Fun and games and belly laughs

Tuesday 26th Feb: Asher had a hospital appointment this afternoon. Anastasia came with this time and enjoyed the kitchen area in the waiting room. Asher just loves the train. We know that she needs to have some time with it before she will be happy getting weighed or seeing the doctor.

 
Wednesday 27th: Asher had me laughing so hard today. She was dancing for us and enjoying the fact that she was making people laugh.

ABOVE: Friday 1st March: Monthly children photo.
LEFT: Tuesday 5th March: Ruth heading off on an overnight camp. Including CAVE diving. What an opportunity.
Brendon and I have been attending a Introduction to Mindfullness Course on Tuesday evenings. This was week 3 of 4. Not sure what I did with the first 2 photos. It's been really interesting. Some of the ideas have come up in different discussion in varied situation.
"What I resist persists. What I allow myself to feel will let me heal."
Most people automatically think mindfullness is emptying your mind but it's the opposite. It's being more aware of your thoughts and then controlling them. When it comes to emotions, we more often than not try to ignore or suppress our emotions, and then don't allow ourselves the needed time to properly deal with whatever has happened.

Anastasia spotted some of her pants that had been washed and wanted to put them all on. She was really layered up (more than what you can see).

Wednesday 6th: Ruth home safely from her adventures this evening and enjoying a tea party with Hezekiah and Anastasia. :-)

Thursday 7th: We managed to get a 2nd hand foosball table. The children are really enjoying it.

Friday 8th: Out there again early this morning once they were ready for school.

I just love this apple tree. Not only does it look so beautiful growing in this way, it has also been grafted from 2 different apples. So the ones on the right will ripen before the ones on the left. Such a clever idea.

Asher's legs are just growing so much that we are going to have to have her buggy adjusted. We needed to take photos so that they could "see" (without having to drive all the way out to us). So I thought I would pop this photo on to show how far those long legs are off her seat already. It's the same with her car seat. So we will get both adjusted soon.

Hezekiah's class singing in assembly today.

Saturday 9th: We were thrilled to have Richard and Bernie come for a visit this weekend. We haven't seen them since our North Island trip when Hannah was a baby. What a blessed friendship, that you can pick up after so many years and just feel so at home. What a blessing.
We took them on the lookout walk. The weather wasn't great for the view, but helpful for the walk.

Sunday 10th: Enjoying time together this evening.

Monday 11th: And then time to say goodbye. We loved having them stay and so many wonderful new memories were made (this time with the children included in those special times too). We remember all the belly aching laughs from 10 years ago, and this time it was no different. Thank you for coming.

The kids had so much fun outside this afternoon. They created different shops. Hezekiah and Logan had a plan shop. :-)

Tuesday 12th: And just like that, our Tuesday dates are over. Thank you Rachel for baby sitting.
It has been wonderful to be able to get out the house and spend some time together (40 min travel time to just chat). And we have learnt a lot too.

Winning streak and deck stain

Saturday 29th: Instead of Asher just going to Rachiel's home while we are at church tomorrow (as Brendon is preaching), she went for an overnight visit too, and headed there after lunch.
This meant we could have a game of Ticket to Ride with Brendon and I both playing.

The children asked that we go to the squash courts again this evening, so we headed down again so that they could all get a bit more time practicing.
Hannah and Hezekiah have not gotten to play as often as Ruth has (she has been interested for a lot longer) and they both surprised me at how well they are both doing.
I thought I would just give some fruit a try again and Anastasia surprised me and ate half a tin. She had a good night's sleep but unfortunately would not repeat it again. Every time I tried again after this, she just spits it out as soon as it gets into her mouth. So it was just a once off......
Sunday 30th: Rachel has been at District Competitions this weekend. What a great photo of her leading their drill team. They didn't place, but did really well and it was a very high standard.
With Asher away Anastasia got to play with her balls during church this morning.

Anastasia enjoyed chewing on some sausage for lunch today. It will be so nice when some of the food can start going down her throat. :-)
Monday 1st October: It's getting a bit more tricky to get 6 smiling faces in one shot. 7 years of monthly photos taken now. I should try get a new video of them made soon.

We bought our own Ticket to Ride and got the European version. It's a bit more complicated than the USA one as it has tunnels and ferries. So I'm glad we got the basics learnt first. Up till this game, I had won every game I had played. Brendon broke my winning streak though, and was just one move ahead of me in purchasing the long 8 part tunnel and won the game. :-) He was red and I was yellow. Ruth was blue.

Ruth and Hannah then had a game too. Hannah is learning to go for longer trains and managed to get the 8 part tunnel. Nice job girls.

It started cooling off this evening while we were at bible study. We heard Ruth saying that she can't go outside for long as she will get swollen fingers if she gets too cold. So Miane decided to dress her up nice and warm. :-) Such fun.

Tuesday 2nd: This morning Ruth and Hannah headed into town with me. Hannah needed to have her eyes tested again and Ruth had some shopping she wanted to do (as always). I was pleased to be able to leave Anastasia at home and managed to get home in time for her after lunch feed.
In the afternoon Brendon got started on re-staining the deck. He had 3 happy helpers too.

They took turns helping with the roller and the brushes.

Hannah didn't see them get started, but it didn't take her long to join in.

BELOW: Ruth was helping from the start and got a bit tired eventually, so she moved to the role of entertainment.
Dad having fun and "singing along" for the photo.

Finishing up the edges.
Well done to you all.

Before....

And after.
Although this photo was taken in shade - so it doesn't show the contrast as well. It looks great.

The blossoms are always so lovely to see on this apple tree. One tree at it's base, but it quickly splits into two and each side is a different apple. They blossom at different times and the fruit ripens a couple of months apart. So clever.

Asher picked up a book to read this afternoon, so I quickly got her pack of holiday books from school out. She went through a few of them but had one favourite. It was lovely to see how she has gotten to know some of these books a bit more and will tolerate them just that little bit more at home now.

First cold and some fun in the sun

Monday 17th: We left too early on Friday to worry about getting Anastasia's 10 month photos, but today she was just so tired that I didn't bother either. The cold that started last week thankfully didn't worry her over the weekend, but I could see how sick she felt today. Falling asleep while sitting in her ExerSaucer. I saw that she was nodding off, so put a couple of soft toys in front of her for a pillow. Thankfully she did get more sleep through the day, but she is waking more at night too. So much post nasal drip that I think it was especially nice for her to nod off in this upright position.

Tuesday 18th: Although not over her cold, she was happy enough this morning to get some 10 month photos.
She hasn't put any weight on over the last month, most likely due to the fact that she is so very active, crawling around all over the place now.

"Lovely Little Sister" indeed.
She is not standing totally on her own yet, but it's not too far away.

An hour after the photo shoot she was exhausted again and enjoyed sleeping a bit more upright in my arms.

She does not often just cuddle, so Ruth enjoyed getting some cuddle time with her this afternoon. She is normally too much on the go to stay still for more than a couple of seconds. Poor poppet.

Wednesday 19th: I called the Plunket Line to just chat about what things to look out for with this illness. It was nice to just have a good chat with the nurse and know I wasn't missing anything. She mentioned lifting the cot for her, a full 15cm on the one side. It worked really well and she has started sleeping a lot better in her cot now. Not as good as before the cold, but much improved.
BELOW: Thursday 20th: The Ticket to Ride game has been so well enjoyed. The three of us all got really long trains today. It's been good to see the great improvement Hannah has made.

Friday 21st: I had a very challenging afternoon with the children and got so very frustrated. Brendon had asked Robert (the HR guy at work) to give me a call as he has been able to help me with over the phone counselling in the past. Well, at first I just didn't even want to talk to him. I was crying so much I didn't know if I would even be able to explain what was going on. Brendon encouraged me to just try and I am so glad I did. It was firstly great to not be judged. And once again he was able to ask the exact questions that I needed to be asked. I had never really analysed why I can get so upset in situation like today, and so it was really helpful to have someone help me do that today. I realized that the thing that was upsetting me was the meanness between the children. I realized that I experienced meanness when I was a child, and so I was wanting to try and protect my children from that pain. Robert suggested I try to just not get involved and let things play out.

I would often here the mean conversations starting in the room next to me, and would start at the children, trying to get them to stop. The result however, was that they never really get to understand what the end result of their speech will be. They don't really see how mean it is. So over the next week I made an effort to just ignore meanness that I heard. It was hard, but it helped. I think this will help the children to start seeing the meanness themselves.
Parenting sure is hard, but I am so thankful for the help and support that the Lord has given me.
It was then really nice that in the evening I got to go out with Rachel and Ruth to a lady's event that the Medical Centre was hosting. Ruth came with to sell some jewellery (they had invited her to have a table). It was a very informative evening and nice to just have something different to do. Ruth sold a few necklaces, which was great, and another bonus was that Rachel won one of the spot prizes (she had a red sticker under her chair). What a lovely hamper. So a great night for us all.

Saturday 22nd:
Sweet child.
Her siblings enjoyed putting this cap on her.








The Plunket nurse I had spoken to over the phone in the week had suggested getting both Anastasia and I out into the sun more, so this morning was a great opportunity for that. Ruth also used the time to get a load of photos of her while out there.

Always fun to pick the weeds. :-)
Such a happy girl. She loves clapping now too, so this was a lovely photo capturing that fun too.






BELOW: Hezekiah was a great helper with this bed. Brendon had turned over the weeds with his big fork a while back, but I hadn't gotten to clear the weeds and grass yet. So we sat and hit the clumps on big rocks to loosen the soil and then remove just the unwanted plants. The sweetpeas on the fence are looking good. I hope we get a lot of flowers from them.

Ruth also decided that it would be fun for Anastasia to have a ride with Asher. :-)
And on her own.

Ruth enjoying some time with Asher in the sun. Such a cute photo.

Another great photo by Hezekiah. It was nice to have a game with Dad this afternoon.
Rachel was in town for work this afternoon and so stayed over in town.
Asher had a seizure this evening at 8:30. She fell off her bed when it started but thankfully didn't seem to get hurt from the fall. That's only the 3rd one this month, so it's been a good month for her.

Sunday 23rd: Yesterday afternoon my lip started swelling up. At first I wondered if I had been bitten by something outside. A few hours later though, it was down. Unfortunately in the early hours of Sunday morning I felt the swelling come back. And this time it got even worse. It lasted a lot longer too, but by Monday it was going down. I suspect it was angioedema related to stress from Friday's issue with the children (as I hadn't eaten anything different and don't generally react to anything in the garden). Thankfully it was not at all painful, just totally numb (and rather embarrassing at church on Sunday morning).
Anastasia hasn't been sleeping well since her cold and so I have to try and break the bad habit she has gotten into of waking so often at night. It's always so draining. It's been so much harder with Anastasia than with any of the others. So I have had to regularly ask the Lord for His help to get through.
I'm so thankful for Brendon's support and the extra sleep I managed to get this afternoon.