Preschool done and holiay begun

Wednesday 13th: Thankfully Asher got to enjoy her last day at preschool today without any seizure interruption. As the children normally turn 5 and then go to school, she got her 5th birthday crown and they had a little party for her. School starts at the beginning of Feb, but instead of coming for a couple of preschool sessions before her birthday on the 16th, she is going to use those times for her school visits instead.
The final assembly was the end of term for the other children. I think Hezekiah will be riding is bike a lot this holiday. It was great to see him having a nice long chat with Logan. I always appreciate Logan's willingness to chat to and play with Hezekiah (even though he is so much younger).
Brendon had low energy levels on Monday and then started feeling ill when we left the hospital yesterday afternoon.
As we were driving home in two cars, I organized someone to drive him the last section as he was feeling so sick. He spent Wednesday and Thursday in bed. (January 5th update - his energy levels have not gotten back to normal yet. Blood tests showed a viral infection which can take even 6 weeks to recover from.)

Anastasia still needing help with her naps - so Ruth enjoying being home during the day to help with that. :-)

Thursday 14th: Anastasia is 1 month old today and it was my last visit from my midwife, Lindsay. She has been a real blessing.
Friday 15th: Josie treated Asher to wheelbarrow rides today while they spent time outside. She does love it so much.

1 month photos taken today. Thanks Ruth for her first teddy.

This evening Brendon, Rachel and I attended the farm's Christmas party in Hanmer Springs. It was a lovely evening and I quickly took this photo when Brendon was thanked for his 10 years.
Saturday 16th: I managed to get Anastasia comfortable like this today so that I could get some work done.

Sunday 17th: Asher had a seizure this morning at 10am, shortly after we arrived at church.
Ballet concert time. We had a different venue this year, so only one show for the younger girls - which Daniel and I watched. I managed to get videos of their dances but it was a bit hard to get photos in their outfits.
By the time we saw the younger ones after their show, they had already changed. Rachel was in the 2nd show (the senior dances do both) and so I could at least get a photo of her there. You can see the videos and other photos here.
It was a very hot day and was still 27 on our way home at 7pm.
I asked the younger girls to put their outfits back on so I could get some photos.
Hannah in their jazz outfit (Ruth did this dance too).
Ruth in her ballet's Mary Poppins outfit.

 

Monday 18th: The Champion Centre were given teddies for the children and they had so many that I got 6 - one for each of our children. Hezekiah was thrilled and played so much with his today. He created armour for teddy and himself and had so much fun.

Ruth kindly introduced Hannah to Tom Gates books a few months back and they were a key to unlocking Hannah's enjoyment of reading. (Through the holidays we knew that if we didn't know where Hannah was - she was most likely in her room reading).

It may seem strange - but it was photo worthy seeing Asher enjoying her frankfurters again. She went totally off them when she got sick on the ketogenic diet - so it was nice to have her enjoying them again.

Ballet concert 2017

Rachel's first dance was the Phantom of the Opera. I didn't get to take a photo of her in that outfit. So this one photo will have to do.

The video is from the first show (that I watched). I didn't get to film the 2nd show, but she did so much better. In the 1pm show her shoe was falling off. The dance school teacher actually said she should dance in flats with the 2nd show as she didn't realize why Rachel wasn't up as she should be. When Rachel's teacher told her about the shoe, they agreed that she could dance in pointe on the 2nd show. And it was the best she has ever danced it. Thankfully they plan to put the 2nd show's dance onto the DVD we have ordered, so we will be able to get to watch that one too once the DVDs have been made.
Well done Rachel.

Phantom of the Opera

Ruth's ballet dance was Mary Poppins. I didn't get to take photos of the younger girls while we were there, and they changed so quickly after the show was finished. So they put an outfit on at home so that I could at least have one nice photo of their outfits.

They only got the umbrellas to practice with at the dress rehearsal. So they did very well having only gotten to do this twice with props before the show.
Well done Ruth.

Mary Poppins

Hannah giving me a lovely fun pose in their jazz Time Warp outfit. Hannah was really good at the floppy motions in the dance. She was very nervous about dancing on stage and was upset about making a mistake. Thankfully Rachel could encourage her and let her know that she had made mistakes too.

Time Warp

Sound of Music: Maria. Part 1
I enjoyed this performance so much. Unfortunately my phone made her face very white. I hope you can still see and enjoy her lovely acting on this one.

Part 2: After a very quick change she then came back out for this 2nd part.
Well done Rachel. A wonderful show for your last year of dancing.

Beauty, ballet and a birthday

Tuesday 6th: At 6am Asher had a 1 minute Tonic Clonic. Always an unpleasant way to start the day. Thankfully she could still it off and still be up by 7 (her normal time).
It was a teacher only day at school today. When Ruth saw that it was going to be on a Tuesday, she asked that she could come with to the Champion Center. So she took some photos during group session at the start of the day. She is doing so very well.
Wednesday 7th: We often enjoy the beautiful colours in the morning. I took this photo this morning as it was just stunning.


Hezekiah had his first day in the Year 2 class today. I took a photo outside the Year 1 class when he started, so I thought this would be a nice photo to take of the change.

His year 1 teacher made a lovely book for him of some of his work over the last 6 months. Some very special photos on the front too.



He came home full of paper mache. He was not very happy that a boy had been flicking his hands off - onto Hezekiah - the whole time. Thankfully he got used to it and it washed out ok. I just ended up having to wash his top each day this week. Thankfully he does have two. He has adjusted really quickly to the new class and I know he will be very happy and do well.
Thursday 8th: Asher woke me again with a 1 minute Tonic Clonic at 6am. She then had another 1 minute Tonic Clonic at 3pm. It wasn't nice to have 3 seizures this week. I had gotten really spoilt with her nice 10 day breaks that she had over the last months.
There was a mufti day at school today, the funds raised for the Wetspac chopper. The theme was Wacky or Movie character. So Hezekiah went as Neo again. This time he even had some black glasses. He also said he needed a black shirt and not his white one. Not many children now about the Matrix though, so most just thought he was on of the "Men in Black". He posed for me and had a nice serious face. Quite a hard job for him.
Ruth went with Wacky and just threw a whole lot of things together. I manged to find the tool we were given that helps you put beads on. So we quickly got a load of pink beads in her hair too.
Friday 9th: I called Asher's dietician this morning as Asher has not been enjoying her food lately and I have been a bit unsure of what to do. I have also been feeling very pressured with a load of things happening and so the dietician suggested changing to a Modified Ketogenic diet, to try take some of the pressure off. So we got started on that today. The main change is that she will not really be limited on her protein intake, although her carb intake will drop (because the protein is up). Eventually we will only need to weigh the carb items and be able to make sure she is getting enough fat in with each meal by knowing teaspoons or tablespoons (not having to weight to 0.1g for everything). I was so pleased that this change could be made immediately as it has already taken a lot of pressure off. I was due to make quiches again for her today, and I am honestly relieved that I don't need to. It involved measuring each item for each mini quiche (24 quiches x 5 items) and if Asher was still loving them as much as when I first made them, then I wouldn't mind. It's hard however to put all that effort in and then still have to try and convince her to eat it.
Saturday 10th: Rachel, Hannah and I left early this morning to get Rachel to the Isaac Theater Royal for a ballet lesson with one of the professional ballerinas. What a treat. She had a great time. No photos from inside though, as she was just too busy. No parents or even teachers were allowed in - only ballerinas. So Hannah and I kept ourselves busy while she was having the lesson.

Then we got some lunch and headed out to the Sampson's house for Susanna's 13th birthday party. We were so very thankful to be included in this special day. And what a special way of celebrating the special 13th birthday. Only ladies invited to share encouragement and advice. Her older 5 brothers were the "Men in Black" who served and also shared encouragement.






Sunday 11th: I suggested we make sure we get a photo of how long Ruth's hair is at the moment. We have now re-done almost 100 of the braids (there are 260). They are quite a bit shorter once they have been un-done and re-braided. So her hair will be a lot shorter by the end of the year - as our plan is to have it done by then (Lord willing). At this stage we have started working specifically on the bottom (so there is already a section that looks a bit shorter) and then the sides (to help it look neater).

A busy big birthday

Thursday 8th: The big 40 for me today. And being a Thursday it starts off the busiest day of the week. I normally have Rachel around to help in the mornings, but she heads off to work really early on a Thursday. Thankfully it all went smoothly and we got the 3 middle ones off to school. Asher and I then had a bit of time at home before we headed off to the Medbury play centre for a combined Christmas party with the preschool.
Asher started getting upset when we went past the farm entrance. She is used to us going to fetch Rachel at lunch time, and although we were 2 hours early, she did not understand why I was not going the right place. She started moaning at me as soon as I missed that turn off. When we stopped and I wanted to get her out the car, she was even more upset. It was a real challenge for her with all these new things at once, especially when she had another plan in her head.
Thankfully the rain stopped for a bit and the slide and sandpit distracted her for a while and she got a bit more comfortable being in this strange place. And having Lynda there at the sandpit also helped her feel more comfortable. She spends so much time with Lynda at preschool.
Lynda gave me this lovely bunch of flowers for my birthday. To Mum / Belinda from Asher & Lynda. So sweet.
And Lynda took this photo of us. It was nice to have Asher happy and having some fun.
It was getting a bit too wet outside, so we headed in. Asher ate some of the popcorn that I had brought with, and had some water, and then played a little with some of the toys that were around. It wasn't long before she headed outside again though. When Santa arrived, she headed right past him and was heading for the car.

I brought her inside (to her loud protest - sorry to the other mothers and children). Lynda had bought Asher some bubbles and thankfully her gift was very close to the top of the bag. So I took her up to get her gift and unwrapped it as quickly as I could. As soon as the bubbles started, she stopped trying to run out the door. :-) Thanks Lynda for these photos too.
She just loved the bubbles and it calmed her down so quickly. We moved to the kitchen area and had a few other children join in with the bubbles for a while, but Asher didn't last all that long and wanted to leave again. So although we were a bit early, Rachel was already done with work, so Asher finally got what she had been waiting for the whole morning - to fetch Rachel and go back home. :-)
It was a quick rush for Rachel to get ready as we had to leave by 2 to get her to her first dress rehearsal.

Brendon then brought the rest of the children and they picked me up on the way to the Champion Centre's Christmas party.
They had hoped to practice the opening scene today - with Ruth and Hannah, so we had a bit of a longer stop at the rehearsal that planned. Not long after Brendon arrived with them, Asher started crying. He brought her inside, I took her to the toilet, but nothing we tried calmed her. She just cried and cried. It continued for the rest of the trip to the party and for a while after we arrived. About 45 minutes in total. Rather stressful for me too. Especially when you have no idea what is wrong and how to help. Even bubbles didn't work this time.

Thankfully she eventually relaxed and the crying stopped. I was especially grateful that the rain had stopped, as she then enjoyed the outdoor equipment - something nice and familiar for her.
We just managed to get Asher to join in for a photo with Santa. She was quickly back out the door playing outside.
I had bought swimming bags for these three and they were all thrilled (nice patterns on the outside and waterproof on the inside). They did need them now that they have swimming at school.
Our kids know Santa is just a fun made up story, and they knew I had bought the presents. They could enjoy the fun of it all though.
The girls were wearing new dresses that I had bought for them. Trade me has again proved really helpful. They don't get many long dresses handed down, so I had to search on Trade Me. I was pleased to get a few for them.
Hannah especially loves dresses. This one was quite a good fit for her too (style wise that is).

They had a music session at the end of the party. At first Asher tried to make a run for it (especially as it was in a different room than normal, had loads more people, and had different people leading). Brendon got her back in though and it was good to see her getting into it. There were a couple of unknown songs, but some she knows too - so that helped.

It was great to even see her doing some of the hand actions.
After the party I was dropped off at rehearsals to drive back with Rachel.
Friday 9th: I fetched the girls from school at 1 so that they could get ready and we could leave at 2 for dress rehearsals. All three of them needed to be there today. It started at 3 (in Kaipoi) and went on till after 7. So it was a long afternoon together.
At least Rachel and I had a bit more time to try her hair again this morning while Josie was watching Asher. I was much happier with the results today. I just need to get the curls up higher, and we will go for smaller curls (that big one in the middle is just too big).
Dress rehearsals went well and they are all very excited for the concerts this weekend.
While we were at dress rehearsal, Asher had a 14 minute Tonic seizure (at 6pm). I have asked Brendon to always let me know if she has had a seizure while I am out. This helps me to not wonder the whole time I am away how she is doing (and I would always ask as soon as I walked in if she was ok). So this is really good set up and helps me to relax and just deal with things if and when they happen. It was rather emotional for me this evening though. Brendon told me that he was just about to phone the ambulance when it stopped. It gave me an idea of how intense it must have been for him, and I was sorry he had to go through that.
There was another Christian mum at dress rehearsal, and I asked her to pray for me. I was surprised by my emotions and I was so glad I asked her. She prayed for peace, especially with being away from home. I actually chatted to her about that after her prayer. It was reassuring for me to hear her talking about how much harder it is for us mothers when we are not close. Even though I had not mentioned this, it was what I was feeling and it helped me to know it was a natural response. Blessings through the trial again. And His peace did come, very quickly.

Earthquake week

A daisy chain that went from
the ceiling to the floor.

Monday 14th: We were all woken abruply just after midnight by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. I immediately ran to Hezekiah who was on the top of his bunk bed and got him down. I then met Hannah in the passage and thought about getting them under her bed. It's far too low though, so I just got them to stand with me in the doorway. All this time Brendon was with Asher. The shaking went on for what seemed like ages. Our main concern however, was the electircity lines down the street. The wires were arcing and every time they touched they would spark. It was like blue lightening and really frightening. Thankfully we don't have an overhead line coming to our home, but the pole that our electicity does come from is close enough to the front of the house that if it fell in our direction, it would most likely hit our deck. So Brendon just wanted to get out of the house. So we headed out the back door and to the girl's container. All this while the shaking continued.
Rachel was so relieved to see us. She was also concerned by all the flashes and was concerned about us in the house. We were all so relieved when the power finally went off.

A crack with a buckle in the lounge wall.

Once the shaking stopped and we had Hezekiah, Hannah and Asher on Ruth's bed with me, Brendon, Rachel and Ruth went back into the house to get some bedding. Ruth shared Rachel's bed with her, and Hannah slept next to Brendon on mats on the floor. I had the little two around me. There were a number of bigger aftershocks through the next few hours, but Asher and Hezekiah slept through them. The rest of us got a bit of rest. It felt so much safer being in the container with nothing that could fall down.
My first concern was how bad things were in Christchurch. Our natural thought was that the epicentre was there again. Brendon's phone however, updated him soon after the quake that it was 30km North of us. When I heard that I was so relieved. To know that the centre was closer to us explained why it had been so much worse. At that point I was relieved for Christchurch, only to hear later that many had been evacuated because of a tsunami warning.

On the other side of that window.

Hannah was most traumatised by the earthquake. I was wondering if she would be willing to even come into the house in the morning. Thankfully she was. The power was out at first and so Rachel and I started trying to get some breakfast (french toast) cooked on the fireplace. It wasn't working that well, so we were very thankful when the power came back on.
School was obviously closed and I think that was the biggest challenge for me - not having the 3 hours of Asher at preschool as I had hoped. In the afternoon I wrote this blog post to answer the frequently asked question "How are you?" which will have more details. It was a hard day, but God was faithful through it all.
I was really thankful when Ruth went outside to play with Hezekiah. They made a very long daisy chain (first photo). While they were out there was a bigger aftershock. They quickly headed towards the house as they felt a bit unsure. I reasured them that if they were not close to the house, they were in fact safer outside - where nothing could fall on them. That encouraged them to enjoy being outside more and I was especially pleased when Hannah eventually joined them too.
Brendon and I split up overnight so that the children were sleeping next to one of us. This helped them feel more settled and we had a much needed night's sleep.
Tuesday 15th: School was still closed today. I was so very thankful to Lynda (Asher's EIE) who offered to come and spend the 3 hours with Asher at home so that I could get some jobs done. I wish I had asked Ruth to take some photos. Asher had a lovely morning with Lynda and I got so much done. It was such a blessing. And then just as Lynda was leaving, Dana arrived with her two girls. Hannah loved having them over for a visit and it was great for her to just be able to play and get more distraction from the aftershocks.
Asher was in a very good mood and was just giggling so much. Dana wasn't doing anything specific to get her to laugh, she was just in a laughing mood I suppose. It was rather cute though and she had me laughing too.

In the evening the children set up a race track on the deck.

So much fun.

Wednesday 16th: It can be very tempting to just stay close to home after a big shake, but life must go on. So off I went with Asher to the Champion Centre today. She loved playing with the rice. I need to look into getting something like this set up for over the summer holidays when she doesn't get to go to preschool.
This evening she had a 1 min TC at 7:30pm, just before going to bed. Again such a relief with it stopping so quickly.


Thursday 17th: Asher's glasses arrived today. Now I just need to get better at taking photos of her so that I don't get the bad reflections all the time. :-)
The optomotrist was worried about how Asher would accept the glasses (because she was SO difficult when she was there).
She has been a star though. It must be because they help her see, that she is just so willing to have them on.
NOTE after having them a couple of days: She only really ever takes them off when they are dirty - so that makes sense (they aren't helping at that point). As soon as we have cleaned them she is happy for us to put them back on.
We went to the farm to fetch Rachel at lunch time and even though it was raining, it was still bright enough for her glasses to tint a bit. It's been really cold with the rain too, so I don't know how much swimming will happen this year, but at least we have her sunglasses sorted too.
Off to dance practice this afternoon and Rachel was thrilled to have her outfit to try on. She is just so pleased to have a main role this year.

Friday 18th: Proof that it is indeed cold. All that snow on the mountains again.

It's always such a blessing for me when Josie comes for a couple of hours on a Friday to play with Asher. I get some jobs done and Asher gets a nice change. Asher enjoyed being outside today and when Josie started pulling up some weeds, Asher went over to help load the wheelbarrow.
At 1pm she had a 1 minute Tonic.
I got bitten by something while cutting the grass on Wednesday afternoon. My foot is still swollen and really sore. I'm not getting much sleep because of it too. I didn't need this added to the challenges of this week. One good thing that came of this happening again, was that I found some things that really helped. I use coconut oil with Lavender essential oil to help calm the pain. And then made a paste of coconut oil, lavender oil, frankensence oil, and clay. I put that on with a guaze and bandage and that not only helped with the pain but also with the swelling. I'm still not sure why Rachel and I react so badly to such silly little bites.

Up to the school for primary assembly this afternoon. Hezekiah smiling nicely for me as they showed their artwork.

Ruth got a RISE award for "Taking on feedback with your sceince fair and adjusting it accordingly - a great skill to have!"
Saturday 19th: Ruth attended an overnight camp with a Guide unit in town from this morning at 10am. I came in with Asher and after dropping Ruth, we headed over to a special Christmas Pary for special needs children. I was thankful for her buggy as it gave her much needed "safety" in a very new, loud and busy enviroment.

I thought of Ruth when I saw these cars, so wanted to get a photo for her.

And all my older children would have loved all the Star Wars characters that were walking around. I quickly took a photo of this storm trooper before we went into the main hall. It was so busy in there that I could not even think of getting my caerma out. It was more a matter of just keeping Asher calm. They had a few food stalls, so getting her some hot chips helped to keep her "busy" while we walked around. They had a few huge vehciles for the kids to climb on, as well as a couple of boucy castles and face painting ect.
There were queues for everything though, so there was no way Asher would want to stay in a line for even a couple of minutes, even if she would have enjoyed the boucy castles. So we didn't hang around long. On our way out she got a soft toy and two lovely presents. I was glad we left a bit early, as the business of this area at the end of the party would have been far too much for her. I should have taken a photo of the mountain of Reindeer teddies they had. There were hundreds of them. The sponsors got to attend the day too, so they got to see the joy they brought to so many children. All the extra toys were then going to get loaded onto a helicopter and taken up to Kaikoura. What a great idea.
At 5pm Asher had a 1/2 min Tonic. It was so short that she didn't even need a sleep afterwards.
Sunday 20th: The kittens were born yesterday afternoon / evening. I took this photo on Sunday morning. I was devastated for Ruth that she had missed the birth. Thankfully Little Miss came to the lounge to give birth, so we were all around and got to watch and I got to take photos and videos. I took a lot more than I normally would have, just so that Ruth could watch and feel a bit more a part of it all. I will put all the photos and videos on a separate blog post.
Asher had a 1/2 minute vacant seizure at 7:30am. Thankfully again she didn't need to sleep, so we managed to still get ready to leave for church. At 4:30pm she had a 1 1/2 minute Tonic Clonic. So she has had a really rough weekend with one Friday, one Saturday and then 2 on Sunday.