Swimming, new meds and fundraising

Friday 23rd: Rachel had her first NCEA course in town yesterday and today (so she stayed with friends overnight). This meant I could not just leave Anastasia or Asher with her to attend the swimming sports at school today. Rachiel (notice spelling - Asher's teachers' assistant) offered to come and watch the little ones so that I could go, but Asher was really not looking good, so I just stayed home with them.
Asher woke in the night sounding like she might vomit. It happened again this morning and I was following her around with a bucket for a little while. I started wondering if it was indeed a stomach bug that Hezekiah had on the weekend. She didn't get sick though and had such a low energy day that I went to check side effects of her new drug.

Not only sleepiness, but nausea too. So that was why she was struggling through the night and this morning. And also why she was so very tired yesterday and today. It can take up to 2-3 weeks to settle, but we are praying it doesn't take that long.
I asked Kerry if she would take some photos at the swimming for me and she sent me so many lovely ones.

The ones above of Hezekiah's freestyle race.
Hezekiah has just taken to swimming and is doing so well. He is my first child to be doing so well at just 6. Such a contrast to growing up in South Africa with a swimming pool in our garden. I'm sure all 5 of us kids were swimming by the time we were 3 or 4. We just had so many months of swimming and were in the pool every day.

Kerry took so many photos that I felt like I was there watching them. Thank you so much Kerry. It was a real blessing.

Hannah getting ready for her freestyle race.

2nd and 3rd place seemed to be very close. Hannah came in just behind her friend to take 3rd.

Such a great shot with their arms out.
Hannah has improved with her swimming so much over the last month. It's been wonderful to watch.

Hezekiah part of their pool demonstration. Showing how they can go under the water and swim under their friend's legs. This is a huge thing for Hezekiah as he has only gotten comfortable putting his head under the water in the last month.

Showing their kicking. Hezekiah tells me that he also had to do it on his back (holding the board on his tummy) and that he came first. So he may have a nice strong kick. He has shown me how he needs to make small kicks with pointed toes and told me how he must keep his feet in the water. So he is learning a lot and doing very well.

Asher having some cuddles with Ruth this afternoon. It is really hard seeing her so totally exhausted. Hopefully her body will adjust quickly.

Saturday 24th: A lovely dry day to get some gardening done. The hedge has grown so much so it was great that Brendon could give it such a good cut.

Great strong helper.

And Ruth was keen to help replacing the water filters.

Sunday 25th: Asher was a bit better on Saturday and then better again today too. Eventually at 11am her energy just dropped though and she got hungry too. Thankfully we had popcorn in the car, so she nibbled on that (perhaps she still has a bit of nausea). Someone had brought a bag full of teddies to church and the one pictured was a teddy pillow. It was a great help to encourage her to lie down and rest. I think she wanted to get to her bed and kept trying to run out. Once I put her down on the chair with the pillow, she settled though and had a good rest. She didn't fall asleep, so that is also an improvement.

I asked if we could borrow the teddy pillow as it would be a good think to have at school if she needs to rest.
This afternoon Brendon was cutting the grass and Asher always loves watching him. She was so tired though, so I encouraged her to sit down and she rested her head on the teddy while watching. She didn't sleep today, but just rested quite a bit. It's encouraging to see improvement every day. Her body is getting used to the new meds and I'm sure it won't be long before she is back to her normal energy levels.

Many years ago a friend gave us her MASSIVE collection of beads. She had made jewellery as a source of income for a few years, and so had quite an amazing collection. She no longer made and sold, so she gave us her collection as well as unsold jewellery. Rachel then sold the jewellery and it was a huge part of her fundraising for the week long Jamboree camp she went on with Guides.
Ruth has a week long Wellington trip coming up later in the year and the children have been encouraged to do fundraising for it. So Ruth got started in making some jewellery to sell.
The plan now is to hopefully get a few more of the children in the school making jewellery that they can sell and fundraise together.

These are Ruth's first two creations.
It's going to be fun seeing all the creations that come out of this box over the next few months.

And another fundraiser that is happening is for St John Youth. They are selling bulbs this year and Rachel plans to buy some for outside her bedroom. She also found some sweet pea seeds that I was given and decided to clear this section of fence line for the sweet peas.
She still remembers the wonderfully successful sweet peas I had over a decade ago. It will be lovely if we can get some success here too.