Our Family Home Evening Video on Kindness

For Family Home Evening this week we talked about one of our family principles - Kindness. We used this video to introduce the theme. We found it especially instructive in helping the children learn about empathy and perspective taking.

Tim's Video of Chanel and Abbie's Parties.

Chanel and Abbie's Birthdays from Tim Coulson on Vimeo.

My little brother, Tim, drove to Wollongong with Kesh, his wife, to photograph Chanel's 11th birthday party in the Rose Garden at the Wollongong Botanical Gardens.

Since Abbie was having her 8th birthday party the same afternoon at our house, they hung around a little longer and snapped a couple of extra photos.

Hope you enjoy them.

If you'd like to see it in full screen click on 'vimeo' in the bottom right of the video screen. It will link to the vimeo page. When you see the video there, click on the little symbol in the bottom right corner and you should get the full screen.

Celebrations

For the first time in ages we’ve had a fairly uneventful week. Still busy, and still containing memorable highlights, but just a little less eventful than we’re used to.

Front Page News

A very full week for our family this week...

Tuesday the local paper ran a story based on an interview they’d done with me the previous week. I had talked about research that shows that children can have a negative impact on parent’s happiness. I would have preferred that they wrote a different headline, but I was grateful for the response it brought me. I even got a call from ABC radio and had a 15 minute interview on air that morning. Over 200 people completed my questionnaire as a result of the article.

Fresh Photos Oct 10 2010

Abbie May, about to turn 8, posing for photos in her baptismal dress. Love that smile!




Abbie May - full of light, age 8 (next Monday).




Kylie and Lilli Emma (aged 6 months). Quality time.



Kylie and Lilli sharing a joke only a mother and daughter could understand.




Abbie, Ella, Lilli, and Chanel - Stuart Park, North 'Gong.



Lilli Emma, not quite six months... sitting up and enjoying a perfect Sunday afternoon.



Annie Grace, age 3, lounging around at Stuart Park, Springtime, Sunday afternoon.

Rain, Renovations, Reunions, and Running to Ruin

The past fortnight has stretched our family incredibly, and given us some wonderful moments to savour.

Just over two weeks ago, on Friday the 24th of September, I drove Abbie May to Goulburn to spend a few days with her best friend, Elissa Thayer, in Canberra. As I returned to Wollongong the car began making terrible noises. This was the first miracle we received that weekend. If it had happened the following afternoon, the car might not have survived. If it had happened then, we would have been on our way to Queensland. That would have been a problem we could not afford.

Savouring the Small Moments

Sunday 19th September 2010

Monday started slowly. I had been up until midnight reading a compelling novel, The Hunger Games, and wanted to sleep instead. An unproductive day at work ensued, and a tiresome evening with angry children (or was it just me?) who didn’t want to cooperate as I attempted to teach them piano. To make things worse, Annie refused to go to sleep until 10pm. I read while I waited for Annie to finally go to sleep, but got engrossed in the second Hunger Games book, Catching Fire. I turned the final page at 1.30am.