For the Life of us

Ok, before you start reading with defences as high as your garden fence, relax! This is not going to be a judgemental rant against people who practise something I don't agree with. I just thought this is worth posting about, worth a thought and a discussion seeing it's that time of year again! The time of year when that very Americanised holiday creeps into stores and advertising and bombards us with scary, spooky imagery that provokes conversations with little people who follow us around the shops. I am a huge believer that we all need to do our homework and make our own choices. Sheep mentality, blindly following something you've been told is just sloppy decision making. And there's nothing like forcing you to look into WHY you believe something, like having little people who ask WHY ALL.THE.TIME... and who aren't satisfied with generic, surface answers. I have heard all the pro-arguements and point of views for why Halloween is harmless and even beneficia...

I was listening to this mum-pair who make really funny Youtube videos about the truth of being a parent. This time it was all on laying off feeling guilty because your kids 'go through stuff'. They were making light of the ridiculous guilt we feel if we dare take pre-bought cake or cookies to the bake sale, or refuse to go back for the lunch box that was forgotten at home after the reminder that morning... Their point was, stop feeling bad about things that happen that make us feel like bad moms. They hilariously listed off all the influential people they could, making the point that nearly none of them came from two parent homes, from wealth and privilege, from ideal childhoods all of them came through some kind of hardship and in the end, it was a gift. The gift of resilience that pressing through hard times gives to kids, resilience being the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. I laughed my head off and then went away and thought about the profound truth in that...

So there I sat, across from a wonderfully wise lady, downloading how tricky I was finding certain situations with my kids. Bedtime was becoming a nightmare with Mr. 6 in particular, deciding that was the time for fun and games. My 'very serious' prayer time with him, became a time for silliness and giggling hysterically at his clever insertion of the word 'poo' into the prayer he was repeating with me. That would end in a warning which would end in me leaving the room which would end in a tantrum and a whole lot of consequences to follow through with the next day.  Just what every parent dreams of putting 3 kids to bed at 7pm at night when all your energy is sucked dry... FUN TIMES! This clever lady nodded sympathetically and asked me, with a smile, "so how much fun are your kids having in your family?" It caught me off guard. Here I thought what was coming was some brilliant advice on how to make my kids more holy, how to make them calm down and do as they...

So, I've had rollercoasters on the brain. We went chasing the sun a few weeks back. A week in sunny Gold Coast was exactly what this cold family needed! We needed some sun and some fun, and what better place to have both than across the ditch. Mum and dad went on ahead and met us there. I must say I maybe slightly underestimated the feat of skill it would be to get three little people to another country, alone... Taking three kids on a NZ road trip is one thing, dealing with passports, boarding cards, plane rides with no inflight entertainment, rental car bookings, luggage and X-ray processes, long queues and lots of waiting and behaving required... well it's absolutely do-able, just tiring. The kids were troupers though and aside from a toileting crisis at the point where we had waited for ages in the customs line, finally reached the front and had to make an emergency dash for the toilet which was nowhere close to us, laden with bags and luggage with no trolley...whil...

It's amazing how in the frantic, chaotic state that is your life when you're moving, that somehow you can find such order and satisfaction in your life strategically packed into plastic and cardboard boxes, all sorted and categorised. Pens and stationery that once sprawled out in every useless place of the house, now found and lying orderly in a plastic container. Old things thrown out, the ultimate Spring clean! Moving is always such a bitter-sweet experience for me. I am highly sentimental and I have such vivid memories attached to everything, that make leaving any home hard. On the other hand, I love the excitement and fresh start of new places. Growing up for no particular reason, we would move often. Every 2 years or so we would buy a new house. It seems to be the pattern with our family now too although I'm believing soon and very soon we will settle in a home that will last a little longer than 2 years... About 3 weeks ago I put in our notice at the place we've...

It's Mother's Day tomorrow! This means that all over the country, mothers and mother figures are going to be thanked, remembered and praised for the incredible role they play in the lives of their children. I would like to reflect this Mother's Day on the life-changing journey motherhood actually is.   I am convinced being a parent is the hardest, most wonderful, most inspiring, most tiring, most miraculous, most rewarding job in the whole world, a job it is impossible to take it on without it having a profound impact on who you are as a person. I don't believe there is another vocation or calling quite as unique that really reveals who we are at the core of ourselves; our strengths, weaknesses, our unconquered giants and our victories. Motherhood is a gift given to many but one only fully embraced by some. The weight of the responsibility of being given a human being to bring into the world, to teach, raise, help, shape and set-up for a life of success is overwhelming ...

I often drive past a sign near my house, it advertises Messy Church. Splattered with paint and and decorated with paintbrushes, it is obviously advertising an arty kind of session at this particular church, for kids. I like that name. Messy church. At some point in time, for some reason, we accept the that church is a place where you only really have a place if your life fits the picture-perfect ideal we all strive to have. It's a place where marriages are strong, kids grow up and follow in the way they SHOULD go and don't stray from it, it's a place where no matter what goes on in our world, we have it all together. Because we have God. The problem with this underlying belief is that when trials and testing come, when the marriage isn't working, when the kids play up, when the devil throws hell and it's army at us, so many feel the pressure is too great to stand in church and worship, to stand in church and believe for our family or o...