Monday, November 28, 2005

back again...

My sisters and I seem to have fizzled out on our blogs!! Have not written for ages and ages. We've had some ups and downs, but seem to be all feeling a bit happier this week. Reuben has no kindy today so we have had a spa in our newly set up again pool, weeded some garden, gone on a bear hunt around the garden and had a picnic in the play house, all this and its only 10.30!!

Friday, October 21, 2005

Not so great!

Had a not so great day yesterday. Found out Matthew very sick indeed now, not going to make it, being sent home next week. Not so great. Great actually for Matthew who gets to have a great party in heaven and speak with God, not so great for us who feel sad being left behind.

Went to see the surgeon, have to limp around for next three years (or so) until can't limp any more, then get new hip. Decided to become more acquainted with elbow crutch, so can limp for bit longer. Not so great also!

Went to the Champion Centre to set goals for next six months for Reuben. Actually the Champion centre is great and Mariana (OT) Maureen (Play therapist) Louise (Music therapist) Jenny (speech therapist) Jane (Psycologist) and Marie (Teacher aid) were all fantastic and we set great goals. Its just kinda sad to have to have all these people in one room talking about your child (who you love) and deciding what are goals that are appropriate and whether it is realistic for him to do this that and the other, when most other 3-4 year olds do all this stuff with out their parents realising it is a big deal.

Not so great!

At least we got them all done in one day. God is good.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Two down...

I finished the first two quilts to get posted to England. There was $70 of materials in each, but I didn't really have the heart to tell the lady how much I wanted for them, so charged her $100 each. I think that means I earned about $1 an hour, which is less than what they get in Taiwan. Go figure!

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Tidiness

Yesterday I spent all the day (well all the spare parts between the three year old, the washing and the meals etc) tidying my office/sewing room. It was so messy. Literally can't walk in the door. I sorted all the stuff from Showbiz, all the games from keeping the Showbiz kids entertained, put away all the craft stuff from card making the other night. Put all the quilting gear away... did all the filing and sorted all the papers.

It is truly amazing. My mind feels less cluttered now. I feel like i can think in here. I can certainly sit down on my two chairs for the first time in months. I know I will be able to finish off all the quilts (I think there are 10 or 12 to do before christmas). I feel inspired by the tidiness.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

On Quality time...

Hello there world, how have you all been doing in my absense?? coping I hope. I feel so much better after 12 days away. It is amazing. We went to Hamner which was great. If you want a good bach to go to, I have the number, ring me!! It was just as a bach should be, great TV, ugly furniture, fire, awful carpet, dryer, you know all the essentials. Best of all a short walk or bike ride to the pools and an even shorter walk to my favourite part of the forest. It was great. Then off last sunday on a horrible, windy road to Kaikoura. Believe me, if you are going from Hamner to Kaikoura, when you get to Rotheram, don't go by the Leader Road. It leadeth you round and round and up and down. Blah. Any way we got there, eventually. Kaikoura was great. We did lots of biking, some coffeeing, lots of sewing, have come back with maybe 5 or 6 quilt tops to back!! Anyone want to buy a quilt?? Took loads of photos of the kids. Every year I do a photo album for mum and dad and nana robbie for Christmas. This means about NOW i start manically taking photos so it looks like we have been doing stuff during the year! Good plan actually. There is something about looking at your children through the camera lense to focus your mind on how beautiful they are. They don't look nearly so annoying somehow!!

Anyway the rest has done me good, I'm off crutches again, hurray and ready to tidy my office!! See you later.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Holidays and Bird Flu!

Tomorrow we are off to Hamner for 5 days, then to Kaikoura till the end of the week. I am so looking forward to it. We have just had such a hectic few weeks, with market day, showbiz and new carpet. It will be great to sit in the hot pools, go for walks and just spend uninterrupted time with my family.

Family is hugely important to me. Recently I have been rather alarmed by all the reports about bird flu in the paper. It is so scarey to think something like this may come to New Zealand. I am going to protect my family as much as possible, I have disposable gloves and I plan to buy masks. But honestly, it is not much that I can do, except pray to God to spare our world from this impending catastrophy. It really makes you realise that the people about you are so important to you, and how you really don't want to part with any one of them.

So I am going to really enjoy this time with my husband and kids, and remember that God has all our times in His hands, and to make sure that my priorities are in line with His!!

Friday, September 16, 2005

Market day

I'm in the eye of a business hurricane this weekend. We have just survivied the market day and are about to launch forth into the Showbiz week. But today and tomorrow are not too busy and I'm enjoying some piece and quiet.

Market day was a great success. All the little children (they think they are big kids) ran businesses, some of them already know they are bankrupt and some of them know they made a profit, and some of them (like mine) are not too sure! It was fun. I really enjoyed being in the superstore, helping the children make their purchases, and dishing out the odd bit of advice. Sadly my maths skills are quite quite poor and I charged one hapless group 5000 rupees, instead of 500. But great was their relief when they discovered the rebate!

I'm so proud of my kids, they worked together (and that's not easy for siblings) and they had a special needs child in their business and included her completely. I think they broke even, or nearly so, but it is more important to me that they managed the whole process. They had an idea, made the product and sold it very sucessfully. Whew!

I am also proud of some other kids who had a great idea, but it didn't really take off. Still they ran their business with sweetness and grace. God bless them. I think Kirsten, Caitlin and Ruth and their helpers are winners also.

Next week showbiz! Get a ticket, it will be great entertainment, if we survive the attempt!

Monday, September 05, 2005

on still growing up....

I have a fantastic mother-in-law. When I first was engaged to my husband to be, I took a long look at him and his family. I decided they were ok except for his mother who was a pain. But I thought anyway Mr Robertson is there to sort her out, no need for me to worry my head about her (I was young). Five months after we were married, he was called home. I can remember sitting in the bath crying my eyes out thinking, how am I going to get on with this woman?? I made lots of mistakes, I was rude to her a lot (I'm sorry) and ignored her a bit and hoped the problem would go away, maybe she would change now she was a widow. I can't believe writing this how horrible I was actually, but its all true... sadly.

Anyway over time I realised that the more I saw her, the easier it was, we had more to talk about, so I decided to get her over for tea every week. At first it was really hard, I was still rude and patronising. But bit by bit I have come to love this woman and be truely grateful for the way she is part of our family. I have come to understand that the negative view that she has of life, is really her just feeling the hurts of the world around her. She is so compassionate. She never puts us down, never makes us feel foolish for making silly choices. She is always respectful of our family unit and always grateful to be part of it. She loves us all unconditionally and we love her too. Recently she had a health scare and I realised that I am so not ready to loose her yet. I realise that I have changed, I think she is still the same, but now I love her for who she is... a truely awesome and inspiring, yet contradictory woman.

Today my mother-in-law is 83. We gave her an ipod (she will get $2 christmas pressy!). She said, "Great, how do I use it!" and we showed her how and she says that she will use it when she goes walking. This is from the lady who never bothered to learn metric, still thinks in inches and yards. She's come a long way. Back when metric came in (and that's a few years ago now) she felt like her life was over, she felt old and boxed in, and could not see the point in learning a new skill that she did not see her life as going to be long enough to bother learning.

Now here she is 83 and learning again. She is learning how to live and how to make changes, big life changes. Go for it Nana Robbie... have a happy birthday.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Strange Comments and Brain workings

Hello there, I turned on my blog and behold three comments. But at least two of them are strange! Are they advertorials for someone else?? are they spam?? how do I get rid of them, do I want to?? very bizzare.

It is quite odd really, to hijack someone's personal diary to advertise acne cream!! What kind of person thinks aha, a mum with three kids, SHE will need acne cream. Haha when actually what I need is happy pills (just kidding).

I'm feeling rather tired this afternoon. This morning was a Champion Centre morning and Reuben and I always come home feeling naffed from those. He is in bed, my lovely Champion; and I am using my precious time writing this instead of sleeping. Roo is supposed to be learning to count, 1. 2. but you would not believe how difficult it is for him to learn. He knows how to say 1. 2. even 3. 4. 7. 12 on a good day, but has no idea that it means 1. Red Frog 2. Red Frog. We spent ages with the lovely Jane this morning trying to count those darn frogs. (Mummy can do it quite well actually).

The brain is a strange thing. You only need one little link to be out of order and a whole lot of things don't work properly. We don't even know what is wrong with Roo's brain, (and he looks perfectly normal) but a whole lot of little things are squew wifffy.

Actually is it an amazing learning process for me. I'm finding out lots of cool stuff. Did you know that your brain is programmed so that if I show a baby a new object and say the name of it, (eg "look dear, here is a frog, frog") well they know that it is a frog. Alas that piece of program is slightly skewed in Roo so he doesn't quite connect the two, but it is amazing to think how cleverly we are made isn't it.

Recently I let my 9 year old take apart two old sewing machines, just for fun. It was amazing. It wasn't until we took them apart that we realised how clever they were. They are never going back together again, ever. Our Reuben is a bit like those machines in a way, we look at him and start to realise how amazingly we are all created. I'm so glad we've got him, he is just a real delight to us and so much fun.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Contentment vs Ambition

Now isn't that a funny thing. Blogging is great, it's like having a diary that talks back to you! I loved the comments on my last blog and I think that they really are interesting. It is true that I am quite contented with my life and love the little things that I do, but you see I do what "layeth to my hand" I grasp at the opportunities as I see them. I constantly imagine how I would react in a situation if I was doing it for Jesus. Now I know that sounds flakey, but it's not, it really works, for example someone is coming for tea. I am flinging the duster around the get rid of the worst of the dust (we are renovating), as I do I ask myself, if Jesus was coming for tea, would I dust better. If the answer is no, (Jesus understands about the renovations) then ok, if the answer is yes, then more vigously strikes the rag at the dust!! It is a great yard stick I find. I suppose if you are not a Christian then just sustitute someone important to you, Helen Clark, Ghandi, Mother Theresa, The Queen... whatever.

Anyway maybe there are two main types of people, the ones who strive to acheive greatness in their field, and the ones who strive to acheive greatness in their daily lives as it comes to them!

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Ambition

Recently I keep noticing people my age or younger who are achieving amazing things. They are athletes or City Councilors or Member of Parliments. I on the other hand have acheived almost nothing worthwhile or lasting in my life. I have no education to speak of, no business of my own, I hold no important positions in the community, in short I am a nobody.

I have decided that the problem with me it that I am very short of ambition. I am quite content to potter along in my life, running my household and suchlike, but have no ambition to do much more.

Maybe people have different levels of ambition or maybe we have to earn it, or do you get more as you do more stuff?? I have no answer for this.

Anyway it has been on my mind, so I thought I would see if anyone else had noticed this in themselves or others....

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Like a kite on a string...

Hello everyone,
I haven't been blogging for ages, what with sick kids, school holidays and the Three-Year-Old starting kindy, well I haven't been at the computer! I must say time does fly by doesn't it. The Three-Year-Old has a new favourite thing to do. He loves to go on a picnic. Yesterday we went on an awesome picnic and lit a fire and cooked sausages and boiled the kettle for hot chocolate and coffee. It was the best.

The whole picnic thing started a few weeks ago when our very good friends go a new van for work complete with rows of (soon to be removed) seats. Before the demise of the said seats, off we all went for a picnic. The first of the spring season, and the first one the Three-Year-Old could really enjoy. Up Victoria Park we went and ate our buns and drank our coke and enjoyed the sunshine.

While we were there we were watching the children flying kites. Up and away they soared. It struck me how I couldn't see the string holding the kite, but I was sure it was there because I could see the kite flying (and not flying away like some of our boys' kites did!!). It made me think how as Christians, we want the world around us, our friends and family and the people we meet, we want them to see us soaring like those kites, and even if they can't see the string and understand how it works, the difference they see in us will be so visible that they want to soar too. Now wouldn't that be awesome! Lets soar...

Monday, July 11, 2005

A quilt for our mum!

Our mum is going to Thailand for Christmas and New Year. She has some important stuff to do there so she is busy getting ready for her trip. Anyhow I chanced to find out that some people are having a fund-raising auction for her and another lady to raise the money they need to go and do this very important stuff.
Now here is me, just look at me for a moment. I am a stay at home mum with three children, I don't produce anything that Helen Clark would regard as helping the economy (except maybe Ezibuy's turnover) so what important stuff can I do??
Well I am going to make a wall-hanging type quilt to sell at the auction. I've planned it, and found the fabrics, I've cut it all out and I'm going to sew it carefully together. Then i'll back it and quilt it all over and then I will put a binding on it. It will look ok I think and maybe it will raise $50 for mum.
Now officially I'm not going to Thailand to work with the children there or help the helpers in the special work that they do, but just for tonight I am part of that work in Thailand even though I haven't left my house.
What do you think about that?
Jesus said, "If you give a glass of water to a little child because of Me, you will be rewarded." I think He'll like the quilt I'm making Him tonight.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

About my boys...

It's Tuesday night, I spent a few hours in bed today and took a few cold'n'flu tablets so that I could go to boys brigade, and now I feel great. It seems that no matter how crap I feel before I go I always come away energised! I think this means that Boys Brigade pushes all my buttons. I never would have thought that I would like it, to me the name summons up a picture of fuzty old men in tweed jackets teaching boys about tying knots.

But no, it is about 8-16 little boys. Real boys, boys with snotty noses and filthy hands, boys with torn trousers and not enough clothes. Boys who haven't had enough to eat all day, that devour the tea I give them and come back for seconds. These self same boys who still have room for two bits of home baking for supper. They are full of energy, they literally bounce of the walls. They are so spiky and defensive, but they have hearts that are longing to be loved.

These boys of mine just want me to watch what they do, they want me to hug them and tell them they are great. They want to eat up all the food (of course) but it's more than that. They just want me to be there. Sometimes on Tuesday nights it is hard work, we are setting boundries left right and centre. Boys get sent home, boys get told off again and again. They fight against our rules every step of the way.

But.. if we chance upon one of our boys at the fish'n chip shop, or PakNSave, or the movies, or if we drive past their house and hoot our horn at them, they love it. They are always so thrilled to see us. They go to school and tell their teachers about us, they go home and tell their mums (only two of our boys have dads that live with them). We are one of the highlights of their week. They even invite their skinny little friends to come.

It is such an honour to be involved with Boys Brigade at Opawa, I feel like I've waited all my life to find a spot that fits me so well. Tonight and last tuesday we taught them to use the sewing machine. Give a boy a machine with an accelerator and he's happy. They have all taken home bags they made themselves. They are filled with pride and achievement. They have eaten sausage rolls and chocolate chip cookies. I have told them that I love them all. What a priviledge to make these grimey little boys so happy.

Now isn't that a worthwhile thing to do?? Roll on next tuesday.

Friday, July 01, 2005

No pressure!

Today we dumped our old windows. Nobody wants them, not even the recycle depo at the dump so we had to throw them out. It seemed such a shame, years ago someone carefully made them and was pleased with their days work. They've kept the cold, wind and rain away from our family for 30 odd years. I kind of felt sentimental. But why keep them just because I've gazed out the glass for hours??? They have rotten bits (lots of) and they need painting (regularly), they have been home to many little borers who have flowen out into the big wide world to find new homes. Yes it's time to move on. Our new windows are snug and weather tight, and after Arthur has cleaned them (if i ring up mum and ask her) they will be clean and shining.

And the men who were satisfied with their day's work years ago?? Well they did their job well. They can be proud. It was not wasted. The windows were fantastic. But now we have moved on.

Often and often I find myself straining to achieve something that will last forever, but actually all that God requires is for us to do what lays to our hand and do it well. And as long as it lasts as long as it is needed, that is all that counts. No pressure! just a sense of achievement.

Hurray, what a relief. I'm just off to do some important jobs, cuddle my sick boy (that will be recorded forever), make my husband and friend a coffee (that also) and cook some tea for my family. All things that if done well are things that count.

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Cricketers are like my marshmallow!!

Hello world! how are you all doing today?? I'm fine myself. My two boys are sick, one recovering and one at the lying on the sofa doing nothing stage (not being a bother). Our new windows are being installed as we speak, the last one is causing a headache for the builders (and ultimately our bank account) as the wall had no framing. I bullied all the men into fixing it the way I thought it should be and so that's what they are doing!!

I went off to the specialist today and I'm not getting a new hip till next year (bother) at the earliest, so I get to keep my crutches :)

Anyway I have been listening on the radio to all this talk about the cricketers going to Zimbabwe. I can't believe we are having this discussion. Why don't any of the cricketers have any backbone?? Where is their moral fortitude.

Recently I was making marshmallow slice for the boys brigade tea. I mixed all the ingredients as per the receipe, and left for the prescribed time. The next day I beat it and beat it, I beat it some more. Then I beat it again, but it still would not set. I could still be beating it actually and it would be no thicker because a vital ingredient was missing. It wasn't completely missing, some of it was there, but it needed more. I think our cricketers and the ICC are like my marshmallow. Something is missing, they are a little bit sorry (blah blah blah) but not enough. They are not going to be the real deal. They have not moral fortitude, they are not standing up for what is right.

I wonder what we can do about it...... I'll have to do some more thinking!

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

What am I thinking?

I am starting this blog because I think my mum would like to know what I'm thinking about!! You see my two sisters have blogs and she enjoys reading them. She said I should have one too cause it's interesting to see what people think. It got me thinking. I don't actually think much! I have three children and run a house and so I decided to start thinking. Now be patient with me, the cogs are a bit rusty, but hopefully as I learn this blog thing, maybe I will start thinking. I hope I can run it properly.

I don't suppose anyone is interested, but I am really trying to do the ironing, and have got seriously sidetracked!

I really think it is harder to think as a stay-at-home mum, cause you get so stuck doing mundane stuff!