Makes Me Happy #1....

 
We recently (finally) got our canvas printed!!! We got a groupon for $19 that got us 70% off and if we spent more than $100 we got free postage... so we got a second canvas with Saskia's Balloons to take us over the $100 mark!

Even better it's already on the wall and I can look at it from where I sit to feed Tama and watch the telly... love, love, love!


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Out and about: York

Ninety seven kilometres east of Perth, York is one of the few listed Historic Towns in Australia. It was the first inland settlement in WA. Founded around 1831 by the Avon River in the Avon Valley. 

And you can tell!

It's totally lovely.

I was up visiting someone at Wooroloo and saw the sign for the Antique Fair at York and decided on a whim to go check it out. The Fair was interesting but not really worth the trip but the town more than made up for it. I love it and hope to visit again sooner or later!

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Story Chapter 17 - Miracle and Wonder

These are the days of miracle and wonder.

This is the quote on the front of the notebook that I use most often. And it's never more true than when you are raising children. We witness wonder everyday. How awesome is that? Totally. Awesome.

My children are right in the hot seat of learning right now. And this is one of the places I struggle most in their story. I feel like there is so much that I want to enable them to do, so much I want to teach them and so much I want to facilitate them to be able to learn. And it needs to be done now. Everyday they don't learn something is a day wasted. Each of them are in a particular stage of learning and time moves so fast that they will be on the next stage before I know it. Therefore a big part of us living a positive and fruitful story is knowing where they are at, being in their and working on it everyday.

Kieran- Learning for leaving, mature relationships. In the last six months Kieran has matured so much and I am really really proud of the person he has become. He is really showing consideration for others more than ever. He is great at taking care of his responsibilities with minimal input needed from us. He will take responsibility for Tama and Will with no complaints. He is starting to give back to the communities that he is a part of. He is (for the most part) trustworthy, honest, and reliable. So we are now moving towards making sure he is ready for the big wide world. And ready to interact with people at an adult level. We're trying to encourage him to cook. Our advice is aimed at encouraging him to look toward his future needs and wants. And helping him to get a little bit of his comfort zones.

Merenia- Love, responsibility, respect, boundaries. Merenia is flying head first into adolescence and it's causing issues. Our parenting is directed at helping take responsibility for her actions, accept her mistakes. Considering how others are feeling. Respecting the boundaries that exist in both our home and her wider world. And most importantly in amongst all the crappy hard stuff making sure she remembers that she is loved. This is hard work.

Will- So many ideas, so little time: Double consonants and double vowels. Will has two big story lines in his learning. The first is rooted in his home life and is to do with creativity, adventure, exploration- we need to be finding the time, resources and energy to give him the focused attention and support he needs to allow him to realise the plans and dreams that he is boiling over with. The second story line stems from school and all the learning that is happening there- lots of language; spelling, reading and writing- helping him to do what he can and to deal with the frustration that comes from what he is yet to learn.

Tama- words, words, words. For Tama right now it's all about language. Stories, singing, nursery rhymes and talking, talking, talking are the key ingredients of  his learning tool box. A day without stories is a day wasted.Of course he is still developing physically- but I tell you this boy has it going on. He is so capable physically and so keen to be active both outside and inside these skills are being tended automatically.
 

Parenting is a huge, daring and scary adventure... I am so glad to be on this adventure with Les, Kieran, Merenia, Will and Tama. And I'm looking forward to the next chapter of our story together.

Single Photo Saturday

 
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Inadvertently

slept with another man last night...

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Flora on Friday

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Tama 22 Months

 
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365 Week 16

 
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Tiny Tales from week 16

Hello Cheeky!

Thank goodness they're extinct or I could just see Tama trundling up to a Tassie Tiger and saying "Hello Dog".

Groceries home delivered this week it was the first time Tama helped unpack.

It was like Christmas!

Seriously.

Oh what's this item? Crackers!! Yippeee. Holds them up with a flourish!

Oh what's this item? Canned Tomatoes!! Yippeee. Holds them up with a flourish!

Oh what's this item? Weet Bix!! Yippeee. Holds them up with a flourish!

Oh what's this item? Stain remover!! Yippeee. Holds them up with a flourish!

Oh what's this item? Bread Crumbs!! Yippeee. Holds them up with a flourish!

Oh what's this item? Light Bulb!! Yippeee. Holds them up with a flourish!

Oh what's this item? Baking Paper!! Yippeee. Holds them up with a flourish!

And on and on and on.... groceries never looked so good!

Still trying.

Sunflowers have ignored my advice about laying fallow for the winter.

Cool Dude.

I had 35 pictures of him trying to pop the popper and not one when he actually succeeded.

In a follow-up to Les' plate a few weekd ago... it seems my car is much cooler!

Boys bake again.

Who taught him that?

Kieran got a subscription to the NBA play-offs and finals. This has meant an extreme amount of time on the computer. And a bit of cursing. Both from Kieran watching the games and Merenia finding him yet again on the computer watching the games.

As a side note NEVER give NBA League Pass your Credit Card details- they will have them forever and their fine print is dodgy. My advice set up a temporary Paypal account and remove the card number off of it once the payment has been processed.

Will had a cool time at Josh's Party!

"Oh Spurs, what are you doing! Jeeze Mate."

Tama actually says Jeeze and Mate. The fact that he can use them in context is what gets me.

We are walking into the super market:

Me: "Oh darn it I should have got one of Finn's postcards to send"

Tama with the correct intonation: "Jeeze"

Hello Jack and Jill.... PP Budgies for the holidays!

(We didn't leave them on the microwave- didn't want to irradiate the little guys).

Merenia's old school friend from NZ Lucja came for a sleep over in the school holidays.

Love the look on Kieran's face either Will farted or he rolled something good!

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Will 64 Months

 
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Story Chapter 16 - A Love Story

 

Source: Sycamore Street Press on Etsy

One day sometime in 1995 Les placed an ad in the personal column of the local paper. He was looking for a girlfriend- a non-Air Force girlfriend. He met some girls, good, bad, and average. The ad expired.

(This is him then.)

 

One day in March or April 1996 the people who did the personal column pages needed some ads to fill space so they ran Les' ad again.

One weekend in April 1996 I was reading the personal columns in the local free newspaper. I picked an ad I made a call. I listened to the message and I knew. Seriously I knew this was the guy I was going to marry. I left a message.

 

(This is me then.)

Luckily for me Les noticed his ad was in the paper again even though he wasn't expecting it and he gave his voicemail a call. And listened to the message from me and the one from Melanie (this isn't her story so we'll leave it at that). 

He called me and got the answer phone: "Hi this is the home of Gypsy and Rob (flatmate) ...." he hung up. He tried again and again

On Sunday the 21st called me again. We talked for an hour and a half. 

We agreed to meet on ANZAC day the following Thursday. He came over in the afternoon. We went to Muriwai Beach just down the road from my place and spent some time walking along the beach. As the evening drew in we went around the corner and sat on the rocks and watched the sunset. This is where we had our first kiss.

(Re-enactment 21 August 2011)

 He came over again the next night. And stayed. I had a course to go to the next morning for school and when I got back home I found Hibiscus flowers on my pillow. :-)

 (July 1996)

And that is the story of how we met. But it's really the start of a much longer bigger story that has so far lasted 17 years and is still going strong, most days anyway. :-)

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Single Photo Saturday

Flora on Friday

 

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