Quilts I've been finishing....

This is the other quilt I finished yesterday. It is for my friend Shenleigh's 40th birthday. I started it about this time last year, and finally finished it. I'm really sick of it now to be honest, but I think in a few months I'll like it again. I still think the colours are beautiful.

Here a close up of the quilt for Lily Rose...

This is the quilt I finished yesterday for Lily Rose. I like the colours and the pattern, but I'm not too proud of the workmanship. I made it out of the left overs from another quilt. Actually I'll get two or maybe three quilts from that first quilt's leftovers.

Two homes....

Well I'm back now, back from my travels. I was so terrified about going, but when i got there, it was amazing. I just felt like a belonged there. It was the weirdest feeling. If you know me, you'll know that I am a homebody, possibly the most boring person on the planet. But when I was in Thailand, I felt like I belonged there. I felt like I grew another part of me, its kinda like when you have a baby. Before the first one, you think, will I love this thing?? Then you do. then you get pregnant with another and you think, will i love this thing? and the other one?? Then you do. Then you get pregnant with another and you think, well this time I know I've got it wrong, I have two (and I love them) but how can I possibly love another one??? But then you do. So now I feel like someone with two homes, here and there. Can't wait to get back somehow. Just love it.

Two More Sleeps....

In two more sleeps I'm off on an adventure. I'm a volunteer, not a conscript, and I'm am off. I always knew I would do this one day, I was born a volunteer! But for a long time I believed that volunteers where not needed any more. I was so sad, I had been born too late to be the volunteer i dreamed of doing. Then I discovered that there was still a need for volunteers. Hurray, but alas I was married with little kiddies and i could not get away....

Time moves on, we grow and develop... and now an opportunity has come for me to be that volunteer. On wednesday I leave and fly to Thailand where I am going to help people who make handcrafts for a living. I believe I can help them, I am an ideas person. It will be great.



The hard part is leaving my family behind. I love them so much, they love me too. How will they manage without me, will they be nice to each other?? Who knows! Two more sleeps and I'm off. Every thing I do for them is precious - tie my shoes mummy? of course! make my lunch mummy? of course! pick me up from school mummy? of course! It is so hard.



Two more sleeps and I'm off. But I love you all so much, I will be back and fast as I can!

on goal setting...

Have you noticed how people are so into goal setting these days. My goodness it is everywhere. Its quite sickening really. Most of the time it is like pulling yourself up by the bootlaces I think, quite futile. Not that I'm against progress, mind you, no not at all, but goal setting for goal settings sake is just nuts! I prefer to go on a journey. You come to a stream and need to get to the other side. Look around, there may be a few rocks to aid your way, you hop to the first and then the next. Bit by bit you get across the stream to the other side, then you hoist yourself up the bank, ah we are making progress! Up on the bank you look ahead, oh a paddock to cross and so off you go. That's goal setting to me, just moving quietly forward, past the cow pat, dodge the thistles, on and on, enjoying the journey.

Developing character

On monday I went to the gym as usual. For three quarters of an hour I was the only person in the women's part of the gym. It was great. There was only 6 people in the other part of the gym, everyone else had the morning off. One of the instructors told me that 10000 people belong to this gym and only 2000 people go. Isn't that amazing 8000 people paying good money to the gym but not going! I wonder if they think they will get fitter just by joining? Its a lot like being a Christian I think. Many many people call themselves christians, but only a few read their bibles every day and pray, but they think by just belonging to a church and going along occasionally that is enough. It is not enough, regular daily contact with God is what will build God's character into our lives, just like regular daily attendance at the gym will help us to get fit!

I'm going to Thailand

When I was growing up I loved reading. I devoured books. I especially loved reading stories about real people. The real people I was reading about were missionaries. I thought they were amazing, I wanted to be one....

Time passes, good things and bad... but I am going to Thailand. I'm actually not cut out to preach the good news, I'm more of a practical person, I'm going to visit with people who live in little huts, who eek out livings with the skills they have. Heroes people are, they feed themselves and their families by the labour of their hands. I'm so blessed, i'm going to visit them and see what they do, and then I'm going to (hopefully) help them to make more things so that they can make more money. Isn't that great. Acutally I am so so excited. Watch this space

Time is slowing down... the days are drifting past one by one twice and long as before. Yes its the last few weeks of the school holidays. Everyone has their new books, all covered and labelled, in fact everything is labelled within an inch of its life. Even Roo has a uniform and books all ready for the next big stage in his life. Actually all the children are at new stages, Chrissy is starting High School, James is starting intermediate and Roo is starting school. This means some mental adjustment for the mummy! In no time at all her preschool mothering days will be over (whew) and her new role will begin. How exciting for us all, a little bit scarey but an adventure none the less. Now if the adventure could just begin on monday.... !

Happy New Year

Hello everyone, its a new year! Hurray!! Have you noticed how great it is to make a fresh start. (Like me logging back onto blogspot and getting a new password so i can use it!!) I just love new year. I make lots of resolutions! I have been to the gym four times this week, this morning I had a blood test so now I can go to the doctor. I've tidied my house within an inch of its life, my friends won't recognize it.. what else have I done this year... hmm. Oh yes I discovered that if one of your resolutions for the last three years has been to learn to back a trailor, its really quite simple, you actually have to attach the trailor to the car and start doing it! Amazing. I can now back a trailor down the street, not alas up the drive or into the garage, but hey its only the 12th or something and the last two years I didn't even try!!

Have a great day everyone and make lots of resolutions, its a new year, you get another chance.

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!!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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....

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...