Spring Already???

Well, folks, spring is well and truly upon us.  For those of us in Aussie land, anyway (and if you happen to live in the southern hemisphere)... for those of you up north - I envy you.  You get winter soon!!!  *insert sad face* )

But even I'll admit that there are some wonderful things about spring.  Take away the wind, and the pollen and the allergies :P  and there is incredible new growth and new birth happening all around us.  In Australia, we have Easter in autumn, when everything is winding down and dying.  I can see why you people in the NH have it in spring.  New life is amazing.  There are daisies all over the park next door, and the wattle trees have blossomed in different shades of pink, red and yellow.  From where I sit, I can see the gardens of our neighbours.  Flowers are coming up and starting to show off their beautiful hues of purple, pink, and white.  Even the trees seem to have taken on a new sheen of green.  

Birds seem to be everywhere.  In the park next door, we always have a pair or two of magpies that nest in one of the trees.  (Never fear!  They like us, and let us in the park with no swooping in sight!!)  Yesterday, Elise got some sausage out of the fridge and sat under one of the trees with the meat in her hand.  The magpies were intrigued and came to investigate.  They hopped up a bit closer, and a bit closer and when they both were only a foot away from her hand, they threw back their heads and began to sing.   I don't think American and Australian magpies are the same... if you don't know when an Aussie magpie sounds like, check out the video here:

It's only a very small selection of what they can sing, but once they get into full voice, their song is so pretty!  Its one of my very favourite bird calls.  :)

With the thought of spring comes the realization that the end of the year is nearly upon us.  We are into Christmas rehearsals at church - I am in the choir this year which is proving to be rather fun, albeit amusing.  Most of the female singers in the choir are altos which leaves Joy and Me (and sometimes Elise) to sing soprano.  My problem is that there are some funny people in the choir who make me laugh whilst I am trying to sing a rather important melody.  My comfort is that the others singing said melody (Joy and two tenors) usually dissolve into laughter as well, so while it doesn't do any favours for the song, I am not the only one ruining it!!

We are also doing some drama for the Christmas production this year, which is exciting.  I did a bit of drama for it last year (I was a Disney shepherd and a Shakespearean Wiseman)  and so I am looking forward to seeing what I may be able t do this year.  Because our team for both choir and drama is not as large as we could wish, there will be some double-ups and some swapskies to get everything in.  But that's ok - it's why we call it creative arts!!


I thought I would share with you a picture taken at the end of August of me and three of my sisters.  It was taken at the women's conference that our church hosts every year.  The theme this year was "Imagine" and it was amazing to see women daring to dream and God giving people vision for the future... He is so wonderful!!  Anyway, I like the photo (although we had a hard time getting Grace to agree to come and join us!  XD)  From left to right: Joy (15), Jess (19), Grace (17), and me.  :)  

A couple of weeks ago, Jess and I spent a week at Tahlee to help cook for a youth camp.  Tahlee has a program for English immersion students and so currently they have six Koreans and two Bolivians staying at Tahlee to learn English (or learn to teach English).  They are such lovely people.  Jess and I got to know them quite well over the week.  On our last night there, the students invited us over for a movie night.  They told me to bring the movies so I borrowed a few from our adopted grandparents who live there, and went over after dinner.  We decided on Ever After starring Drew Barrymore.  It is really interesting to watch a movie that you know almost off by heart with 1) six Koreans who have never seen it before, and 2) two Bolivians who have only ever watched it in Spanish.  The first thing I noticed was how fast and what a thick British accent the characters in the movie speak with.  The reason I noticed this is because I had spent all week talking to students on only learning English - suddenly I was very aware of the English they would have more trouble understanding.  After the movie, one of the Korean girls asked me, "Was that a British accent?"
"Yes, it was," I replied.
"Do you understand it all?" she asked, awe creeping into her voice.
"Yes," I admitted.
"Ahhh!"  She cried in exaggerated frustration.  "ENGLISH!!!"

Koreans are very expressive - something happens in the movie and all six of them cry out, "Oooohhhhh!" at the same time and escalating to the same pitch at the same time.  Jess and I thought it was quite funny.
It was amusing too when the stepmother in the movie says some horrible things to Danielle, and my sweet Bolivian friend exclaimed, "It is even worse in English!"

Ever After is about a two-hour long movie and finished at about 9:45.  Most of our group (including Jess) said goodnight and went to bed, but one of the Bolivians and two of the Koreans informed me that they had never seen "The Sound of Music" and begged me to watch it with them, so we did... all three hours of it... starting at 10:00 pm.  I have to say I don't think I would do that again - start a movie of that kind of length at such an hour, but how often do you get to watch "The Sound of Music" with people who have never seen it before???  It was fun - everyone got quite tense towards the end, with my Bolivian friend talking to the screen in Spanish and holding onto my hand rather tightly.  I found the hardest thing about it was that none of them seemed to understand the enormity of Hitler's movement or what he stood for, and seemed to think that it would be better for Captain von Trapp just to do what he was told... I tried to explain best I could without talking over the next scene.  They really enjoyed it though, and it was a lovely time with them.

Sorry this post has been a long time coming - life has been in the way lately!!  Actually this whole year has been so incredibly, insanely busy... but it's good - we wouldn't really change it!   Hopefully I won't be so long in posting again next time!  Hope you all have a very blessed weekend!  :)

This Week: Day By Day - Wednesday

Thinking back to the morning at the end of the day hurts my brain.  I said a few posts ago that things tend to slip from my memory, and honestly there can be whole chunks of my day that I cannot account for until something triggers something else in my head and association leads me to memory.  It's weird.  However, now that I think of it, this morning's events are returning to me... now.

Mum was in a hurry to get us all up and going this morning as it was a rather busy day.  She left us all eating breakfast to go and get her blood test done straight up so she wouldn't have to do it later.  I made myself potato cakes for breakfast this morning.  I am rather obsessed by potato at the moment.  I would happily eat it every meal, but I think potato cakes are my favourite.  I shall attach a quick recipe at the end of this post so that you can partake of the goodies too.  :)

When Mum got home we got tidied up and I had a snuggle with Annie.  Poor darling!  She still wasn't very well at all.  I could see it in her eyes and her cough was getting worse.  I took her to Mum and asked if we could try to get her on my doctors appointment.  Mum rang and they slipped her in at the same time as me.

We were all a little sad this morning because Jess, Joy and Elise all had orthodontist appointments.  That wasn't sad - the sad thing was that Jess wasn't coming back.  As you would probably see on her blog Dreams Really Do Come True, Jess regularly goes over to Tahlee, a Christian camp site, to help out with the catering when the camps come in.  She had to go again today.  We all miss her so much when she is gone.  She doesn't know how long she will be staying this time either.  Last time she stayed for eight days.

I got a lovely email today though that made us all excited (except for Jess, because she won't be here.).  It was from my friend Elizabeth (not her real name) who is working about an hour away from us, but is currently living six to seven hours away from her family.  We had invited her to come and stay with us at any time, and she sent me an email this morning to say that she is coming up this weekend.  I am really looking forward to spending some more time with her.  This weekend is our town's annual Lion's Club Book Fair, so Elizabeth and I are planning to go and get some (more!) books.  We also plan to play board games chat and maybe watch a movie or two.  I think we might have a long night ahead of us on Friday night!  XD

When Mum took the girls to the orthodontist, Grace, James and I stayed at home to get some book work done.  I lit the fire, and then settled down with some chemistry and biology.  I am finding the anatomy of a crayfish harder to memorize than the anatomy of an earthworm, but then again I have never seen a live crayfish before either.  Maybe if I had seen crayfish as often as I played with earthworms as a little girl,  would have more idea... then again, maybe not...

Mum called me as she left the orthodontist and asked me to put the left over lamb and veggie soup on the stove to heat for lunch.  At the appointed time, I did so.  Because of all the fat in lamb, the soup was nearly completely solid when I got it out of the fridge and put it on the heat.

It burned.

In my defence I went to do some more chemistry while it heated.  I thought it would take longer than that to get warm, let alone burn.  Thankfully, it wasn't too bad and I was able to tip out the soup in a different pot and scrape out the bottom of the blackened pot.

After lunch Mum took me and Annie to our doctor's appointment.  We got there and sat in the waiting room, which was well named because we waited... and waited... and waited... ... and waited.

Finally we were called in and Annie was examined.  She put on her I'm-a-little-angel air and let the doctor look in her ears and mouth, and listen to her breathing.  He said she had a cold and would get over it soon.  Mum and I aren't convinced that it is just a cold, but at least it is nothing serious.  Then it was my turn.  He examined me and then gave me a script of antibiotics for a sinus infection, which (interestingly) he said would not be contagious.  That is always good news, especially when you live with nine other people, and you are out and about and have people coming and going at your house a lot of the time.  It was rather satisfying actually, in a sort of odd little way.

When we got home, Mum's piano students were already there and not long after that Dad arrived home from work.  I told him that Jess's laptop was ready to  be picked up from the repair shop, and so he and I went down town to get it.  I asked Dad if on the way back, we could stop at a chemist to fill my script.  He decided to go to the chemist in the middle of the main street.  This may not sound like a problem to you, unless you live in my town in which case you already know what I am going to say.  Our council decided that our main street could do with an up grade, and so, as a result, no one has been able to drive down the main street of our little town since January because of road works.  Eight months on and it's still going.  Dad found a park as close to the obtrusive fence as he could, and then I had to get out and walk nearly two blocks to the chemist.  It's not really a big deal, I guess - just sort of annoying and kind of pointless that nobody can use the street while they up grade it so that people can use it.  It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.  We are a small mining town with a lot of small businesses.  All of those businesses have suffered because of this up grade (because people can't get to the street-front shops) and some have even closed down.  With the mining economy down as it is, I think it is useless putting in fancy new street lights when the small businesses that help support the town are making less than half their money because of it.  Besides, the new street lights look really silly.  XD  Rant over.  :P

At the chemist, I found a table of nail polish that was half price.  I kind of like nail polish if it isn't too bright, so I bought a bottle of Natio nail polish.  The colour is called stardust.  I have put a picture of it here - it's not a great picture, though... it's a bit more bronzy than what you see there.  I brought it home and tried it on.  It's really nice.  In fact Mum liked it so much, she put it on too!  :)

Dad and James had a church men's bowling and pizza night tonight, but they weren't home late and everyone went to bed early... except Mum and me.  We decided to stay up and watch Sister Act.  Which is why I'm still up at ten minutes to midnight typing.  But I'm just about done in... I was going to share the recipe for potato cakes with you, but that might have to wait for another time.   I am now going to post this so that Wednesday's post is posted on Wednesday, not Thursday.  Goodnight y'all!!

This week: Day by Day - Monday

Monday

I was rather sleepy this morning... Mum ended up waking me a bit past seven.  I am usually up by that time but I can account for this morning.  Poor little Elise was rather unwell during the night and kept me awake with her coughing and shivering.  Eventually (a bit past 2:00 am) I got up and realized she was running quite a high fever.  This is not unusual for her when she gets any sort of bug, and it always hits her very hard in the form of high fevers, back aches and extreme headaches.  And it is usually in the middle of the night.  This means that I have to help her upstairs to the couch, take her temperature and wake up Mum to offer comfort to the little sufferer.  I don't mind too much (after all, I'm the one who's planning to do nursing...) but it does make me rather tired... and tired me can result in one of two versions of me:

1. The crotchety, cranky me; or
2. The giggly crazy me

The concerning thing is that not even I can say which version is going to come out throughout the day.  It can change.  I must admit that when I got up with Elise, it was cranky me.  I tried to be the sweet nurse I can envision, but maybe it takes three years uni to master that... (I wish... LOL!)

It took a cup of tea and a chorizo sausage with a couple of eggs to get me going.  That and this morning's breakfast music.  I sat down at the table next to Annie's high chair, and she asked, "Can we listen to Annie??"  (Now do remember that her name is not really Annie, so this makes much more sense in it's real context.  What she was referring to was the new movie of Annie released at the end of last year.  We love that movie - the soundtrack is awesome.  I have a movie review coming soon.  :D)  So we kids all sat around the table and between mouthfuls sand songs like Tomorrow, Easy Street, New York City, Opportunity, I Think I'm Going to Like it Here, Maybe, and so on, and so on.  It's so much fun singing together - those of us who can pick out parts do so, and it sounds really nice.

But all fun and nice things come to a close eventually and before we were ready to stop singing our little hearts out, it was time for us to all disperse and tend to our duties for the week.  I am on vacuuming this week and so I did a quick tidy of the lounge and dining rooms and vacuumed them.  In winter it is also my 'job' in the mornings to get the fire going.  James would gladly do this for me (the little fire-bug!) but it never gets going for him.  I have tried to tell him that piling the kindling on top of the logs will not ignite the logs, but never mind.  When he gives up I enjoy setting it up (properly!) and getting the house nice and warm.  This morning I got a bit of a scare when a burning stick rolled out of the fireplace on to the hearth, sending a spray of shattered burning coal bits onto the carpet and my skirt.  Thankfully, nothing actually ignited.  The carpet is somewhat scarred now with ugly black pits, but I am rather thankful that we still have a carpet and it didn't go up in smoke.

At 9:30 is our come together time where we read the Word, pray and read our read-aloud book together.  This morning's Bible reading was Joshua 11 where a whole gang of kings come together to fight Israel but in less than 24 hours, the Lord helps Joshua and his army wipe the entire lot of them off the face of the earth.  It's amazing.

Our Read aloud book at the moment is Jonny Tremain.  It is the story of an intelligent, arrogant boy whose dream of being the best silver smith in the American colonies is shattered when he is permanently injured by a spiteful practical joke.  He eventually finds himself swept up in the emotions and politics of the Revolution and meets some of the high up persons that shaped America to what it is today.

Our reading time lasted about an hour and then everyone went off to do their book work.  For me, this means biology and for this module, that means memorizing the anatomy of a crayfish.  I know.  Go figure.  A crayfish.  Last module it was the anatomy of a an earthworm.  I can't wait to get to vertebrates.

Lunch.  Lunch is getting a bit tricky for me as I seem to have become (to some extent) gluten intolerant.  I usually go digging through the fridge for some left overs.  Today that came in the form of a chicken drumstick and beans and a bit of pumpkin.  I made a mushroom sauce to go on the chicken (because if you can add mushroom to anything, why on earth wouldn't you??) and I must say it was really yum.  ^_^

Mum decided that Joy would help her do the lunch clean up today, and so Jess and I took Rosie and Annie to the park next door.  Our version of minding the girls in the park is to let them run where they want (within reason of course - they are not allowed ANYWHERE near the road) while we sit under a tree and read, glancing up every now and again to make sure we know the whereabouts of our little sisters.  When we came inside again and Mum put the little girls down for their afternoon rest, Jess, Elise and I all sat around the fire and read for a good half hour.  It was lovely.  I am currently reading several books (as you would know if you follow me on Goodreads =P) but I am concentrating on The Book Thief.  It is an amazing book.  The imagery Zusak uses is astounding.  I am really enjoying it, and am proud of myself for being well over halfway through it.  This may not sound like such a wonderful feat except that it is more than 500 pages long.  XD

At 3:00 mum had a 'music meeting' with our pastor and the other music leader (Mum being one music leader and Curtis the other).  She dropped Joy and me off at the library on the way down as we meet with a lovely librarian friend of ours every month.  And so, after hanging at the library for an hour, and then chatting with Lee for an hour, we went home with a few more books than we returned.  (Please tell me we are not the only ones who do this!!)

By the time we got home,  Grace had dinner on and before long, it was ready.  There is something rather homey about meat and veg.  Add to that the lively chatter of a family of ten and you have one of the most beautiful things in the world, in my opinion.

After dinner, we were on the go again (I told you this week would be busy!).  Mum, Dad, and Joy went to music practise at church (Grace and Elise weren't well enough to go tonight) and I went to town band.  Town band is a 'new' thing for me, as in I used to go but last week was the first time in five years.  I am really enjoying it and having an outlet for my flute playing gives me an incentive to practise.  I know a lot of the people in the band, and most of the flautists.  Tonight there were six flautists but I am under the impression that all up - intermediate and senior band combined with no people away - there would be 17 flutes.  Wow!  That's quite a number of shiny metal tubes, I can tell you!  The people down at the band are really lovely and I love playing with them.

So here I am now, typing this out for you all to read - a bit of a window into my day.  I am the only one up now and my eyes and head are begging me to put away the bright screen and go to bed.  So I think I will.  But I am going to leave you with a verse from my personal Bible time from 2 Corinthians.

Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

(2 Corinthians 2:10-11)

Goodnight all, and God bless!  :)

Pirates, More Pirates, Camps, and Eisteddfods

I am long overdue for a general post to tell y'all about how life is going.  So here it is now.  :)

As a lot of you would have known, Mum and Dad were involved in the local production of The Pirates of Penzance this year.  It was all rather exciting, as none of us have been involved with our theatrical society since Beauty and the Beast six years ago, and Mum and Dad have never done one together.  There is a consequence that must be realized when you commit yourself to being in a musical show, and that is that - while everyone involved is a volunteer - everyone must pay by being semi-tortured with the same songs going around and around your head day and night for months on end.  Thankfully, torture is only torture if you don't enjoy, and I think that, on the whole (in our family at least) we enjoyed the show and the music so much that we are only now beginning to wish we could forget it.  For those of you who do not know the story of The Pirates of Penzance here is a synopsis from The Utah Shakespeare Festival website:

On the coast of Cornwall, a gang of pirates play and party as Frederic (a pirate apprentice) reminds the pirate king that his obligation to the gang is soon over. He was apprenticed to the pirates only until his twenty-first birthday, which is that day, and he is leaving them. Ruth (Frederic’s nursery maid when he was younger) explains that Frederic should never have been a pirate except for her mistake: She was told to apprentice Frederic to a pilot, but she misunderstood and placed him with a pirate instead.

Frederic tells the pirates that, after he leaves the gang, he intends to destroy them, not because he doesn’t love them, but because he loathes what they do. He is a slave of duty and, when no longer a pirate, it will be his duty to destroy them. The pirates understand, and also complain that they cannot seem to make money. Because Frederic is a slave-of-duty to the pirates until noon, he tells them why: Because they are all orphans, the pirates will not rob another orphan; and since all their potential victims are aware of this, they all claim to be orphans!

Because Frederic has spent his entire life with the pirates, he has never seen another woman; thus he thinks he may want to take Ruth with him as his wife. He asks Ruth if she is beautiful, and she responds that she is. Frederic, a very trusting young man, says that he believes Ruth and he will not let her age come between them.

At this point, however, Frederic hears a chorus of girls in the vicinity. He sees a group of beautiful young women, realizes he was betrayed by Ruth, and rejects her. Frederic informs the girls that he is a pirate, but not for long. He asks if any of the girls will marry him, and the youngest, Mabel, agrees.

The pirates enter the scene, and each grabs a girl. Major-General Stanley enters and identifies himself as the girls’ father, demanding to know what is taking place. When the pirates tell Major-General Stanley that they intend to marry his daughters, he objects, saying he has an aversion to having pirates for sons-in-law; the pirates respond that they are opposed to having major-generals as fathers-in-law, but that they will put aside the objection.

Knowing about the pirates’ weakness, Major-General Stanley tells them he is an orphan and, thus, disarms the pirates and takes his daughters, along with Frederic, away to his family chapel and estate. The major-general, who actually is not an orphan, soon feels guilty about the lie he told the pirates. Frederic, however, has a plan to lead a squad of zany policemen against the his old gang.

Before he can act, however, the pirate king and Ruth arrive to tell him that he is still obligated to the pirates. Because Frederic was born on February 29 of a leap year, he has served only five birthdays, not the twenty-one required by his contract. A strong sense of duty forces Frederic to relent, and, because he is a member of the pirate band again, to reveal the truth that Major-General Stanley is not an orphan. The pirate king vows that he will have revenge on the major-general.

Mabel enters and begs Frederic not to go back to the pirates, but bound by duty, he leaves. The police ready their attack on the pirates, while the pirates creep in to take revenge on the major-general.

The pirates defeat the police. However, when Ruth divulges that the pirates are really noblemen and they swear their allegiance to the queen, the tables are turned--and the police take the pirates prisoner.

However, because the pirates have never really hurt anyone, they are soon forgiven. The ex-pirates win the girls, Frederic wins Mabel, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Quite frankly, I don't get tired of it - it has become one of my favourite musicals.  In fact, I went to see it five out of the ten shows that were playing here in town!  XDD  It is a very funny show.  Below are a few videos starring Jon English and Simon Gallagher that make up my favourite sequence in the whole thing (although, now that I think about it, it probably won't make a whole lot of sense if you don't know what's going on. XD)  Oh, and as an extra note... *giggles and whispers it* ....  I think our show was better!!!  XDD  But don't tell Jon English or Simon Gallagher that!  If you want to see photos of some of the characters in our show click HERE.  A lot of of these photos seem to be of the senior patrons who support the shows each year, but you can kind of get an idea from some of the pictures.  Oh, and if you look at photo number 10, that's my dad in the foreground with the parrot on his shoulder.  (He played bass.)  =D

Other than Pirates, I have been doing a few different things.  This weekend coming, Jess and I are going to a leaders training camp in preparation for Tahlee kids camp in September.  (It's the same camp I wrote about here.)  We are really looking forward to it.  I have been hanging out for kids camp since I had to say goodbye to my six little girls last year and send them home.  

This week is also the closing date for the region writing eisteddfod that I discovered we have last year.  I only entered two sections last year, but this year I am entering all three - short story, poetry, and a letter to the editor.  I did not enter the short story category last year as fictional prose is not my strong point when it comes to writing.  However I decided to do it this year and I am happy with the results.  Oddly enough, it is the poetry that is eluding me this time.  I kind of know what I am going for, but the right words are evading me at present.  Hopefully they come before the closing date.  We shall see, we shall see!!

Guess what??!  I am (attempting) to learn the violin!  I have sort have been interested for a while, but did not really want to start right at the start with Twinkle Twinkle.  My sister Joy offered to give me a lesson, and so I agreed, provided I could start with the second song.  She agreed.  Actually I don't think she particularly agreed with me, but she decided to humour me anyway.  So now, I have struck up a race with James.  I asked him who would reach performance level of the last song in Suzuki book 1.  He - of course! - is convinced it will be him.  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we shall see, we shall see!  XDD

Talking about music lessons, I now have three piano students and am meeting with a potential fourth this week.  (Wow!  It's all happening this week!  O.o)  I so much enjoying teaching.  My three students are all ten years old, but apparently the little girl I am meeting on Thursday is only seven and has no musical training so I will be starting from scratch, so to speak.  I am rather looking forward to it.  :)

I think that is all I have to report for now... So long, farewell!  

It was a Dark and Stormy Night...

... and yes, a title so cliché can be accurate none the less...

 We watched it build for about twenty minutes and then ran to get the washing in before it hit.  Much to the astonishment of certain people, I'm sure, I actually took some photos of the clouds.  ;)

When it started to rain, I backed into the furtherest corner of the verandah but was still getting spattered.  James (10) and I were delighting in the size of the raindrops when we were nearly blinded by a flash of lightening and then deafened almost at once by the thunder.  It was a cracker storm!  :D

Antics of Annie and Rose

My sisters, Rose (3) and Annie (2) are growing up so fast.  They re developing their own unique senses of humor which leave the rest of us gasping for breath sometimes... Here's a post dedicated to the antics of Annie and Rose.  :D


Me:  Knock knock!
Rose:  Knock knock.
Me: No, you say "who's there"  Try again.  Knock knock!
Rose: Who's there?
Me: Interrupting cow.
Annie:  MOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

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Rose:  I need help.
Me: How do you ask?
Rose:  May I please need some help?

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*Annie makes a noise like she is going to throw up*

Me: Are you ok?

Annie: No!  I'm sick.

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Rose: I can't see inside my skin, because if I cut a hole in it, it will hurt.

Jess: Have you tried?

Rose:  No!  It would be sore!

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Rose: *'reading' the words on a mug *  Cup - of  - tea.

Me: No, sweetie.  It says 'Live in the Moment'

Rose: Live on a Mango???

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Rose: *singing*  Do, a female deer.  Re, la la la la sun. Mi, I call myself. Fa, a long long way to run. So, a meedle pulling fred. La, a la la la la So. Ti a la la la la bread. THAT WILL BRING US BACK TO DO!!!  (And, yes, she shouts that part.  ;) )

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*I give Annie a piece of frozen mango, and a few minutes later, she is back for more. *

Annie: More berries?

Me: It's  mango, sweetheart.

Annie: *jumps up and down, clapping her hands and squealing* Oh that's so exciting!!!

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Wisdom Teeth and Glasses

I went to the dentist on Monday.  I was not thrilled about it, to say the least, and was actually really dreading the visit and I have been ever since the orthodontist informed me that all four of my wisdom teeth had to come out.  Dr. M looked in my mouth and confirmed what Dr H had already said.  He was pretty sure I had already had a slight infection in my bottom-left gum and the bottom right tooth is in a crooked position.  Wisdom teeth are funny as in that if a bottom wisdom tooth is removed, it top "partner" will keep growing until it hits something, e.g. the gum.  Ouch!  Because I not only have room for any of my teeth, but the odd "pairs" are the one really causing problems, they all have to come out.

Dr M gave me two options.  I could 1) Have the two left ones removed under local antiseptic, wait two weeks and then go back to have the two right ones removed.  Or 2) Go to the city (about an hour and a half away) and have them all removed in one go under general antiseptic. 

I just looked at the dentist and said, "You know, I don't think I would come back after the first lot."

That was probably not what he wanted to hear, but it was decided that I would go under general antiseptic and have it over and done with.

Ironically, the surgery is booked in for the day precisely three years after I had my braces put on.  I'm not sure whether that is comforting or not.

Last Friday, Jess, Joy, Grace and I all went to the optometrist.  I am terrible at the first part of my appointments as I have to have a test for glaucoma (I seem to have several elements of glaucoma development).  The test consists of resting your chin on a little curved shelf with your forehead also against a rest board all attached to a big machine.  You have to focus on a light target in the machine while the sister takes measurements of your eye and then "squirts" three puffs of air into each eye.  I jump a mile every time and keep the sister very amused - every time.  All of us, save Grace, needed new prescriptions, so we had quite a bit of fun trying on and examining different styles of frames.  Today we got the call that our glasses were ready and we were able to pick them up this afternoon.  They look quite nice.  :D

Christmas!!!

What we started with...

...what we ended up with...

Annie and her favourite new toy

Well, Christmas has come and gone for another year - it's hard to believe it is all over again.  We were highly organized this year - well, for us anyway!  Mum and Dad had all the gifts wrapped before the Christmas Eve church service, and so we were able to enjoy church and and carols without dreading staying up until all hours of the morning wrapping, an annual experience Dad was happy to waive from this year's schedule.  :)

James and his favourite new toy!

After church we drove around town looking at Christmas lights.  I was disappointed that there didn't seam to be nearly as many as usual this year.  While we were driving, I noticed that I could only see half a house at a time and - sure enough - by the time we got home, I had a full blown migraine.  Goodie!  :P  B this stage, it was about eight-thirty, so the other kids took one of our gingerbread houses next door as a gift, Mum and Dad made scrambled eggs for supper (we had had a cooked lunch and then didn't have time to eat before church) and I lay on the couch watching Carols by Candlelight with Santa and the ridiculous Loony Tune renditions of Christmas Carols.  I was glad when the real carols started!

For the first time in my life, Jess, Grace and I were allowed to stay up for the entire carols which ended at just past 11:00 pm.  We were very tired and I had a horrible headache, but it was really special to see it all the way through.


Christmas morning began at 6:00.  It had to if we were going to make it to church at 8:00.  (We are "open presents first" people.)  It took a while to get everyone up, but finally we were all gathered in the lounge room.  As tradition demands, we kids started with our Christmas stockings.  We don't do Santa, but Mum and Dad use the Christmas stockings for the little things that are too fiddly to wrap up individually.  These things are usually more personal items such as hairbrushes, hand cream, pens, so forth.  This year, Mum and Dad also put a mango in each stocking - YUM!  :)

Rose discovering good old-fashioned blackboards.

My present.

The way we do presents at our house is based on the principle that we are so thankful to have received that we just want to give.  Whoever receives a present then goes and picks one to give.  Then that person gives the next gift, and so on.  After a few gifts had been opened, Dad gave me one from him and Mum.  It was the entire Elsie Dinsmore series - all twenty eight books!  I was thrilled because I had rather blatantly "hinted" more than once that that was what I would really like.  I was also given a couple of DVD's (Piano Guys and Calamity Jane - LOL!), a Chris Tomlin Cd, and a tea for one teapot/teacup/saucer set.  Elise was made perfectly happy with a telescope (she loves science), Joy was over the moon with her own ipod, while Grace was extremely pleased with her leather hat and Horrible Histories DVD's.

Cleaning up!

We took our time over presents and by the time we finished, it was ten minutes to eight 'o' clock.  We quickly made ourselves presentable and hurried off to church.  We were about five minutes late, but we weren't the only ones who were late, so it made us feel better.  :)  We had breakfast when we got home... :)

Add caption

Because we had a late breakfast, we decided to have a late lunch too, which was just as well, because by the time Grace had tidied the dining room, Jess had set and decorated the table, and I had all the food ready, it was about 2:30.  We couldn't wait to call Mum to the table because Jess and I had planned a surprise for her.  When Mum was a little girl, her mother had a beautiful dinner set that only came out at Christmas.  When Nanna passed away nearly six years ago, Mum inherited the dinner set and it was tucked away safely in the sideboard.  Jess and I got it out and used it for the Christmas dinner setting.  We were not disappointed.  Mum almost cried when she saw it and she sent a photo to her dad and her sister and brother of the dishes that they all associate with Christmas.

The rest of the day was really low-key and relaxing - I was very excited that it rained all day  :).  We were really blessed to have Christmas together as a family and to be able to connect with each other.  It wasn't particularly fancy, but neither was the night that Christ was born.  In fact, the conditions into which He was born were downright hideous for a new baby and His mother.  But still He came  - Praise the Lord!!

I pray you had a lovely Christmas and that whatever you did to celebrate, you were blessed by the time with family and you Father who started this annual tradition of ours!  Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you! 

Sucssesful Sewing Session

Over the last few months, I have rather desperately tried to learn dress-making.  It was an up-hill road, I assure you!  Usually the clothes would be two wide or way too tight, or something like that and I was starting to despair that I would ever get the knack of it.

Yesterday, as usual, I was minding Rose for a couple of hours.  Also as usual, I tried to think of something we could do together that would not only delight her, but give me practice in certain arts I should like to attain skill in.  This is what we did yesterday from one of my old skirts.


Sweet Summer Dress

Materials:

• One full length skirt with the elastic that is sewn in and reaches about twenty cm down the waist.  These skirts are generally sold as tube dresses at or strap dresses.  Mine was tiered.

Carefully unpick the bottom tier from the skirt (or if your skirt is not tiered, take about 20 cms from the bottom of the skirt.)

The original skirt with the bottom tier removed.

Measure Little Girl around the chest just under the arm pits.  Rosie (who is three and a half) measured 21 inches.  Take the skirt and measure the top of the waist from side seam to side seam.  Multiply that number by two.  (My skirt measured 13 inches from seam to seam, so the final measurement was 26 inches.)  Subtract that number from the measurement of Little Girl's chest.  (I got 5 inches)

Mark a point on one of the side seams near the top of the waist.  Then, make a mark on the back of the skirt subtracted number (5 inches, for example) away from the marked side seam.  Cut out a panel



of the skirt using the two marks as a guide to width.  You may need to widen the panel as you cut towards the bottom of the skirt.

Now you should have most of the skirt in tact save two smaller bits that we have purposefully cut out.  Oh, and the main part of the sirt is not sewn up.  No problem - we are going to fix that now.  Sew up the two raw sides so that the skirt now resembes a skirt again, save that it is far to small to fit you now.  :)

Get Little Girl to try the dress on at this point and make sure that the top of it fits snugly under her arms without being detrimental to her oxygen supply.  Measure over her shoulders from back of dress to front of dress.  Now cut out that length of material from the small bits we cut off earlier at about three inches wide.  Hem the long sides.  These are the sleeves.  It is helpful to pin these on while the Little Girl is wearing the dress.  The sleeves cannot be loose.  Sew on the sleeves.

Hem the dress.

Done!  :)  I'm afraid I didn't explain it very well.  Hopefully you can glean from my vague directions and the photos what should happen.  I am very happy with how it worked out though.

Have a great weekend


 

My Advent Calender At Last... :)

Sorry this post has been a long time coming everyone... the subject of this post is in fact the reason I have not been on for a while.  :)

I really enjoy the book by Rosie Boom Where Lions Roar at Night.  The short of the book is that a New Zealand family - Mum, Dad and their six children - move into a 100 year old barn as they set up their farm.  I would highly recommend the book.  It is sweet, touching, cringe-worthy and downright hilarious by turns.

While flicking through it a couple of weeks ago, I was inspired by Rosie's Advent calender patch-work quilt.  I promptly decided that I would make one too.  Why not???  :P

This proved a little more difficult than I first anticipated.  After all, it isn't easy to come up with twenty-five different motifs for the front of each pocket.  I realized that this was a bigger project than I could achieve in less than a fortnight, so I roped two of my tired, reluctant sisters into it as well and pushed their love for me to the limit by nagging then to hem for me.  (OK, I am exaggerating a bit, but I did nag... :P)

The week before it was due to be hanged - I mean, hung up ;) - I made the chocolate, because (as I told Mum later - you just can't have an Advent calender without chocolate.  That presents a small problem in our family, because we don't eat sugar.  Luckily, we have a recipe for sugar free dairy free chocolate.  I have put the recipe here in case any of you are interested...


Sugar-Free Chocolate  (From The Sweet Poison Quit Plan by David Gillespie)

80g cocoa butter (available from health food stores)
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup dextrose (available from the home-brewing section of Big W.  I found that I needed a bit extra dextrose here as the chocolate came out really dark.  I like dark chocolate, but this was extreme!)
1 cup of water

To make the dextrose syrup, put the dextrose and water into a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until the dextrose has dissolved and the mixture is well combined.  Put the cocoa butter into a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and stir until melted.  Ad the cocoa powder and 1/4 cup of the dextrose syup and stir until melted and well combined.  Pour the chocolate mixture into tablespoon-sized chocolate moulds. refrigerte for 2-3 hours or until set.  Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.


Or, if you're like me, you will wrap each chocolate in foil and put them in pockets on the advent calender for twenty-five days... :P

I was rushing to finish the sewing in the week leading up to the first of December, but didn't quite make it.  I went up on the second and Mum and the younger kids were really very impressed by it (they hadn't known about it.)  When Rose first sawit in the dining romm under the clock, she stopped short in the kitchen staring.  "WOW!" was all she could get out at first.  I put on the innocent. 
"What is it, Rosie?"  I asked.
She kept her eyes on the dining room wall.  "It is so pretty," she explained.  :)

So that it the story of me creating an Advent Calender.  It was lots of fun.  If you have made on e ar do make one one day, I would love to see pictures if you drop me a message...  :)

Oh, the photos... I have included some of the calender as a whole and then some individuals of my favourite patches.  If they look misshapen, that's because I had already 'stuffed' them when I took the photos (a chocolate and a Christmas Bible verse on a card in each pocket).  Also, if number 19 (second row on the far right) looks like it has been sewn on crooked, that's because it was.  :P 

God bless you all in this festive season!  :)

How I really feel about Being the Eldest of Eight and Homeschooling. :)

Often when I am talking to people I don’t know very well (and sometimes even people I thought knew me fairly well :P) I am often asked questions concerning large families and home-schooling as though I  am a martyr or silent sufferer and that they are willing to listen to all my woes.  So I thought I would put down the most frequent and annoying questions and answer them as I see fit – and yes, I really mean all I say… ;)

Do you like being the eldest of a large family?

Let me be honest.  Being the eldest of eight isn’t always fun.  There can be a lot of noise, mess, and if someone catches the flu, you can count us out of all social events for the next two to three months while it takes down the entire family, usually end on end – one at a time… :P  But the benefits of a large family far outweigh any amount of disadvantages.  For one thing, in a home of ten people, love is more than abundant.  Sometimes if I am over everything and just about to break down in tears of frustration, all I have to do is look at my younger siblings and see their adoring eyes watching me, confident that I can handle all and every circumstance.  My heart melts every time and I quick prayer for meekness and patience (NOW!) and try again.  Little Annie has just learned to call us older ones by name.  She often goes around the living area calling out, “Emmie!  Emmie!”  And then she flashes me an adorable toothy smile.  She and Rose (as well as the others) look to me every day for advice, for praise and for love.  

Let me say right here a special note for those who have younger siblings.  You don’t have to be a big brother or sister – you get to be a big brother or sister.  It is such a privilege.  Don’t ever underestimate the influence you have on their lives.  They adore you.  They want to be with you.  They want to be like you in every way they can.  To them, you are the ultimate role model.  Don’t let them down. Include them wherever you can and remember that the choices you make will affect them, even if you are unaware of it.  Friends come and go if life, but until death comes, you will always have your siblings.  Make effort to become best friends with them.

Don’t you wish you could go to school?

No.

Do you like being home schooled?

I love it!  And there are several reasons for that.  :)

1.        This is a personal thing, but it could apply to anyone.  I am a natural follower.  Unless it comes to a point of moral standings, I am pretty happy to do what people want me to.  I can only imagine what might have happened if I wasn’t at home where Mum and Dad faithfully trained me to choose the right way, and shielded me from the world’s forceful influence.

2.       I love the way home-schooling hones in on your strengths, but allows opportunity to improve on your weaknesses.   I was an early reader, and well and truly advanced in my literary skills.  When it came to Algebra, however, I had to restart the book three times before it ‘clicked’.  But I have been able to work at that at my own pace and master it.

3.       I also love how home-schooling makes learning a family affair.  We do zoology all together as well as reading and other subjects like art and music and we love discussing our discoveries and competing to see who gets the most nuts at quiz time.  ;)  :P

How do you cook for ten every night?

My response to this usually runs along the lines of, “We’re used to it.  I don’t understand how you cook for two every night!”  Peeling a dozen potatoes is normal.  Ordering two kilos of one kind of meat is an every shopping trip experience, and having three rows of plates all lined up for easy dishing is absolutely essential.  I like to remind people that there are no twins I our family.  We all came along one at a time, and so it was a slow increase in number.  An extra potato or carrot every three or four years or so…

Home-schooling… does that mean you get to do what you want when you want?

Umm… no.  I get a variation of this question a lot from other kids.  They seem to be worried that I will miss out on the joys of maths, or essays, or science.  It’s kind of them to be so considerate, but I hasten to assure them that it is not so.  :)

Those are the questions that come to mind right now, but there are plenty of them out there.

God bless you – have a great week.