It has been a difficult week for me this week. I have been at university while Kylie has had the children for the final week of school holidays. Unfortunately my efforts at university were lacklustre at best. Easily distracted, struggling to focus, and feeling theoretically bereft. I took time off here and there but it didn’t help me focus at all. By Friday I had enough and took the whole day off. I spent the morning with Kylie and the children before locking myself in the bedroom to read for the afternoon. It was the best study I did all week. I accomplished more in those 4 hours than I had in the four previous days. And I uncovered lots of work to be done. I feel revitalised and ready to pursue my passion again. I also decided I will study at home in a locked bedroom more often. There are far fewer distractions at home than at university (when I’m locked in my bedroom).
During the week we received some new furniture. A former client of my parents had not paid any bills for several years regarding the storage of their furniture. We claimed a King size bed! Wow – they’re so big. Of course, we have no linen for the bed – no blankets, sheets, or anything else. Oops. I got in trouble for that one. Fortunately, a generous friend had a few spare sets she happily shared. And Kylie’s sisters provided us an early birthday present to make up what we were missing. The generosity we have experienced in the past few months has been incredible. We certainly did nothing to deserve it. We feel remarkably blessed. I see a powerful spiritual parallel in relation to the gift of mercy. We cannot earn it, yet we receive it. If we earned it, it would cease to be mercy, but would instead be justice. I digress…
The main reason I wanted the king size bed was because the children climb in at all hours of the night. When we slept in the queen bed, it got quite tight at times. Somehow, this still happens even though the new bed is enormous. That’s because when one of the children climbs in, she’ll snuggle up to me. To give myself room I edge towards Kylie. Then my precious daughter will slide across in an attempt to be closer. Soon enough all three of us are squished on one side of the bed wondering how a king size bed can be so tight! I’ll have to try and put the child in the middle from now on. That may solve the problem.
We met with another psychologist regarding Ella. We feel that we’re chasing our tails a little bit though. I get the feeling that Ella is simply a little more challenging than most children, but that she’ll grow out of it. She is alarming us consistently with her talking and her very mature way of perceiving some things. Of course, she reminds us that she’s only four consistently too.
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Kylie adds: The kids have had a fairly active week as the school holidays come to a close. There have been play dates galore and long-anticipated time with the neighbours. Chanel and Mary (one of the four girls from next door) even put on another little backyard show for both families. They showed us some ‘death-defying’ tricks on their bicycles. Our neighbours are a doctor and nurse. It is so funny watching them freak out as their children play with our children. Our kids seem to like to take a lot more risks than John and Catherine are comfortable with!
Chanel has been on her newly fixed bike, venturing a little further from the house with each passing day. After her last outing, which left me (Kylie) in a panic we put a stop to her adventures for a short while. Her 20 minute bike ride turned into an hour, with a bump to the head and a slightly bent front wheel! Chanel forgot to use her brakes going down the hill. She collided with a brick letterbox! I think we’ll have to reassess her current route. Perhaps some advanced rider lessons?
Back to Justin: During the past couple of weeks the children watched Peter Pan. They love the story. Several times Kylie and I have heard loud shouting from the children. Upon closer investigation we have found the three girls sitting in a room shouting at the top of their unified voices, “I do, I do, I do believe in fairies.” Over and over again!
+and+Abbie+(5)+July+2008.jpg)
When we visited Gosford a couple of weeks ago my mum told us about the church seminary class she teaches with about a dozen students. As part of seminary classes the students are encouraged to memorise about 25 scriptures – the task is called scripture mastery. Mum found a resource where the scriptures are sung to music and put the mp3’s onto CD for each student. She gave Chanel a copy, and a list of each of the scriptures. Chanel has now memorised half of the 25 scriptures – in one week! That’s more than many of the students! She is a memorising machine. Kylie and I haven’t encouraged her, it’s all self-motivated. And she is amazing. Abbie is even picking a few up too. It’s all Old Testament and Chanel is probably not understanding much of what she’s memorising, but she’s enjoying the process. She even learned the ten commandments verbatim!
+Ten+Pin+Bowling+July+2008.jpg)
Saturday was a brilliant day. After spending some time in the vegetable patch (they’re coming along nicely, much to Kylie’s chagrin) we put the children in the car and went ten-pin bowling. The kids had such a great time. It was a little challenging with all four of them. Ella chased Kylie toward the lane at one point. As Kylie swung the ball back before bringing it forward and releasing it, Ella was right behind her. How the ball missed her head I don’t know. Somehow we got through the hour without any injuries. Yikes. I think we may wait a couple of years before we try that one again!
Next we jumped in the car and went to the home of an associate of mine from the university. She rides horses and lives on a large property. We had our bags and shovels, and were there for the horse manure. While I shovelled, Kylie and the children patted horses, lay in the sun, chased the gorgeous beagle called Bella, and enjoyed the amazing winter afternoon. It was beautiful. I filled six big garbage bags and loaded them into the back of the car. They didn’t smell too bad – while the doors and windows were open. Once we started driving I had to put the windows up though because of the cold and the wind. We hadn’t gone far before the windows went back down again! Yeeha cowboy! It sure was fragrant in the car. To make things worse, Kylie wanted to call in at the shops to pick up a lay-by. We sat in the hot sun in the car waiting for 30 minutes. I can hold my nose and breath for a while, but not that long. It was a relief when we finally got on the road again. I industriously emptied the bags into the soon to be fertile veggie patch and called it a day.
During the week we received some new furniture. A former client of my parents had not paid any bills for several years regarding the storage of their furniture. We claimed a King size bed! Wow – they’re so big. Of course, we have no linen for the bed – no blankets, sheets, or anything else. Oops. I got in trouble for that one. Fortunately, a generous friend had a few spare sets she happily shared. And Kylie’s sisters provided us an early birthday present to make up what we were missing. The generosity we have experienced in the past few months has been incredible. We certainly did nothing to deserve it. We feel remarkably blessed. I see a powerful spiritual parallel in relation to the gift of mercy. We cannot earn it, yet we receive it. If we earned it, it would cease to be mercy, but would instead be justice. I digress…
The main reason I wanted the king size bed was because the children climb in at all hours of the night. When we slept in the queen bed, it got quite tight at times. Somehow, this still happens even though the new bed is enormous. That’s because when one of the children climbs in, she’ll snuggle up to me. To give myself room I edge towards Kylie. Then my precious daughter will slide across in an attempt to be closer. Soon enough all three of us are squished on one side of the bed wondering how a king size bed can be so tight! I’ll have to try and put the child in the middle from now on. That may solve the problem.
We met with another psychologist regarding Ella. We feel that we’re chasing our tails a little bit though. I get the feeling that Ella is simply a little more challenging than most children, but that she’ll grow out of it. She is alarming us consistently with her talking and her very mature way of perceiving some things. Of course, she reminds us that she’s only four consistently too.
+July+2008.jpg)
Kylie adds: The kids have had a fairly active week as the school holidays come to a close. There have been play dates galore and long-anticipated time with the neighbours. Chanel and Mary (one of the four girls from next door) even put on another little backyard show for both families. They showed us some ‘death-defying’ tricks on their bicycles. Our neighbours are a doctor and nurse. It is so funny watching them freak out as their children play with our children. Our kids seem to like to take a lot more risks than John and Catherine are comfortable with!Chanel has been on her newly fixed bike, venturing a little further from the house with each passing day. After her last outing, which left me (Kylie) in a panic we put a stop to her adventures for a short while. Her 20 minute bike ride turned into an hour, with a bump to the head and a slightly bent front wheel! Chanel forgot to use her brakes going down the hill. She collided with a brick letterbox! I think we’ll have to reassess her current route. Perhaps some advanced rider lessons?
Back to Justin: During the past couple of weeks the children watched Peter Pan. They love the story. Several times Kylie and I have heard loud shouting from the children. Upon closer investigation we have found the three girls sitting in a room shouting at the top of their unified voices, “I do, I do, I do believe in fairies.” Over and over again!
When we visited Gosford a couple of weeks ago my mum told us about the church seminary class she teaches with about a dozen students. As part of seminary classes the students are encouraged to memorise about 25 scriptures – the task is called scripture mastery. Mum found a resource where the scriptures are sung to music and put the mp3’s onto CD for each student. She gave Chanel a copy, and a list of each of the scriptures. Chanel has now memorised half of the 25 scriptures – in one week! That’s more than many of the students! She is a memorising machine. Kylie and I haven’t encouraged her, it’s all self-motivated. And she is amazing. Abbie is even picking a few up too. It’s all Old Testament and Chanel is probably not understanding much of what she’s memorising, but she’s enjoying the process. She even learned the ten commandments verbatim!+Ten+Pin+Bowling+July+2008.jpg)
Saturday was a brilliant day. After spending some time in the vegetable patch (they’re coming along nicely, much to Kylie’s chagrin) we put the children in the car and went ten-pin bowling. The kids had such a great time. It was a little challenging with all four of them. Ella chased Kylie toward the lane at one point. As Kylie swung the ball back before bringing it forward and releasing it, Ella was right behind her. How the ball missed her head I don’t know. Somehow we got through the hour without any injuries. Yikes. I think we may wait a couple of years before we try that one again!Next we jumped in the car and went to the home of an associate of mine from the university. She rides horses and lives on a large property. We had our bags and shovels, and were there for the horse manure. While I shovelled, Kylie and the children patted horses, lay in the sun, chased the gorgeous beagle called Bella, and enjoyed the amazing winter afternoon. It was beautiful. I filled six big garbage bags and loaded them into the back of the car. They didn’t smell too bad – while the doors and windows were open. Once we started driving I had to put the windows up though because of the cold and the wind. We hadn’t gone far before the windows went back down again! Yeeha cowboy! It sure was fragrant in the car. To make things worse, Kylie wanted to call in at the shops to pick up a lay-by. We sat in the hot sun in the car waiting for 30 minutes. I can hold my nose and breath for a while, but not that long. It was a relief when we finally got on the road again. I industriously emptied the bags into the soon to be fertile veggie patch and called it a day.
Today I went to church alone. All three of the older children were sick, Abbie particularly so. I was able to concentrate at church for the first time in years! But it wasn’t the same without Kylie and the girls. When I arrived home the house was so quiet. All of the children were resting. It was heaven. Kylie and I worked through lots of things we had been itching to discuss and organise. It felt good. We had quiet time with the kids. As the night concluded I went to our fireplace with some wood left over from a tree which fell one windy night some weeks back. The fireplace works wonderfully. As I sit here enjoying the peace of a Sunday evening, I am basking in the glow of a happy wife, a warm crackling fire, and the quietest Sunday in living memory! I’m sure the children will have plenty of life back in them by tomorrow, so I’m enjoying it while it lasts. Of course, I’ll enjoy whatever tomorrow brings as well. Our lives are so blessed.
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