Name::Big Mama From::ACT, Australia
Starting over- blog wise that is. Lots of changes since I started. I left blogging but have come back- sans readership- because I really miss not having a record of what our family got up to! View my complete profile
Hi all! Sorry I have not commented the last couple days. Most of our family is feeling nauseous, obviously a bug. They will all be staying home from school tomorrow! I am madly preparing a 1 and a 1/2 hour presentation for Roly and Spindles' stage (61 kids) on Africa. Powerpoint presentation, African food, skit, interactive stuff, and maybe a quick simulation game. Very exciting but a little daunting, specially after my meeting this afternoon with the teacher I will be replacing in just a few days now! Now THAT was a real overload; hearing what I have to do for those five weeks! I know that I won't really understand it all, till I am in the middle of doing it.
*just had to take a 10 minute break to clean vomit off a child, and off our bed where he had been sleeping since the last vomit! Nice...*
Well, I was going to write more, but it seems I am needed eslewhere. *hugs*
Posted by Big Mama ::
11:12 PM ::
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The SMashing Pumpkins are coming (promise) but today is a very special day in Oz, so i must report on that. It is ANZAC day! The word ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and it was on this day in 1915 that the ANZACS first military action was taken in Gallipoli in Turkey. They were terribly defeated, and over 8,000 soldiers were lost to their country and their loved ones. So we now take this day to remember and honour those who have given their lives for our freedom, and for those still serving our country.
At 8:30 am I whipped up a couple of sandwiches for our town's ANZAC morning tea. Then we lined up for the parade!
Waiting!
The old soldiers were transported by jeep....
The Scottish band was fantastic. Always bring a tear to my eye, bagpipes.
The children of those who served and died, marched in their place with their medals proudly worn. Very moving.
High school kids....
Some of the smaller girls dressed as the nurses who worked in the wars.
The service was held directly opposite our house.
Many people came forward to place wreaths at the ANZAC memorial.
Then the dervice dispersed.
Topsy and I MARCHED over to see the band do some impromptu stuff.
OOOps! Yet again, it's been a while! We had a very blogworthy event on Sunday that happened to our property but that we were totally unaware of whilst it was in progress. So be on the lookout tomorrow for my post which shall be entitled 'The Smashing Pumpkins! Isn't that the name of a band? But today I took my little on to have his first official haircut. Yes, I am sure most of you are gasping. It has been nearly two years and he hasn't had a haircut. I have snipped at his fringe a couple of times and he hated it, so I thought I would never put a hairdresser through that! But I just happened to mention this in passing at church. And a lady who was visiting said' You should go to the salon where my daughter works. They have very special chairs for kids there.' And when she described the chairs, I decided to give the place a ring. (I was glad I did, 'cause they had been briefed I might be calling, and already knew my name!)
So here is a photo montage of what went down at Topsy's first haircut.
Before: just awake and about to leave for the hairdressers.
The 'special chair'!!!
Prepped and ready to go!
Ok.... not quite where he thought he was going, but, oh well!
Co-operating...
Holding the spray bottle......
The consequences of the hairdresser letting him hold the spraybottle!
Nearly done , and still smiling!
Doesn't that look like fun?
After: front...
back....
and sides.
Side by side before and after! You like?
And guess what? I got out my wallet, ready to part with half my money for that experience, and the hairdresser said 'No, his first haircut is on us!'
Did I tell you that there are some renovations slowly happening at our home? We live in the church manse (house) right next to the church. Money has been donated so that our closed-in verandah can be converted into an extra room and an extra bathroom. Plus there will be a paved entertainment area! Yeah! But it has all taken time. We thought it would be done by February, and it is only really just starting now! So today the guys came with a jack hammer to break up the cement in the verandah for the plumbing. We were caught a little unawares, having actually expected them yesterday. The jackhammer was unrelenting! So we fled to the church building, till most of it was over!
Hard at work
The offending tool!
We ate lunch in the hall.
And then turned on the music we used for kid's club, got the kid's club marracas and had a jolly time! Topsy favors the gold marracas.
We are not usually like this at church, truly!
But we'd been exiled!
Spindles looks a little nervous!
There was a box of toys that had Topsy entertained.
The kitten escaped the jack hammer too! He fled to his favorite spot: our rosebush-covered archway!
Our first CIA (the kid's Bible study) fun night is over, and was rather successful. It was a very small group, with a couple gone, but it was great for a first time. (I only got a couple of pics, after carefully charging up the camera! Too busy I guess!)
The kids came at 3:00 and after having to solve a puzzle together to work out our destination, we went to visit a farm where the farmer is reknowned for his woodwork skills, and where his wife has the greenest thumb around. They walked us through their skills and it was actually very interesting.
The country afternoon tea they served was much appreciated!
We went home then, and while the kids played for 10 minutes, Hubby and I dressed up as waiters.
The cryptic menu worked a treat. Poor Diva had a spoon and a knife for her dessert. And her friend had chicken kebabs and icecream for entree!
Don't worry, we realized Roly's cap was on, and it came off quick smart! :)
Each of the kids had been given a secret mission for dinner. I had pulled them aside at different times in the afternoon, to give them their mission, so no-one realized the others also had missions. Part of it involved asking two of the kids they knew least a set questions, without anyone knowing it was part of their mission. (Spindle's was 'What job would you like to have some day?') And the other part involved doing something a little odd, several times, without anyone catching on that it was part of a mission. (Diva had to ask people to pass the salt 3 times, when no salt shaker was on the table. Roly had to reminisce about his imaginary frined Sigwam 3 times!)
Dinner over, we broke them into teams and played some games. Tons of fun! And now I am pooped!
Hubby is dropping the kids off now. And I am going to have a big ol' soak in the bath.
Topsy's vocab- range update!
Last night Tospy said his first sentence! We were at the dinner table, and I was telling them all again vividly about how Topsy shouted out 'HELLO!' at the library (the kids love hearing that story, makes them all laugh!) I cupped my hands to my mouth as I pretended to be him shouting out.
Topsy was looking on amused as well. And then when I finished, he turned to Hubby and said H'lo AHHHH (shouting that word out, with his hands cupped around his mouth) Mum! He said it to each of the kids as well, and we realized he was telling them that Mum was shouting out 'hello'! Clever boy!
Over a hundred sneezes into my day, I realized that this is a cold I have, not allergies. Grrr. Thus it was a good day for Hubby to surprise me by getting the pink slip done on my car. My registration is due in 2 days. And when the mechanics told him that the car would pass inspection after it got 4 new tyres, he made my day even better by scraping together the money for them himself and coming home with my pink slip all done! Yeah! So this afternoon after forking out for third party insurance, I took in all the paperwork to the RTA, and paid to be able to safely drive my car around for another year! Hubby has definitely earned himself some brownie points! :)
Goodness, I had a lot of blog reading to catch up on when I got home today! What very lovely Easters each of you seemed to have. Fantastic mothers all!
This past week, my Mom and Dad were up for a few days. We had a lovely time with them. It went to fast from my point of view, but they are probably breathing little sighs of relief as we worked and played them hard. :)
The highlight was definitely being outdoors together in the afternoon. We played lots of ball games and generally hung out. The weather here is is cooling finally, so being outside is a refreshing end to the day. We also all drove out to a neighbouring village last Saturday to see their Go for Gold Chinese festival to celebrate the impact of the Chinese settlers (who came in the Gold Rush) on their community. We saw a kid's group perform first. They were like the Wiggles and had Topsy absolutely terrified. It was not so much their noise, but the way they urged the kids to shriek and yell. Topsy's little heart was pounding, and he was visibly shaking.
There was a bunch of stalls, plenty of Chinese cuisine, a Chinese dragon, a Chinese lion, and an amazing female magician/acrobat.
The four hours we had there went quite quickly.
Then on Tuesday after farewelling my folks, the kids and I headed off to a great little hideaway in the mountains.
The front entrance
It is like a backpacker's hostel, very simple and rustic. Which suited our robust family down to the ground. The Dutch man who runs it only lets one group stay at a time. Morning tea with Jan (pronounced Yann) and Heather
So we had the whole place to ourselves for pittance!
The dining table and living area
view of the house from the boulders
The games room had a pool table and table tennis.
There were huge boulders for climbing. ( so of course the boys played spies and sodiers)
Jan our host and his wife Heather(who has Alzheimers) came across in the afternoon to take us on a bushwalk around their property. Topsy and Jan got on famously, so I ended up holding Heather's hand for the duration of the walk, whilst Topsy held Jan's!
The backyard!
Just before dinner, Hubby drove up. After dinner and putting Topsy to bed, we had a table tennis championship. It was Hubby and I in the finals, and he was not one bit happy that I beat him. Haha! I was, though! :)
After a big game of spotlight, we played DutchBlitz and then lay around the fire reading. Such a fun evening of enjoying each other's company. We came back this morning, but are looking forward to getting back there soon.
Posted by Big Mama ::
6:37 PM ::
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Can I preface this post by saying that in matters of disciplining one's offspring, I have learned not to judge other people on their parenting methods and disipline. It is so easy to parent other people's kids, isn't it?! In our minds. LOL! When our kids were smaller, Hubby and I were definitely in the Spanker's corner when it came to administering swift consequences for outright disobedience. But as our kids have grown older, the withholding of privileges such as computer and TV times works a treat. That is a very brief summary of course of what we have chosen to do discipline-wise, and I would love to hear what any of y'all do or did with your tribe in this area. Feel free to open up, I am sure no one is going to call you out on your methods. We all do our best, and, as far as I can tell from my friends and family, we all tend to parent either in accordance with or in reaction against how we were parented ourselves!
So that is just the preface for a very small post really. LOL!
I have always given Topsy a little deterring smack on the hand when he has wilfully disobeyed me. ( I say 'I' because I am the 'at home' parent ' and Hubby is the 'good cop'!!!!) And I have found that this little smack has done very little to deter anything! EEEKs! In fact sometimes, he will go and do a 'naughty thing' then come over with a big grin and his hand held out for his smack, so he can get that over with and get on with his disobedience in peace, thankyou very much! I think I have grown soft in my old age, and my smacks are actually more taps. So I have just started time-outs. I must say, I had absolutely no idea how to tell a child that the the consequence of his particular infringement required him to please sit in a corner with his back to us!
My first opportunity to try came last Wednesday. We were in church, 'cause I was packing up from kid's club now that we are in holidays. It is his second home, and I usually have kid's worship songs going and we have a great old time, packing up or setting up. So I had told him to stop getting out the communion cups and to stop trying to skull the bottle of annointing oil. He waited until he caught my eye, and carefully continued to jiggle the crystal bottle of annointing oil with a develish grin! So I placed him firmly in a corner and said: 'Sit, Topsy! Sit down!' He got up chuckling! Mummy must be joking!!
I put him firmly back. 'Topsy, you stay sitting!..... No sit! (putting him back down into the required position.) It took about 4 more returns to his time out corner, before he gave in nd sat there, sniffling a little. Then after 30 seconds (that is long enough right, for a not-quite-two year old?)we were reunited joyfully, after remembering why he had been put there again. And since then, time out has worked. I have only used it a couple more time, but when I placed him in time out this afternoon, I was amazed at how accepting he has been of this form of correction. I bet you guys are all thinking : What is she on about? We do time out all the time. Duh!!! But see, 6 years have passed since I last had a toddler. And with my terrible memory, I couldn't remember how to do any of that stuff.
Doing this was a big thing for me!
So any of your ideas or tried-and-trues, I will certainly take on board.
Well, must go. I am in the middle of cooking an Indian feast for my parents coming tomorrow! Robby, read no further, please! it will be too painful for you!
Menu:
Aloo Gosht (a delectable lamb curry with panfried potatoes in it)
Fried potatoes with garlic and chillies
Cucumber raita (to dip the potatoes in)
Spiced beans and carrots tossed in sesame seeds
Tarka Dhal (spiced lentils!)
And no, I am not cooking like that every night my parents are here. I have felt a hankering for Indian for a while now, and this is a good excuse! Mum and Dad will be here over the Easter weekend. So I will hopefully post a couple of pics of that adventure!
Got to go wash my hands; my nose is burning from where my chilli-covered fingers picked it!
Family Matters:
School Holidays at the moment for three weeks. We are not going anywhere. This first week we have had Mum and Dad pass through one night, and then had a friend stay for two nights. He is a concierge/ actor in Sydney, and a comitted Christian. It is a funny balance he gets taking care of famous people all the time (Jennifer Aniston, Joss Stone, Keith Urban etc.) and seeing the downside of fame. Keeps him very grounded.
THe kids and I are taking it in turns to choose a game to play each day. Today Spindles chose Blackjack, which I had never played before, but was actually a real hoot! He learned it at school! Then I chose Spoons, which Roly complained about at first ('we said one game a day, not two!'), but it was a lot of fun.
Tomorrow I am going to try to sneak in another extra game: Dutch Blitz. Have you played that? Isn't it fun!?!
We also did a massive cleanup of the back yard's shed. It took a lot of work, but was well worth it.
We have no chickens anymore. A brown snake finished off the last one. :(
We are hopefully adopting the duck and rooster out, and will then only have 3 four legged friends left.
I must say, it has been a joy to see how beautifully our cat Mischief as taken the kitten on as her own. It was a shaky start, and he terrified her at first, but now she is enthralled. Everything is a game to Thomas Ploop, and Mischief just follows him around to see what he is going to do next. He chases her tail till she pounces on him and gives him a good spanking. Then they snuggle up together and he tries to suckle from her.
