Happy New Year!

Happy New year!

I'm still here but have sadly neglected my blog!

What can I say, I think my excuse has been lack of time and this lack of time has caused me to stray over to Facebook where it's quicker to keep in touch!
I no longer refer to it as Fakebook as I referred to it in this post as I've actually found a way to make it work for me:) It has helped deepen some of my real life friendships and it has made a way to connect more intimately with some of my blog-gy friends too.

We had a wonderfully blessed Christmas day with my family in Sydney. We alternate our Christmases between Ron's and my family to be fair (as his family are in Victoria - another State in Australia). It was surprisingly cool for Christmas in Sydney which we enjoyed!
We had a multicultural feast of Indian, Italian and Aussie food, warm times spent with the family and my parents even invited their neighbours, so there were 25 of us at lunch!

Rebekah got a Furby for Christmas. I had'nt heard of a Furby until a couple of months ago, apparently they were around in the nineties and have made a comeback with apps to boot!
Here she is with her little friend:

Ron had a couple of weeks off work and we had a lovely 'staycation' in Sydney. It was really nice to be on holidays at home as we got to rest a lot. We also spent a lot of time at the shops (malls) as we had some terribly hot days and we sought refuge there to give our airconditioning a break! Time was also spent at the local pool and the beach.
Ron even started some cooking! He is not a cook by any means but with some encouragement from Rebekah, they together decided to cook dinner one night and it turned out pretty good too I must say! An asian chicken dish:)

Rebekah has been enjoying lots of play dates with her friends that are on school holidays. However, she did get back into 'school' work last week. We don't follow the school terms as it gives us the freedom to go on holidays when we like. It works really well for us as you get cheaper accommodation and a lot less crowds at your holiday destination!
Homeschoolers are a spoilt bunch:)

She is still finishing off her year 3 work and I'll post about our year 4 when we get there!
She has also graduated from a bath to 'showers'! I know, I'm a bit slow:) I've talked about that in the past here so I won't go there again:) She's enjoying the graduation to a shower and feels very grown up!

Last year was a pretty tough year for me but we managed by God's grace; (this also impacted on my blogging as I didn't have the head space to blog). I'm looking forward to good things this year!

Hope all my bloggy friends are well, I've tried keeping in touch via your blogs. I'll head over again soon and catch up on your posts. I wish you all the best for 2013!

A scientist? A dancer? whatever it is, she's growing up and keeping me busy!

Hello my friends, I'm still here! I'm so sorry if you've felt neglected by me.
I have had endless issues with blogger trying to read and comment on your blogs. I am not a tecchy person and am still trying to work out how to get my Internet Explorer to co-operate with me:)
When I have time on my ipad I visit you but that time is few and far between and I prefer reading blogs from my pc as it's bigger and better:)
I promise I'll try to catch up with you all soon.

In the meantime, here's a post I've taken a few weeks to complete! Life has been busy and my blog as always comes second:)
...........


I told you some time ago that we kept Rebekah in her booster seat for way longer than she needed to be in it here. Well, she's graduated from the booster seat to sitting in the front seat when it's just the two of us.
Part of me doesn't want her to grow up too fast but the other part of me is really enjoying watching her develop and become a little young lady!
Rebekah has really changed so much in the past 6 months. One thing that has changed is that she has become extremely talkative!!! (unlike Ron and me I have to say):) Who would have thought, certainly not me! She used to be so quiet. She admits she loves to talk! I've decided I am going to enjoy her talking as it's a great way to connect with her - listening to her talk about the thousand and one thoughts that go through her little head;)

She's also graduated to this at coffee shops when we go out as a family:

She's definitely graduated from lying in her capsule at the coffee shop, to having to keep her entertained while her parents enjoyed their lattes and cappucinos, to then having her own babycino, from that to a minicino and playing with the toys the shop provided to doing what we love doing after sipping our coffees - reading!




She enjoyed a science club she attended last term and I think this cover she made for her folder says it all:

I love her love for science!

She has also enjoyed performing at her end of year ballet concert and has been given the opportunity to dance with a group of students at some scripture assemblies in local public schools. They will be dancing to a christmas song about the birth of Jesus. Rebekah just loves loves loves performing in front of a crowd! So, when the opportunity arose I signed her up for it with no hesitations! We want to nurture the in born performer in her! I am not sure where her love for dance will lead her to but for now, I am just glad she's enjoying ballet and we love to give her the opportunity to perform when it arises.
She will also be performing that dance at the kids services of the church (that run's the ballet school) over the first weekend in December. (It's a big church!)

It's a cliche, but she's definitely growing up, thought not too old to still do this with Daddy:

We are still doing school and will continue till a week or so before Christmas I'd imagine as we don't follow the traditional school year. I'm looking forward to my mum and step dad coming back from India from their yearly missions trip in a week! There's so much I especially want to talk to my mum about! I've missed her!

I hope to do another post or two before Christmas (my average has been once a month lol) so I'll wait till then to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

When God closes one door.....

Well, it's been a while since my last blog post!
I've been in a different difficult season of my life, adjusting to the loss of my dear friend and moving onto a new season.
When God closes one door, He sure does open another!

My friend (whom I saw weekly, even twice weekly sometimes) passing away left a big hole in our lives.
But God has been so good to us!

You know, I'm just so excited about this new season.

It all came about so quickly! I didn't have much to do with it except facilitate a night of discussion on homeschooling at a friend's home.

It started off a few months ago. A family in our church had just moved here from another country where they homeschooled their kids. I met up with the mum a few times in the last few months to befriend her and be an encouragement to her (whether or not they decided to continue homeschooling) and besides she has a daughter just a few months younger than Rebekah and they get on really well! I then found that there was another family in our church who had begun home schooling one of their kids.
Besides them, I also have two other friends with younger kids interested in home schooling that have talked to me on and off over the years about homeschooling and how it all works etc.

A couple of weekends ago, our church went away on a camp and while we were there I had an indepth conversation with a man from our church who is here studying, who also successfully homeschooled his 4 children all the way to university! When I was chatting to him, I realised he was such a wealth of wisdom and knowledge. I wondered what it would be like to get him to come chat to these group of women I mentioned earlier (and their husbands)! Well, a thought turned to reality and we met together last Sunday night over dinner, all 5 families, kids and this dad.

Well, it seems this was a divine connection because the family that are homeschooling one child have now decided to pull their other two kids out of school and homeschool all three of them next year! Another family with younger children who were deciding whether to send their child to 'big school' next year have decided to homeschool as well! So, now we have a whole new community (albeit small at the moment) of homeschoolers in our church! How exciting! Rebekah has always wanted to have other friends in church that also were homeschooled and now her years of desiring this have come to pass! You can tell I'm excited by all my exclamation marks!!! :)

We've decided to meet weekly and do some fun things together with the kids....I'm not sure how all of this will eventually play out but we are excited about the prospect of having other families to meet up with weekly.

Rebekah and I will continue to maintain some (not all) of the activities/ park days with other homeschool groups we belong to as we've got great friends all over Sydney that attend these groups, but we are just so excited about the group starting up within our church! God is good! In our season of pain, He has created something good. I'm not sure where this will lead but I do know that we will go where He leads.

Understood Rebekah

I was going to title this post "Understood Betsy Rebekah" but alas I'm not clever enough (yet) to have figured out how to strike through a word in the title!

And if you're unfamiliar with the story of "Undersood Betsy" which we just finished reading for term 1 of Ambleside Online Year 2 (yay!) here's a snippet from Wikipedia:

"The story tells of Elizabeth Ann, a 9-year-old orphan who goes from a sheltered existence with her father's aunt Harriet and cousin Frances in the city, to living on a Vermont farm with her mother's family, the Putneys, whose child-rearing practices had always seemed suspect to Harriet and her daughter. In her new rural life, Elizabeth Ann comes to be nicknamed "Betsy," and to find that many activities that Frances had always thought too demanding for a little girl are considered, by the Putney family, routine activities for a child: walking to school alone, cooking, and having household duties to perform."

You can read more here.

This is a truly delightful story which we have both enjoyed reading and I highly recommend it especially for children around the ages of 8 to 10. You can read it for free online here and here.

Rebekah thought the author was a very funny writer as we laughed a lot at many places in the book!
It was amazing to see the connections Rebekah made between her life and that of early 20th century's Betsy. It was also amazing to see (without my questioning) what assessments she made of the various characters within the book, e.g, that Aunt Frances had given Betsy too much attention or that Betsy had become 'tanned' because of the manual work she had done on the farm. These are not discussions I have ever had with Rebekah but ones that she would talk to me about (uninitiated) after reading the book. Charlotte Mason was so right when she said not to get between the child and the book but to allow the child to make their own connections. Well, I've seen it time and again in Rebekah's life. It has freed me up and removed the 'burden' of me having to do the 'teaching'.

Also, on the topic of Betsy and making connections, I assume Rebekah concluded that she was perhaps a bit like Besty (when she lived with her Aunt Frances in the city) and wasn't allowed to do too much (ouch) because she has begun to ask me to teach her to sew and to allow her to do some cooking independently (another ouch for me)!

Being an only child, Rebekah is the oldest and the youngest! No younger siblings has made her the 'baby' of the house in some ways which has meant that at times I err on the side of 'babying' her too much and not allowing her to do things perhaps other children her age would be doing like cooking independently etc. (Ron is much better at this than me which is why I say 'I' not 'us')!
An example would be that she sat in her booster seat in the car until the age of 8 (though the law says they are not required to sit in one after 7), shhh, don't tell anyone lol! To make matters worse, we did this only after she complained that she was too old for it:)
On the other hand, not having any other siblings also means that she gets more 'adult' conversation and interaction with Ron and I, probably much more than other children her age that I find in some respects she can carry on a much more mature conversation than other children her age.

I know some of my mum friends must roll their eyes at some of the things I do or say:) I know some of this is inevitable as we all "learn" parenting with our first borns. But alas she has no one following her so I am never at the place where I can say confidently that I know what to do in a situation (because we've been there before).
I'm sure other mums of "onlies" can identify with this?

Whatever the case, I'm always learning; having to 'loosen' up a little to let her become more independent and 'trust' her with more responsibilities. This book has definitely helped me in this journey.

I'd love to hear from you all that were either an only child or have only children. What words of wisdom do you have for me? Would you care to share some of your thoughts on growing up as an "only" or raising an only child. Please do tell, I'd love to hear them. Also from parents of more than one child, what are your observations from the sidelines? Do you have any thoughts or wisdom to share?

Music, dance, sadness and joy

It's been a month since my last sad sad post.
We are coming out the other end slowly.
The funeral was great! The biggest one I've ever been to - with more than 400 in attendance. This demonstrated the impact that one little lady had on so many many lives. She was unassuming and humble yet her impact reached far and wide. As her closest friend said in her eulogy, one of her gifts was connecting her friends with others. I must say this is how I came to meet so many of her close and dear friends with whom my life is now connected in a richer way.

Everytime I drive past the roundabout where I would have turned to head to her house, I feel pangs of sadness. Sad that I can no longer head there and see my dear friend.
Everytime I see her little girls my heart breaks for the loss they've encountered. (It's difficult seeing her husband and boys as well, but I think because I have a daughter, being around her girls is heart breaking for me) Yet through it all, God has been so good to her family. He is truly upholding them at this time. Your prayers have been helping for sure!

The day after the funeral we headed to the snowy mountains with some of our friends. I didn't like the timing of it but alas it was planned quite some time ago and as it turned out, it was a good thing to go away after that sad week. Time with friends was healing and soothing.

The day we were at Perisher turned out to be one of their busiest days, yet we had a lot of fun toboganning!

We're back into school now. Rebekah is thoroughly enjoying her ballet classes, still wants to be a ballerina when she grows up and therefore is going to do her first official ballet exams in a few months. She is over the moon!
All her free time is spent doing her ballet routines and teaching her imaginary friends and dolls how to do ballet as well!

She shows great interest and aptitude for all things musical. I am pretty sure that one of her gifts lies in this area as she has a natural aptitude for it, coupled with the fact that she comes from a long line of musicians on both sides of the family! I look forward to seeing where she will end up with this gift but for now the 'Recorder' is providing that musical outlet.
So, most days, in her free time, you'll either hear Rebekah on her recorder or see her doing ballet. I must say I do enjoy this as the lovely sound of music fills our home.

Rebekah also get her first basketball shot successfully into the hoop last Saturday, the day of the Olympics opening ceremony. Yay!
Ron often takes Rebekah to the park near us where there is a basketball court, to play a bit of basket ball.
As you may know Lauren Jackson (one of our great female basketballers and Aussie female basket ball team captain) was the flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Later on that morning, Ron took Rebekah to the park to play a bit of basket ball. Apparently he prayed quietly for her as he thought about how nice it would be if she got the ball in for the first time on that day, the day of the Olympics opening ceremony, a day she would always remember. And she did! He told me she was so overcome with joy that she actually cried! This day has been duly noted in her journal (that I keep for her):)

I managed to scrape in a post for July, yay! I am so looking forward to August and the weather warming up! Enjoy your last month of summer if you're in the Northern hemisphere, and winter if you're in the Southern!

Only one life.....

I have been grieving since yesterday morning.....I've lost a beautiful friend, taken so suddenly from us.
How can it be that I am enjoying a cuppa with her one afternoon, chatting about the kids, homeschool, life etc and then just over twelve hours later find out she's gone!
Death is so sudden and final.

The closing of one chapter and the beginning of a new.

She touched my life in such a great way and I will sorely miss her.

I can't begin to imagine the pain and turmoil being felt by her family.

I remind myself of that and have been praying for them. Yet my heart aches too.

She was such a beautiful friend, so graceful, generous, loving and accepting, full of wisdom and advice for when I needed it, a ear to listen when I needed it, a really kind person who always opened her home up to me and Rebekah. I will miss her so much!

Her kids and Rebekah are such close friends and I hope that friendship will continue yet I know that things will change for them as a family and I find myself grieving for the inevitable changes.

Rebekah burst into tears when I broke the news yesterday morning to her. We cancelled our outing and stayed home. We were in shock and also grief stricken at the same time. We had a great (for lack of a better word) time chatting about life, death, Jesus, faith and hope. We know we'll see her again but as Rebekah so maturely said to me, "I know that but I'm still sad and I'll miss her". I told her it was ok to feel sad and talked to her about how God can comfort us. Actually, I was amazed at the maturity and level of understanding of death and life through the words coming out of Rebekah yesterday, little did I know an 8 year old understood so much!

Amidst the shock, grief and sadness came over us in waves (as reality sunk in) through the day when we'd pause, hug, talk, cry and reminisce. Needless to say we both didn't eat much yesterday. Even Rebekah said she didn't feel like eating because she was sad.

My heart felt like it was ripping inside of me when I played with Rebekah during the day, with her toys. My dear friends children will not have their mum to play with them anymore. No mum to take care of them, hug them and nurture and love them.

At one point during the day, Rebekah said to me that she was like another mum to her and began crying.
You see, we saw each other weekly for almost a year and our kids played together in each other's homes, in the park and we babysat for each other. She was always so kind and loving to Rebekah which is why she said she was like another mum! What a compliment for her coming from a child's lips.

Ron cut short his day at work and came home in the afternoon. It was good to have him to talk to and process what had happened.
We all hugged each other much more than we normally do!

Some of the things I've learned from my friend were true kindness, grace, generosity and patience. I never once saw her lose her temper with her kids and as Ron reminds me, that is an oustanding compliment! I did tell her that when she was still with us. I'm so glad I did and didn't waste the opportunity to encourage her in that grace she had. Yet there are so many other things I could have told her and planned on telling her but didn't get the chance to!

We will miss her! It will take us time to get over the loss of such a dear friend.

When I left school we were all given a plaque with the quote:
"Only one life, t'will soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last"

I lost that plaque in the move from India to Australia but those words have been etched in my heart and mind and have guided my life and help me focus on the most important: to always live from an eternal perspective. My dear friend exemplified this with her life. This was on my heart all day yesterday.
She didn't care for possessions or a newer or bigger home. Jesus and her family were the most important. She poured her life into her children. Even though some of her kids are too young to potentially remember her when they are grown up, the deposit she has placed in all of them will stand them in good stead I believe.

I am blessed that she came into my life and though I will miss her, I know I'll see her again. I will attempt to remind her children of the wonderful mother they had as they grow up.

Only one life, t'will soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last!



p.s. I've withheld my friend's name for privacy reasons.

Narrating upside down and other things!

We had a very productive week this week after a couple of weeks of being sick and having relatives visit from interstate!

I always feel great being able to tick off all my boxes in a week. This week was one such week, we even fit nature study in, hooray!

I've got a great friend Pam and we've been attempting to do a monthly nature walk day together with our girls.

We didn't let the weather beat us today; it was freezing and blowing a gale but we got out there and did a small nature walk and had fun! We even got to draw some wattle in our journals! The girls had fun with plastic bag kites - another one of Pam's very clever ideas!
























Earlier this week, Rebekah decided to do her narrations up side down again - I'm not sure what type of a learner she is (I haven't spent too much time reading up on this) but she does enjoy being read to and narrating with her feet in the air or doing something with her hands! I say, go for it, if it works for you! I am not good at multi-tasking even though women are supposed to be good at this, sorry ladies, it's just not one of those things I'm good at; actually there are other things women are supposed to be good at/ like to do that I'm not, but that's another story:)































These are Rebekah's best friends and companions. She reads with them in bed, sleeps with them next to her, takes them on car trips and to visit her friends. Jacob (though I insist he's more like Jackie not Jacob) is on the left in green and Sparkle on the right is her 'dog'. Rebekah has wanted a dog so badly, ever since she could talk, but we've repeatedly told her we'll consider it when she's 10. In the meantime, Sparkle will have to do!
























Rebekah decided that she would now be their teacher and teach them how to read and write, maths, history and other things. Jacob is doing Year 3 reading, Year 1 writing and preschool maths; Sparkle is doing Year 1 history, Year 1 writing and pre-school maths or something like that! I got last after the Year 3 reading bit lol!
Any of you doing/ have done AO will know we've been reading "Understood Betsy" this week where Betsy realises she can be in Year 7 for reading and Year 2 in math and that it's all ok:) Much like most homeschooled kids (which I haven't divulged to Rebekah yet).



























Enjoy your weekend!