it matter what committee you serve on? What promotion you get? The book you labor to write and push to publish, someone will end up resting a coffee cup on, without any care as to your sacrifice. Your children are only young once. Your marriage provides you a chance to put someone else first daily. Such things refine your soul... Jesus wanted freedom for women too, but his notion of liberation is very different from our limited one. His teachings are for the most part genderless; they apply to everyone. What is important is that my identity doesn't lie primarily in being a professor, or being a wife, or even in being a mother. Those things will always fall short. Entire careers get swept away at a moment's notice at the presentation of a pink slip, a vote of the elders, an accusation of a student, a cut in the budget. Marriages face infidelities, for instance, and end up like car wrecks from which people can recover but are never again the same. Children grow up and move away and forget to write or call - as they should. The point is, if you have your identity in any of these things it's surefire disappointment. Anything man-made - or woman-made, for that matter - will and does fail you. Having my identity in Christ first and foremost gives me courage - yes the courage - to live my life boldly, purposefully, in everything I do, no matter what that is.

'Surprised by Oxford', a book recommendation...

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 08:37:00 +0000

When I was sick in bed with my first bout of tonsillitis a few months ago, I found myself reading more than I have in years - one of the unexpected blessings which came from feeling sick!

My favourite book in the big pile next to my bed was a memoir by Carolyn Weber, called Surprised by Oxford. I loved this book on so many levels. I love a good biography and this one was particularly appealing to me. Firstly, she has a PhD in Romantic-era literature, and I felt I had a lot in common in her (in terms of interests, not abilities!). Not only that but she weaves poetry and quotes throughout the book as well as quite a few references to C. S. Lewis (including the title).

Another thing that appealed to me was that it was mostly set in Oxford, and it contained a lot of her observations of life in this town as an outsider. Oxford is not Cambridge, but reading a book about one still somehow sends me off into nostalgic daydreams about the other... *sigh*

But the best thing about the book was how much it encouraged me as a Christian. The story is mainly about the author's journey to faith in Jesus during her time in Oxford. It's always wonderful to hear someone's testimony - I'm always amazed at the ways God intervenes in people's lives and brings them to faith in Him. What I loved about this story was that Carolyn Weber shares the whole process, including her doubts and the intellectual hurdles she had to jump in order to believe. As an intelligent woman, with a strong atheist-feminist background, there was a lot for her to wrestle with - including what the Bible says about women. Along the way she shares long conversations with a variety of Christians God placed in her path, including fellow students (one of whom eventually becomes her husband, years down the track!), members of the faculty and visiting scholars. Retracing the steps she took in her thinking along the way to her eventual decision to become a Christian was a reminder to me of the truth of what I believe. It was such an encouragement for me to persevere!

A quick update...

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 09:37:00 +0000

It's been ages since I blogged so I thought I'd check in quickly and share what I'm up to.

The beginning of this year hasn't been what I expected when I was planning ahead which is part of the reason it's been quiet around this little blog.

The first thing thing I didn't anticipate was a long battle with tonsillitis. Every time I've stopped antibiotics since January it's flared up again. This obviously isn't ideal, so I ended up being referred to a ENT specialist, who will be taking my tonsils out at the beginning of April. I am coping pretty well at the moment but am still on antibiotics until my operation and I'm obviously not at 100%. But I'm glad I'm functioning well enough to be able to honour my commitments and care for my family.

As for commitments, many of those have ended up looking different from what I expected. A couple of things I thought I would be doing haven't happened (for various reasons), and a couple of things I didn't factor in have come up, including the chance to do a bit of teaching of church history to a small group of diploma students once a week. I'm loving the chance to brush up on church history and I'm discovering how much I do enjoy teaching.

And then there's the usual day to day routine of caring for four kids. With quite a wide range of ages in our family, I'm finding that a challenge. While thinking through high school choices for my eldest, I'm also having to remember how to deal with the toilet-training and mood-swings of a two year old!

And that's probably the other reason why I don't get around to blogging as much these days. It just doesn't seem to fit into the rhythm of my average day any more. But I'll keep chipping away from time when ideas come to mind and the mood strikes me!

a couple of pics of some of the things we get up to around her -celebrating with J after an exam and L dressing up as a rabbit - just for fun!

The month so far...

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 09:35:00 +0000

The day after writing my last post I ended up with a nasty case of tonsillitis. I'm still recovering and the holidays haven't been all that I planned. That said, the fact I've had to slow down a fair bit has been a good thing in itself and it hasn't stopped me being able to enjoy spending lots of time with my family. I've had time to think about the year ahead and how I can best approach it. Dave has been on holidays so we've managed to have some shorter outings (beach, pool, museum and zoo) and potter around the house. We enjoyed a night at the Botanic Gardens where we watched the live performance of Wind in the Willows (thanks to Dave's sister and her family for that Christmas present!!). Last week, Dave was speaking at NextGen and we all went to Katoomba for the week and rented a house there. In his breaks we did a little bit of exploring and enjoyed Blackheath pool (it was actually quite warm up there!).

at the zoo...

a short bushwalk after going down the Scenic Railway

Skyway!

The Three Sisters

Orphan Rock

The older version of the Scenic Railway!

End of year festivities

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 08:39:00 +0000

It's been busy around here as we've celebrated not only Christmas and New Year but a birthday as well.

Our family Christmas gathering

Dave's family gathering (the kids' tables)

Our seven year old - planting a blueberry plant Dave's parents gave her.

And celebrating at Lane Cove National Park with them.

And then celebrating again with my family at our place

....and then on to a park at Homebush that we love.

Then the older three kids and I watched the fireworks with my mum and dad last night. A first for the majority of us!

Advent joy

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 09:20:00 +0000

Despite my last minute Advent preparations, I have been finding myself feeling happy anticipation of Christmas this week.

This is in stark contrast to last year, when all I could think of during December was the fact we were temporarily moving to the UK two weeks after Christmas was all over.

This year, our first Advent bag had one of these make your own banner sets. (It's reusable, so I intend to bring it out for every Easter, birthday and Christmas after this one as well!). The set comes with a lot of letters, so you can choose the message you want to display. As our first Advent activity, we had to decide as a family what we wanted to remind ourselves of about Christmas.

We came up with this.

I like it. It focusses on the incarnation as the main point of Christmas, and also makes me think of one of my favourite Christmas carols every time I look at it.

And something else which has been giving me joy has been this retro knitted nativity that my mum hand knitted for me. Not only is it beautifully made, it means a lot to me that she put so many hours of work into such a gift!

Another Advent

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 08:13:00 +0000

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Advent. Gone are the days when I would spend the month of November planning Advent activities and organising Advent calendar competitions on this blog. I always thought that I would have more time to plan this type of thing as the kids got older, but so far I've found the opposite is true.

So I'm sticking with a similar thing to what we've done in past years: a very easy Advent calendar which I put together in a couple of hours. I bought some colourful bags from a craft shop, some pegs (with numbers 1-24 on them) from a homewares shop and put our usual readings, treats and suggested activities in them. A lot of my original ideas (which I continue to re-use) came from Ally and Cathy. We basically read through Luke 1 and 2 and then the beginning of Matthew. It's simple, but it works!

9 years old

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 10:20:00 +0000

Yesterday I handed in my project for college so today I am experiencing the inevitable slump which I find comes whenever I jump any big hurdle like this!

In the middle of my rush to finish it, our family celebrated two more birthdays! First, my beautiful first-born daughter turned 9 last week. I'm enjoying seeing her grow up. I love her razor-sharp wit, her kind heart, her vivid and surprising imagination and her ability to think about things deeply. Most of all it is wonderful to see her wrestle with what it means to live out her Christian faith.

We did a few special things to celebrate. We had three families from church (all with girls her age)around after school on the day. Each family had four kids so we had an instant party with 16 kids! It was a lot of fun - very low key, but a lot of fun. She loves owls, so I attempted an owl cake. Cake decorating is really not my gift, so I was pretty happy that it did actually resemble an owl!

After her afternoon tea celebration with our friends we headed off to my mum and dad's for dinner. The fun continued with an overnight stay for the older three and then an outing to Darling Harbour the next day for a play in the water playground and an ice cream. The next day it was Dave's birthday, but we celebrated in a more subtle style with a church AGM!

Cake at my mum and dad's place...

a birthday, lots of changes and some caves

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 11:49:00 +0000

My eldest celebrated his 11th birthday last week.

This particular birthday coincided with a week of a few big changes for a couple of my children. While my eldest started catching public transport to his new school, my littlest has officially moved into her 'big girl bed'. With both of the changes, the kids were well and truly ready for the next stage and it was I who took a while to get my head around it. Despite my apprehension, I have been amazed that I have actually felt quite joyful and proud as I've watched them pass these milestones. I feel sad at times that there are no longer any babies in the house, but it is a joy to see who each of my four kids is becoming as they all grow up.

To celebrate the birthday milestone, we had a couple of afternoon teas with grandparents (with cake!) and then went on a trip out west on the weekend. He was really keen to visit Abercrombie Caves, so we went and stayed with my sister and her family in Bathurst last weekend and we all went on a day trip to the caves on Saturday. It was a good to get out into the Australian countryside again - but mostly it was good to have lots of time with family!

a blue wren

A group of bushrangers called 'The Ribbon Gang' used to hide out in the caves. This cave is where they hid the horses.

'This is an adventure'

the six cousins together at the park

we went along to a bushdance on the Saturday night (organised by Jon and Louise's church). It was at a property out of town and the kids loved it - especially this little groover!

Reunion #2

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 11:15:00 +0000

About this time last year I wrote a post about a lovely night away with some the past and present members of the Friday morning Bible study my friend and I lead at College. I shared that I hoped to make it an annual tradition. Well, last weekend we had our second of these, again at the beautiful Kangaroo Valley. As with last year's retreat I found it a huge encouragement to hear how they are serving and trusting God in all sorts of situations across the world!

An educational journey...

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Over the past year Dave and I have made a few decisions relating to the education of our kids, which have involved changes and complications we'd never needed to face in previous years.

When we were planning our six months in the UK at the beginning of the year, one of the big questions was what to do about the kids' education. The kids were all enrolled at our local public school and when we spoke to the Principal about the prospect of our trip, she was excited about the educational opportunities it offered and supportive of us going. She was happy to keep them enrolled, put them in classes and work out ways for their classes to benefit from the experiences our kids were having. This mainly worked out as planned. The kids all kept blogs while away and one of the classes in particular really engaged with it, checking it regularly on her 'news' day and writing comments back. A win-win!

But the question remained as to what to do while we there. We looked into a Christian school that some friends of ours recommended but it was full and would have been too expensive for our three kids to attend. We looked into the local public school but discovered that there was no guarantee the kids would all get a place in the same school, which wasn't attractive to me. There was also the fact that I just wasn't convinced that it was worth sending them to a new school for such a short amount of time. By the time we worked out how everything worked and made friends we'd be leaving again! Then there was my own experience feeding into my thinking. When I was seven my family went on a sabbatical for six months to the USA. My parents enrolled me in a school there and I was miserable and anxious the whole time. When I wasn't in school, I learned more than I'd ever learned before - being in another country was a wonderful educational experience. The school itself was not.

So we decided to keep the kids enrolled in their classes back here and do a short-term version of home-schooling while there. We all LOVED it. Because it was only for six moths I could be fairly relaxed about the syllabus. We kept up with maths the kids were doing back in Australia but, other than that, basically learned through the experience of being there. We explored the landscape and learned about British animals, plants and habitats. We made use of the amazing (free!) museums in Cambridge. We joined in with groups like a local choir, playgroup and Sunday school, and activities like a visit to a local archaeological dig. We could do things like learn about poets who lived in Cambridge, then go and write poetry next to Byron's pool. We worked our way slowly through British history. We read and went for long runs through the meadows and threw a ball around and looked after our pet rabbits. I could go on and on. We all learned so much, at our own pace and I could really see why so many people are deciding to home-school these days.

the kids attending an archaeological dig in Cambridge

In the midst of all that (and in the lead-up and the aftermath) one experience that was helpful for my own growth was encountering people's reaction to my decision to do this for six months. Before I left, I was frequently warned about how hard home-schooling would be, how long the days would feel and how miserable it would make me. People wondered how the children would keep up with what was being studied in their schools back here. When I arrived in England, I found I was quickly pigeon-holed as a "home-schooler". Being an Australian "home-schooler" with four kids made me triply weird. If I'm honest, I suspect it made it harder for me to make friends as some people thought they had me pegged before I had a chance to get to know them. It wasn't until the very end, when some realised I (normally) sent my kids to (normal) school back in Australia, that some warmed up a little. On the other hand, some of the people who had befriended me thinking I was a "home-schooler" were a bit shocked to find out that we didn't home-school back in Australia. (I hadn't been keeping it from people - the question just wasn't ever asked that much). And then we came back home to more pointed comments about the kids being out of school for six months - why we hadn't put the kids into a school over in the UK; whether our kids ought to repeat a year now they were back; etc.

And now we had an additional educational decision to live with. Before we left, my son had been offered a position in an 'opportunity class' in a neighbouring school and, with the encouragement of the principal at our local school (who had advised this course of action), we had decided to take it. It was an agonising decision because we love our local school and we knew it would be harder for me in the short term go get kids to and from both schools. Again, it's turned out to be a good decision for him. But it's meant a whole new set of questions to answer and a whole new set of worries about how we're perceived. I've felt guilty because I've been less present at the local school the girls attend. (This will change once our son starts to catch the bus soon, but even in the short term, the guilt remains!)

I've been more conscious than ever that there are a wide range of opinions on how we ought to educate our children. It's good for Christians to come to decisions based on what we believe the Bible says, and what we think is best for the needs of our particular children. It's good for us to talk about these decisions together - this topic shouldn't be a conversational no-go zone.* And within those conversations I think it's good for us to be confident in the opinions we've come to. But I also think it's important for us to be humble enough to acknowledge that they might be wrong or may change over time. We've stuck with our decision to keep our kids in public schools, but as time goes on we're increasingly conscious that this decision isn't set in stone - all the more so, after experiencing the delights of temporary home-schooling for a semester and realising more than ever before how diverse the gifts and needs and personalities our own kids are, even within the one family.

I've learned how unhelpful it is to live in fear of the opinions and judgments of others about a particular decision we've made; I've been reminded of how wrong it is when I make judgmental assumptions about the decisions of others; and I've been strengthened in my conviction that Christian friendship shouldn't be dependent on us making all the same decisions as each other.

* There was a great series earlier this year on the Gospel Coalition blog which I really appreciated which asked three friends who had chosen three different educational options for their kids (private, homeschool and public) to give their reasons why they made that decision. I appreciated the way each had throught through their decision biblically and yet were able to come to different conclusions while respecting the other point of view and decision. I also enjoyed Jenny's recent post about public high schools which promoted some healthy discussion too.

The holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 21:56:00 +0000

We're coming to the end of two weeks of school holidays in NSW. It's mostly been a chance for us to enjoy being back home again and catch our breath after a hectic term. The 'settling back in' process went remarkably well considering how many changes we had to quickly adapt to, but it did leave us all a bit exhausted. We've enjoyed some slower days, enjoying our backyard and the park at the end of our street, playing games and reading books and eating iceblocks. The Woolworths Aussie animal cards have been a big hit with the older three kids, so that's been a fun holiday distraction - and has meant I've done a bit more of my shopping at Woolworths than I usually do (such clever marketing - I feel so used). We've sprinkled in some outings to local parks and the library and spent time catching up with friends and family. It's been exactly what we needed.

But even with a slower pace, we did manage a couple of visits to the Powerhouse Museum (we're making the most of our membership while it lasts!). The kids really enjoyed their new light exhibition and the 'Glow show' which demonstrated how light works was fantastic. We also enjoyed a day at the beach - our first beach day for quite a while (if you don't count our trips to the beach in Scotland which were pretty different). And my mum and dad took the kids to the zoo - one of the kids' highlights!

the girls enjoying the light exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum

For me, the highlight was a couple of days away with Dave in Hobart. The main purpose of the visit was research for a project I'm doing this semester for college (my last hurdle before I finish my Grad Dip). When I started looking into my own family history earlier this year, I discovered that one of my ancestors played an interesting part in early Australian church history. It seemed to be the perfect topic for my project, but it did require a trip to the State Archives of Tasmania, so we planned a weekend away which doubled up as an early 15th anniversary celebration (we went to Tasmania on our honeymoon). Luckily Dave enjoys spending time in archives as much as I do, so while we did work pretty hard, we had a wonderful time. And as well as spending a lot of time poring over early nineteenth-century church minute books, we did enjoy being able to go out for dinner together, go for long walks and visit some pretty interesting sites in Hobart.

Outside the Cascades 'Female Factory' - where the female convicts were imprisoned in the mid 19th century. The ancestors I am researching were involved in the running of this place for a few years...

Now comes the hard work of actually writing the project, so I'm expecting that things will be even more quiet on this blog for a little while I focus on that in my limited spare time! I will share more about what I've been researching in the coming months though, so stay tuned.

Silk worm season

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 11:58:00 +0000

We now have twenty of these little guys temporarily living at our house.

My first experience with silk worms was slightly traumatic. Elsie (who was a baby at the time) actually managed to get into the box and eat a couple of them! Not one of my most impressive mothering moments! Let's hope this time things end up a little happier for me, the kids and the silkworms. Coming into the school holidays it's looking like they will be a source of interest - and just keeping up the supply of mulberry leaves will keep the kids busy!

Curses in the baths

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 11:52:00 +0000

Earlier this year while we were in the UK we had the opportunity to visit the Roman baths at Bath. It was an incredible site with its steaming baths and grand columns. But the artifacts that captured my interest the most were some of the tiniest. At the bottom of one of the baths more than 130 lead and pewter plates with writing scratched into them had been discovered many years earlier.

Archaeologists think that the messages were curses, written by people who felt they had been wronged, with the details of the wrong explained on the little piece of metal. In response to the wrong, the victim asked the goddess to curse the perpetrator and right the wrong which had been done. It's thought that the person would throw the lead curse into the sacred pool to invoke the goddess to act on the curse. People would even list more than one possible suspect at times, just to make sure that all their bases were covered!

I spent a lot of time examining them through the glass. The fact I could see something someone had written two thousand years ago, read the translation and understand what they were saying was thrilling to me! But what interested me the most was what the messages said about the people who wrote them. The things they were complaining about seemed so small and insignificant - petty crimes like thefts of clothes while they were at the baths. And yet, these tablets were asking for the culprit's blood!

Minerv(a)e de(ae) Suli donavi furem qui caracallam meam involavit si ser(v)us si liber si baro si mulier hoc donum non redemat nessi sangu(i)n[e] suo.

"To the goddess Sulis Minerva I have given the thief who stole my cloak; whether that person be slave or free, man or woman, may this gift not be redeemed except with that person's blood."

On one level, there was something I could identify with here - people two thousand years ago were obviously not that different from people now. Little things can feel quite significant. Small matters can blow out of proportion!

On another level, it seemed to be a very obvious point at which the religion of the Romans was quite different from the message of Christianity. I'm glad I believe a gospel that teaches and commands me to forgive the wrongs done to me by others; the last thing I need is a religion that gives me a vehicle for validating every petty instinct of vindictiveness within me and enacting magical curses on the heads of all my enemies. (Trust me, I wouldn't need much encouragement!!)

Teaching kids about refugees

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 10:07:00 +0000

Those who have been following the Federal election in Australia at the moment will know that (once again) much of the debate has been focussed on our refugee policy.

One of things I've been thinking about as a mother is how to help my kids think through the issue. As I see it, there's two levels at which I want my kids to develop a wise, generous, biblically-informed understanding:

1. The big, public, political level

Even though they are too young to vote, I still think it's worth talking through the national and international issues with them, looking at the facts and talking through what a fair and compassionate policy would be for Australia to adopt.

2. The local and personal level

Important as the global and national/political issues are, I don't want our kids to grow up as the sort of sanctimonious hypocrites who have all the correct political views in theory but no interest in how those views might need to be put into practice in their own daily lives. We're fortunate enough to live in a part of Sydney where our local church and our local school both have a huge range of cultural backgrounds represented, including (in both cases) a number of families and individuals who are here in Australia on refugee visas or as applicants for asylum. This is a great opportunity for us - within our church family and in the playground at school - to start learning some of the things that 'welcoming the stranger' might mean, if it is to be something more than just a pious political slogan.

I've recently discovered one resource that offers some perspective on both levels of the issue, in quite a beautiful and illuminating way. It's a TV series for kids called 'Seeking Refuge'. Made in the UK, it portrays real life stories of kids who have sought asylum. Each five minute story is told against a backdrop of beautiful animations. It is currently being shown in Australia on the ABC and you can view the episodes on catch up TV at the moment. I've watched the first two episodes with my kids and recommend them.

image from 'Seeking Refuge'

Parenting - it's a long term thing

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole) — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 12:03:00 +0000

I've been a mother for almost eleven years. Back in the early days, I really thought I'd have a much better idea of what I am doing by now. There are days when I still feel just as helpless and inadequate as I did at the beginning. Two year old whims and moods still bamboozle me, and I continue to move into new territory as the older ones continue to grow! In many ways, it seems that things just get more complicated as kids grow older; relationships grow more complex, there are more moral dilemmas to talk through - not to the mention the fact that I've already reached the stage where I don't understand all their maths homework!

If there is one thing I think I have learned (but on harder days need to remind myself of) is that parenting is a long term task. The fact that my two year old will throw herself on the floor and scream when she doesn't get her own way doesn't mean she'll do it when she's twenty two. I know this because my son used to exhibit similar behaviour at two and he is now a delightful ten year old who does not (often) throw tantrums! He now his ten-year-old-boy-type challenges, which probably won't be the same when he is sixteen. What I'm trying to remind myself at each new stage, is that they haven't arrived yet, They aren't already adults. And they'll never be perfect.

Growing up into an adult includes learning all sorts of lessons, many of which they will continue to learn throughout adulthood. My role, along with Dave, is to help them navigate this journey; I shouldn't be getting disappointed with them when they don't already know how to do this. One of the most helpful bits of advice I have ever received as a mum was that a mother's job isn't to wave a wand make her kids instantly sinless (or to expect them to be sinless in the first place!), but to help equip and train them to fight a long, hard battle against their sin, and set their feet on a long, slow journey of growth in godliness. My part is to lovingly discipline, listen to and enjoy my kids; the fact that they are not perfect yet should not be a reason for me to panic or despair. The job I'm called to (like the Christian life itself) is a long term thing.