Sunday 17th May 2009

I'm a little late in getting this up online...

A few busy weekends puts me well behind in keeping things up to date. But they’ve been weekends full of goodness and happiness for our whole family! I’ll summarise briefly…

April concluded in the week following our Mt. Kosciuszko hike. We were so excited to have hiked that terrific hill. Because of the cold, Kylie lost her voice. My poor wife. I missed being able to talk with her. After a few days it finally came back to her relief, and mine.

We have created a new favourite game with the children. With the weather being colder than we’re used to I’ve been wearing my slippers. When I wrestle with the children they try to steal them. They think it’s terrific. And I like it because I can control how long the game goes! It gets pretty crazy. The girls are amazingly energetic.

Abbie was wobbling her teeth and I suggested that I rip it out for her. She thought it was a bad idea, but wanted some extra time to think about it before bed. We read a story and I promptly forgot about my offer. When the story was over Abbie decided I should pull it out. I grabbed it and tugged. She never flinched and the tooth popped straight out! She amazed me!

Tuesday night I took the Young Men from church out to ride the billy-carts we built over the previous Tuesday evenings. They were full of confidence. Some wobbles made me wary and when we arrived at the hill I suggested starting at the half-way mark. They were hard to persuade. Eventually they came most of the way to me but insisted on starting higher up the hill than I had indicated. The first riders began their descent. One boy went about twenty metres before swerving wildly and crashing heavily into a parked car. He flew out of the cart and sprawled across the road. As I ran to him the other boy reached the bottom with the death wobbles. He hit the gutter at full speed and was catapulted out of the cart. No one else wanted to ride the carts after everyone saw the blood! We learned a lot about billy carts that night – and first-aid.

My bike ride on the Saturday was a thrilling ride. I came 5th and rode very strong the entire race. Super exciting. I love racing and riding hard. And being on the bike so much is making me feel increasingly healthy and invigorated. I love it.

Church on Sunday (May 3rd) was difficult. Between Kylie and I we barely got any time at all in any meetings due to cranky children. Annie would not go to her nursery class and Ella played up a lot in Sunday School. Hard work and not an uplifting day. But we were there, and it feels good to have spent that time. I went home-teaching all afternoon but I wonder whether it makes any difference sometimes. These visits were not as inspiring as I would have liked.

Monday May 4th I had a student approach me. She is in her early 50’s and has had a very difficult life living with an abusive husband. In recent years she left him but had to go to court for settlement. This had set off a series of traumatic memories for her and her schooling has suffered. As I worked with her on possible solutions to her schooling challenges (she sought me in reference to study, not counselling) I felt so grateful to have been born into a family where my parents treated us kindly. I felt so blessed to live in a home where abuse is a foreign concept. I hope that lady and her family can recover somehow.

During the week I completed my paper for the 6th time. I received negative feedback again. Still more work to do. This is a challenging process! I am learning a great deal and am grateful for people who are willing to work with me despite my slow learning. With prayer, fasting, and hard work I’m sure I’ll get it to publication standard with not too much more time getting away.

Friday night was a thrill for us. We had wanted to visit Nan & Pop Bunt but time got the better of us. However we met mum at the temple so that she could watch the children while Kylie and I enjoyed the privilege of attending a temple session for the first time together in 18 months. We are committed to going once a month from now on. I hope we can make it happen. Mum took the children to Gosford while we were in the temple. Kylie and I ate delicious Italian food and then drove north as well. The children were still awake at 9pm when we arrived home but they were happy and went straight to bed when we arrived.

Saturday was great! I went for an 80km ride around the Cental Coast from one end to the other. Then Kylie and I went shopping so she could spend some money on new clothes for Mother’s Day. It took a long time – but finally she bought some terrific clothing. And looked superb!

Mother’s Day was excellent. Tim, Alisa, and I gave mum, Kylie (and everyone else) a delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs, top shelf muesli, yoghurt, and fruit. Delicious. Then we shared gifts. Mum felt our love and we did the best we could to make her feel great. Next year I really want to do more for Kylie though. After breakfast Mum, Tim, and I jumped into the van and drove to visit Nan Bunt for Mother’s Day. We had a WONDERFUL visit and enjoyed her company so much. It was funny to hear Nan and Mum argue with each other… and they wonder where Karina gets her temper! I loved watching Nan and Pop. Such great examples to me of a loving relationship after so many years. We missed church which was disappointing. Time had beaten us. I cooked a roast for about 20 people for Sunday dinner. Then we drove, exhausted, back to Wollongong.

This past week has been busy but with little out of the ordinary. A couple of brief highlights:
- I have been working to bring LDS musician Kenneth Cope out from the USA for a visit. Approval was granted and airfares booked. Major victory!
- I attended a “happiness” conference on Thursday in Sydney. The morning began poorly. I nearly left at the mid-morning session. But I was pleasantly surprised by what came after. I was inspired by Marva Collins who reminded me about important things I can teach my children. She teaches the poorest children and prepares them for Harvard, Yale, and so on. Brilliant and uplifting. I was moved to tears by Geraldine Cox, who described the traumatic lives of Cambodian children who are sold by their parents to begging rings, ending up as orphans. She runs several orphanages in Cambodia and her stories touched me. I was uplifted by Ingrid Paulson (?) who described resilience by telling us how she deals with living without her father and two children who were murdered by her then-husband who also killed himself. I was intrigued by Norman Doidge who discussed the neuroplasticity of the brain. Brilliant. Check out his book “The Brain that Changes Itself”.
- I have begun to teach the children Robert Frost’s “The Road Less Travelled” and they love it! They have memorised half of the poem already. I hope they’ll finish it by next week.