The wandering Rotter ramblings picture update

A cheerful disposition Jan 24/366

2012-01-25T07:35:00.000+02:00

24 Jan, 24/366
this morning while I was packing for our trip....(2 more sleeps) I enjoyed listening to Rachel playing with Polly pockets in her bedroom. They were having all kinds of exciting adventures. At one time she came to me asking if I would dress the one doll and she was holding a pair of long pants. She said, " she's a VERY good girl cause she wears pants!" ( Rachel NEVER wears pants if she can help it) Nit one minute later she comes back with the same Polly pocket doll, and a skirt in her hand.
R " She says she doesn't like pants and rather wants to wear a skirt"
...why am I not surprised!
The kids Song from Proverbs 17:22 " A joyful heart is good medicine" has been stuck in my head this evening. Rachel has a joyful heart and is a blessing!

Proverbs 17:22 Message
A cheerful disposition is good for your health;
Gloom and doom leave you bone- tired

Jan 22/366 Love never fails

2012-01-22T07:37:00.000+02:00

22 jan, 22/366
Mark has been so busy with work the past month that it was extra special to be able to grab lunch together as a family this afternoon before he jetted off to England. We'll be glad when Wednesday comes around and we have him back again! I had to laugh when I looked closely at this picture taken by Lisa. Can you see what the sign behind us says? " You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize!" It's especially funny, because as Mark can tell you I've had some dreams where I wake up quite miffed at him because of something he did in my dream. He never understands that he needs to aplogize for hurting my feelings in my dreams! It's ok...it's one of those womenly quirks. Love you sweety!
1 Corinthians 13:3-7 (The Message)
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

21 Jan/366 baby shower

2012-01-21T07:43:00.000+02:00

21 Jan, 21/366
It was a lot of fun throwing a baby shower for these ladies. Jen did not like the idea of feeding baby food to Kelly. Lots of good laughs this afternoon
Genesis 21:6 (NLT)
And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter.All who hear about this will laugh with me.

20 Jan /366 Nappy cakes

2012-01-20T07:51:00.000+02:00

20 Jan , 20/366
The girls helped me make these nappy/diaper cakes in preparation for tomorrow's baby shower...or as Rachel calls it ...baby bath
It's such a priveledge to celebrate the new life that God has created.
Psalm 145: 7, 13b
They will celebrate your abundant goodness,and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
The Lord is faithful to all His promises and loving to all He has made.

Winter beauty

2012-01-19T14:38:00.000+02:00

Kirsty's 10th Birthday party

2011-11-09T20:58:00.002+02:00

We had a fun birthday party for Kirsty this past weekend. She had 8 friends come to her party and 7 of them slept over. One of the fun games we played was Nailpolish mania where you sit in a circle like pass the parcel but instead pass around a number of bottles of nailpolish. When the music stops you have to paint one of your nails the colour of the nail polish that is in your hand . I also set up a photo booth . Came across a reject shower curtain in the ikea discount bin, which made a most excellent backdrop. Made some crepe paper decorations from pinterest and matching booth props and voila there you have it!

Happy birthday!

2011-10-25T22:09:00.000+03:00

Jeremy vs Sahara

2011-10-06T18:37:00.000+03:00

Cute Bead Snake

2011-10-06T18:34:00.000+03:00

Colours and Sights of Eminonu

2011-10-04T18:57:00.000+03:00

Out and About Autumn on the Bosphorus

2011-10-04T18:51:00.000+03:00

Guns, banana, Pink Boots and Trikes..what more can a girl need?

2011-09-30T19:02:00.000+03:00

My Future son in Law

2011-09-29T20:41:00.006+03:00

Rachel: "I'm very serious now mommy, I'm going to have two boys"

me: "That's fun, two boys.....what will you name them?"

Rachel: "Eilidh and Mommy"

me "Ah that might get confusing when I come to visit and you call for Mommy"

Rachel dissolves into a fit of giggles "You silly Mommy!"

me "And where are you going to live "

Rachel with puzzled look "I didn't think that mommy!"

me "Yeah that's a difficult question isn't it, well think about it now ..."

Rachel :"mmmm.... England!"

me "And I hope you'll be married? "

Rachel matter of factly "Yeah to Santa, and I'll sit on his lap. "

Me "Well, then you'll have to live in the North Pole because that 's where Santa lives"

Rachel "I'll live in the Nof pool!"

Me "But you know what ...there is one problem.....you'll have to wear stockings!!!! and Pants!!!! "

Rachel has another fit of giggles.

Me "What are you going to do about that?!"

Rachel "I'll take them off!"

Here's hoping that Santa has a warm lap!

Stunning Evening Sky this evening

2011-09-28T19:19:00.000+03:00

How Art is Born

2011-09-28T18:03:00.001+03:00

Rachel loves painting and is constantly asking to paint. I don't always give in as it can get really messy and we all know who has to do the real cleaning up! Today however I found a canvas under the bed when I was cleaning up - Useful things beds - and she set about drawing her picture in pencil .

Pencil sketch done and we bring out the acrylics

Start filling in. I mixed the colour.

It's starting to look good.

Filling in the sky. I did coach her some on how to do the background, especially around the things she had already painted.

It was hard to wait for the faces to dry before drawing the eyes, nose, and mouth.

I gave her a small brush for the delicate work and she used a big brush for the background. She wanted to paint glasses, but I let her do that with a marker as I was afraid it would smudge.

Now to let it dry

When it was dry she realised suddenly that she had left out Kirsty and Mark and insisted on fitting them into the picture too ! Then she painted button on the shirts and that gave me an idea. I got out our bead boxes and glue and dripped glue around the edge of the painting. It's such a good activity in all respects. Hand eye coordination, sorting by colour etc. We fished out different blue coloured beads for around the sky, and stuck buttons on all the shirts and a necklace around my neck. I helped finish off the beads as she got a bit frustrated with the sticky glue sticking to her fingers

Brushing smaller beads in orange and brown onto the bottom of the painting.

and voila! The masterwork!

Bucket of Thoughts

2011-09-20T20:59:00.004+03:00

I bought a Mother and Daughter Devotional book when I was in South Africa last month. This evening the passage was Psalm 139, 23-24 and vs 2 -

"You know my thoughts even when I'm far away. "

Every now and then there is a craft activity that you can do together to reinforce the devotional for that day. Tonight's craft was making a "Bucket of Thoughts" The idea is that you decorate a cardboard box or jar and over the week the girls and I will write down thoughts that we have and then post them in the Bucket of Thoughts. At the end of the week we'll arrange for a time to sit down together and and empty the bucket and discuss the questions and thoughts that are in there.

As I'm explaining this to the girls I say to Rachel,

"Rachel since you can't write yet, is there a thought or question that you have that we can put in the Bucket of Thoughts?"

R - "yup"

me " Ok, what is your question?"

R " About breast-es"

me...."uhm...about breasts? You have a question about breasts"

R " yup"

me "Ok...well that's a good one, (for a just 4 year old) we'll put it in there then....what exactly were you wondering about breasts?"

R " If babies grow in them."

We'll have interesting discussions at the end of the week for sure."

What the Big kids get up to with the little kids during homecell

2011-09-15T14:52:00.000+03:00

Hand Eye Coordination

2011-09-14T18:41:00.000+03:00

Birthday Party Fun

2011-09-14T18:40:00.000+03:00

Eye Tests and patching

2011-09-14T18:38:00.000+03:00

What Rachel gets up to at home

2011-09-14T18:36:00.000+03:00

First Day of School 2011

2011-09-14T18:35:00.000+03:00

Sahara is back

2011-09-14T18:34:00.000+03:00

Fast Forward

2011-09-14T18:26:00.002+03:00

The problem with blogging is that if you don't keep up with the updates, it becomes way too easy to procrastinate with new blog posts. I seem to do ok with the day to day stuff, but throw a summer holiday adventure in there and the blog stands still. It's not that nothing is happening, it's just that too much has happened and I'm not getting a chance to summarize and put it all up. Facebook is easier that way. So the past two weeks I've been telling myself

"You should update the blog"

Yes I know..stop bugging me"

"you should post that "

" No I can't because I still haven't put the holiday stuff up and that's a BIG job"

So today I told myself "You can always still put the holiday stuff up after you continue the day to day stuff "

So that's what I'll do. I'm good at listening to myself!

Little miss Charachter

2011-07-03T21:32:00.001+03:00

Some memorable Rachelisms:

Rachel burping the alphabet,

Me: who taught you to do that?
rachel points to the black board, " he did"
Me, " the board?"
Rachel " yeah, try, it! it feels really rude!"

Leaving Opthamologist yesterday Rachel whispers in my ear " when I grow I be a grandpa doctor? "
Last week she aspired to be a horse , this week a doctor , and today.....she wants to be a mommy....:)

in pool playing Marco Polo
me:Marco
L+K: Polo
Rach: Here! I'm here!!
Lisa: Rachel, you are supposed to say Polo
me: Marco
Rachel: I'm over here mommy!!
Lisa: No! you must say Polo when mommy says Polo
me: Marco
Rachel, I'm here Polo!

Rach in bed : " mommy can I have a girlfriend for my birthday? like Eilidh( Kirsty's friend) becomes smaller and smaller and then she'll be my girlfriend? can you phone her mom and ask her? "
Me: unfortunately people can't get smaller and smaller everyone keeps getting older and bigger. Eilidh can't become small like you.....but hey you have lots of boyfriends.
Rach in a dejected tone : yeah .... Judah and Jadon
Me: and there are girls that are your age like Avery and Kaiyah and Grace...you know who will be there for your birthday this year? Your cousins! Jake and Matthew and Kayla and Luke!
Rach ...and I have my cake with sprinkles and bananas and a blue kitty that says meouw?
And my husbands be there!
Me : your what?
Rachel, " my husbands! My Jake and Kayla...
Me : oh your cousins!

Rachel watching me get dressed "You're the biggest mommy EVER!"

Rachel praying in bed
"and when I'm big like Kirsty I not have curly hair like this....and (phweee farts) giggle giggle scuse me Jesus, I burped !"

overheard
Kirsty is holding up shapes and Rachel is telling her what they are
K - What is this ?
R - A circle
K - what is this ?
R a triangle
K - what is this?
R - an actionfigure! (rectangle)

Kirsty feeling better this morning after drinking some flat coke. Rachel in tears because she can't have any coke.
me: "You only get some coke if you are sick and throw up Rachel"
Rachel promptly ran upstairs, spit in the toilet and came to tell me excitedly "I also throwed up!!! I NEED some coke too! "