She finally gives up her afternoon nap:)

Ok, I can hear you say "what, did I read this title right?" yes, you did:)

My 6 and half year old Rebekah finally gave up her afternoon nap a couple weeks ago!

You see, she kept sleeping and I kept encouraging it and she kept sleeping and I kept encouraging it and then she started resisting but I still kept encouraging it, so she kept sleeping....until recently one day she didn't sleep and started crying and telling me it's boring to sleep! Point taken! I gave in and now she no longer naps, boo hoo! No not really, I'm really ok with it:)

It's amazing how a couple months ago I noticed a real change in her and others started commenting too that she was starting to "look" more grown up. Well, I think she reached some sort of developmental milestone and so the nap going out the window was part of it I think. I also noticed along with this that she has become much more independent in her free time, being able to keep herself entertained much more etc.
Children do indeed come with their own time tables don't they! I mean I only have one but when I compare her to other kids, it's easy for me to see how they are all so different to each other!

On the upside, with all this "growing up" that's happened, I feel I have so much more energy now. It's taken me this long to figure out that a lot of my tiredness was emotional - you see as I've told you before, I'm the classic introvert. Add to this a highly dependent child (in terms of companionship, being her playmate and being very clingy when she was younger etc) and it all makes for one tired mum here!
I have a lot more energy now at the end of the day, hallelujah! (That explains my frequent blogging and commenting at your place!)

So, we've transitioned now to the "quiet time" or "rest time" in the afternoon as some mums call it:) And I now need to go google and find out when they give up their "rest times" :(

Blessed to be a blessing!

Ron is out this afternoon and will be home a bit later this evening. So, I thought I'd let you all know a bit more about my hubby and about something he's involved in right now:)




















He is actually out right now spending time with a young teenage boy that he is "mentoring" through a charitable organisation - a very well known one!

This organisation runs a program where they get kids referred to them from DOCS (Department of Community Services) and as an early intervention type program, they started up a "mentoring" program to help these kids out. I believe this program has only been running for a couple of years but they have already seen tremendous results with the kids.

Ron had to do a six week training program , a police check and provide a few referees who could vouch for his character before they would let him become a mentor.
The mentors are people from the general community and once trained etc they are "paired" with kids that this organisation feels they would be best suited to, having similar interests etc. Also, they are in constant contact with the mentors and mentees and this program is very closely supervised.

Basically what he does now is spend time with this kid every couple of weeks, doing stuff that interests him. Today, they are at a skate park and apparently this is one of his favourite things they've done so far, so he asked Ron if they could go back there.
They've done bush walking, going to the movies etc in the past.
Ron tells me that whenever he goes to pick him up, even if it's at 7am on a Saturday(which he's had to do sometimes) this kid is dressed and ready to go! It makes me emotional just writing this because it tells me that this child just loves to get out and spend this time with Ron and that it's something he looks forward to!

When Ron signed up for it, we knew it would be a sacrifice for all of us but hey, we have been so blessed with the life we have that this doesn't seem like a lot to sacrifice for another child!

And oh, the program runs for twelve months, in case you were wondering:)
Ron says that there are mentors he has met that have loved it so much, they have come back a second and third time to do it all over again with new kids!

I hear the term "blessed to be a blessing" so much and I was pondering it the other day, how often, this is used in the context of financial giving.

But I don't believe that it's the only way we have been blessed to be a blessing.
Often I think about the fact that I have been so blessed with a wonderful husband and married life, a beautiful daughter who is a gift from God. I have received so much from God in terms of emotional healing etc. All of these are blessings in my life and I can now out of that be a blessing to others! So....Ron is out there today being a blessing to some one that is in need....making a difference hopefully in another person's life!

Friday night is movie night!

I thought I'd start blogging about some of our family traditions as I think of them.
Being Friday today, I thought I'd let you all know what you would find us (mostly) doing on a Friday night:)
I say "mostly" because sometimes we have our small group on Friday nights and occasionally we have the odd social event!

I reckon it's good to establish these traditions, I'm told it helps build in our kids a sense of security, belonging etc, connection within the family etc, not to mention great memories they can take with them in to their adult lives.
The only tradition I had growing up was church on Sundays (a good one I might add), because mostly my childhood was unpredictable - but that's another story that I won't bore you with tonight!

Anyway, a couple of years ago we started a "Friday night is movie night" tradition with Rebekah. We actually got the idea from a couple that used to be our pastors in the past and they did it with their kids.

When I say "movie" it's not necessarily always a "movie" but just something that we can watch together that's wholesome and entertaining as well.

We started off with seasons of "The Brady Bunch" that Ron had got as a Christmas gift one year. We carefully select which episodes we will watch together as the show changed as the kids got older (so I'm told - because I was not alive when this show was around - no just kidding - I was but I was in India and we didn't even own a TV at that stage let alone be watching "English" shows!)

Anyway, from "The Brady Bunch" we then watched some episodes of "Skippy" and now we are onto family movies, once again carefully selected. We usually only watch for 30 minutes, occasionally longer - if we've been able to get going earlier in the evening - and continue the next week where we left off previously.

We have watched "The sound of music", "Mary Poppins" etc to name a few.

I told you all sometime ago about that Lifeline book sale I went to - well, they had all these videos for $1 each! So I bought a whole bunch of them!

Tonight, we will be watching one of them - the movie "Babe". Do you guys remember that one? I watched it at the movies when it came out and loved it. I am hoping Rebekah does too! I remember there was a sequel that wasn't as good though, they usually aren't are they? :)

So around 7pm tonight if you were at our place, you'll find us snuggled up on the couch, popcorn in hand, maybe a lolly or two, watching "Babe".

Enjoy your weekend!

p.s. (we've also been known to pass on this tradition to other young families we know:))

Ten years on.....

It was ten years ago tomorrow that we had the Sydney 2000 Olympics. I know it's a cliche but really, how fast has this time gone!

To commemorate it, Ron and Rebekah are over the next few nights going to watch some of our home videos that we recorded of it (from the TV). No dvds back in THOSE days :)

Right now they are watching the opening ceremony. Boy does this bring back some memories....memories of life bc (before child/ren), etc etc.:)

We were blessed to be able to go to a few things (more Ron than me). In fact, my claim to fame, be it known - Tony Abbott was seated a couple of rows behind us at one of the sessions we attended! :)

Ron got to go to some basketball events and we went to the heats of the athletic events including Cathy Freeman's heats. Now that famous race was a race that stopped this nation if ever! I remember standing up off our couch at home as the race got going, it was just too "off the edge of your seat" to be sitting down, lol!

Anyway, what a glorious time in the life of this city and nation. The whole city was buzzing wasn't it! I think during events like these we get tiny glimpses of what heaven will be like...people so happy and loving:)
Pray tell, what are your memories and did you attend any of the events?

I wonder if Australia will host anything like that again....

She's part Indian, part Aussie and speaks with an American accent!

Just so you all know a little bit more about us!

Someone asked me recently if we get "second" looks when we (Ron and I) are out and about because we are of different races.
I remember in the early 90's (we've been married a while you know!) we used to get second looks. But these days it's become more common to see people of different races being married that we don't so much anymore. However, it's our daughter Rebekah who gets "second" looks now! When the three of us are together I have noticed this and it's probably human nature to be curious about how Rebekah looks being the offspring of two different races!

Anyway, so, besides being a mixture of two races, which I'm sure will have people guessing as she grows up and goes out on her own, just to confuse everyone, she speaks with a bit of an American accent:)

The only explanation I can offer is that she has a few close friends that are American (from church and our home school group) and she watches Sesame Street occasionally! I have been asked on numerous occasions if she grew up in the U.S or if one of us was from there! :)
On the other hand, she has a very good ear for sound, she was a very early 'talker' saying her first word at eight months of age, so it might just be that she hears words pronounced differently by others and picks it up. I guess it will be some what of a mystery to me for now!

So, there's a bit of trivia from our household to yours on this cold September night!

Never say "NEVER"

One thing that getting "older" has taught me is that I should never say never (as the saying goes)!

Looking back on the last couple of decades of my life, there have been some situations and circumstances I've found myself in that I would have previously said I'd never do!

One great big thing that springs to mind is living in an apartment.
I remember when we were newly married we lived in an aparment for a few years and then moved to a house way out in the outskirts of this city. Oh how liberated I felt after living in cramped quarters. I remember when we would drive past other apartments I would say to Ron that I could never live in an apartment / unit again! You can guess what happened:) A few years later, yep, we moved back into an apartment! And you know what, the grace of God was on us for that season!

So, you see, I've learnt to never say never!

Ah the wisdom of getting older!

Anyway, as a homeschooling mum (and those of you who read this who are homeschoolers will know this one:)) the first question one gets asked by others who want to know more is "socialisation". Well, they don't always come out and directly ask that question but more in a round about sort of way of course! The very next question I've found myself hearing is "so when are you going to send her to school?". Now, that implies that perhaps they think I'm only doing it for a year or two (I don't know what gives them that notion) or maybe they think homeschooling is only for "little" kids - who knows! Anyway, my standard response has been "we're taking it one year at a time".

For you see, I have been researching homeschooling since Rebekah was 2 (she is now 6) and I remember reading a book by a homeschooling mum (who had a few kids and quite a few years of homeschooling under her belt) say that they still take it one year at a time!

This stuck with me and so even though Ron and I feel called to homeschool Rebekah and have since she was 2, I know that we are not "locked in" to homeschool her till she finishes year 12. You see, I've learnt to never say never!

We decided to homeschool Rebekah not because we had bad school experiences or because we think school is bad. It's because we feel called to do this. The more I read about homeschooling and it's benefits, the more I felt we needed to!
So, we're taking it one year at a time (as I read that wise older mum say).
If we feel at some point in the future that God would want us to send her to school, we will (though I don't want to think about that now as we are absolutely loving and enjoying the homeschool life):)

So, I'm off to go finish cooking dinner. I wish all your husbands a wonderful Fathers day for tomorrow and remember to never say "NEVER":)