Buckland Blog: Squash, BOOST and March

Tuesday 9th: A fun week ahead for these two as they attend the BOOST holiday programme run by Wellbeing North Canterbury. We are so very thankful that the girls were invited to attend. And not only that, but one of the leaders picks them up and drops them off each day too. Today was the first day and they learnt about self care. Then they went trampolining.
Rachel is away this week on the CEF camp. The camp starts for her on the Sunday when the leaders spend the day together, and then the children are there from Monday to Friday. So a busy week for all of us. It's extra busy for me with having all 3 of my big girls away through the day. It can be quite tricky with Asher and Anastasia. It was good that it happened though as it made me realize that I need to make plans to get more help with Asher through the summer holidays.

We arrived early for squash again this evening so Hezekiah got to play with Will for a bit which was nice.

One team was so short on players that I played in their number 2 spot, and Ruth played as their 4th player. The 4th player in each team needs to be a novice, so it was great that Ruth felt confident enough to give it a go.

Wed 10th: Enjoying chewing on a piece of bread. Loads of crumbs to clean up afterwards though. Not sure how much got down. Just great that she is willing to put different textured food in her mouth and give it a chew.

Since Anastasia's cold, she has just not gotten back to sleeping well at night. So I decided it would be a good idea to see if she could take a bottle at night to try and fill her up a bit more. Ever evening got a little bit easier.

Today's lesson for the girls was about dealing with anxiety. In the afternoon they got to spend time at Adrenaline Forest - to put into practice some of what they had learned. It was great that one of the leaders who was holding Ruth's phone for her, took loads of photos of her on the course.

Hannah does not like heights, so it was a very appropriate exercise for her to practice some of her newly learnt techniques to deal with stress. She was unfortunately not tall enough to go on all the courses but had to stay on the first 2. That was probably a good place for her to stay anyway, and build up her confidence.

BELOW: I like this photo and how it gives you an idea of the whole set up. Loads of people on different sections at the same time.

What a great experience.

Thursday 11th: Today's lesson was about dealing with frustrations. The had fish and chips for lunch and then went to get some boxing lessons. As expected, we heard from the leaders that Hannah did really well. We thought she would be a natural. :-)
RIGHT: Anastasia loves this corner of the room and often goes to these shelves and takes all the toys off.
Friday 12th: The original plan for today was a catch up on all that they had learned through the week at Orana Park. The weather was really wet though, so plans got changed.

They ended up going to the mall to watch a movie (a real treat for our girls) and then they went to inflatable world. So still a fun day, but just indoors.
With Brendon taking a break from being a manager on the farm, he no longer has a farm vehicle to use. So we had to look for a small vehicle for him to use to get to and from work. I had been searching through the week and we decided to go and view this car on Friday afternoon. It's a 2005 Nissan March and only has 76,000km on the clock. So we were really pleased to be able to get a car with such low mileage.

Once we had decided to take the car, Brendon left with the van to fetch the girls on the way home and I stayed to get all the paperwork sorted (great that it could all be finalized on my phone).
The car is listed as blue, but when I arrived home and parked next to a light blue car, it was clear that it's more purple than blue. I just love that Brendon is not at all put out by having to drive a purple car.

It's comfortable and light on fuel, and those are the things that really count.
Saturday 13th: This evening I was able to attend the VALUE event that I have gone to a few times over the last couple of years. This year they had a dinner rather than a pamper night. I was able to bring Rachiel (teacher aide) and Megan (helps Asher in the morning on Monday and Wednesday) with to the dinner and it was great for us to be able to get some time getting to know one another a bit more.

Thankfully Anastasia had made enough progress with taking the bottle that I could just leave her at home. What a lovely treat.
And what a lovely venue too - just off the beach.
The church had organized the tables so that they had one lady at each table to help make sure everyone felt relaxed and had at least someone to talk to. They also had little sheets with a variety of questions to stimulate conversation for those who needed it. I collected a few to bring home. What a clever idea.