Two years ago we went to an orchard to pick some apples with friends.
Today we went by ourselves and made the most of the sun shining, our time together + the fact that the two types of apples that are moderate on the salicylate diet (red + golden dels) are in season and ready for the pickin'!
Bought back so many childhood memories for me (visiting the fruit bowl!) and created more for my little treasures' memory banks!
10 kg's of freshly picked apples + organic honey + apple peeler/corer + icy poles
A great day had by all :)
Lus x
I really think our fight or flight instincts are very strong.
What a gift from Yah!
Mine have kicked into hyper-drive once again.
This has happened a number of times in our lives...like when I was diagnosed with Immune Thrombocytopenia Purpura, when I had to have a splenectomy, when Liji was diagnosed with Autism and when I needed to become very well organised in order to homeschool/homebirth/live life to its full!
Breathing in and breathing out :)
I think when I look back over the years and see that things have needed to change or whatever, I've always had a couple of days where I need to let the shock of things hit me and then I need to get on with the tasks at hand. I become an advocate. I arm myself with as much information as I can. I try to get plans in place. I do as much research as I can. I learn. I make mistakes and waste time over menial tasks and then I regroup and get back to the bigger picture so that we can press on and move forward in a victorious way!
It's happening again.
The lists are now out in full and include things like:
* meet with new psychologist (tick...she was AWESOME!)
* complete homework she gave us
* cull some toys of the kids' to take away a trigger and re-label boxes to aid them in their pack-up
* visit with the naturopath (tick....she was AWESOME too!)
* chase up past pathology results
* get 10 referrals (not kidding) for me and the 4 older kids to have our guts assessed
* regularly give probiotics until we get to the bottom of the gut issues
* keep food diaries for 6 days
* research food detective finger prick testing and make sure it's what we want then book that in for 5 of us
* Emails regarding Zippi's trial for the new application programme (thanks to a special someone- you know who you are for offering us the position - not sure if I'm allowed/should mention it here or not so will just kind of do it incognito!)
* Chase OT!
* Check if I need to get an OT assessment referral written up by GP prior to ASD assessment. Can it wait until afterwards?
* Make another appt with psychologist
* Make another appointment with naturopath once I know dr has printed out pathology results and the referrals are done and ready for pick up
Obviously, I'm not going to write down all the boring details of things I have to do...there are plenty to list. But I did want to record them for my own records here (i have them written down in my to do list book!) so I can remember what a full-on 'fighting' season this is.
I need to fight for my family.
I think it's actually really cathartic to have things to do!
I am remembering to just 'be' too and have some lovely girly times with friends booked in this weekend and am looking forward to taking times out when needed.
I know first hand that Yah will not see us stranded in this season. He NEVER has before and I know He'll get us through again.
He has already provided in AMAZING ways that leave me open-mouthed and feeling in awe!
"As for me and my household, we will serve Yehovah!"
So I suspect that my family is alot like yours and the majority of families in many ways...we are loving but we are incredibly flawed.
We get too angry.
We are too impatient with each other.
We say awful things that we don't mean.
We have this background current of Autism which currently colours our life and language more than we would like it too.
We take each other for granted and miss seeing the big picture because we are trying to control the silly, unimportant issues far too often.
And I lie awake wondering sometimes, if we are 'good' enough as parents.
I know that most of you in Blogland don't know me in real life.
You see our 'highlights' reel on here but you don't see the pain and trauma of the behind the scenes stuff that sometimes feels like it is taking over.
I was talking to a lovely friend of mine recently about these heart issues and she was saying that there is power in repeating our Dominant Story. What did she mean by that? Well, story telling about, showing photos of and reminding ourselves about the very things we want to be our dominant story when we look back on our lives 10, 20, 30 years from now.
I want the dominant story of our children's childhoods to be about indoor picnics when it rained, about snuggling under blankets reading rich, thought-provoking stories, about backyard cricket on warm summer evenings and baking choc chip cookies and licking the bowl clean. I want their dominant story to be one of feelings of belonging and traditions that made their hearts feel whole; remembering how we ate pumpkin soup from our special bowls that look like pumpkins, how we always have a special Shabbat meal together and of birthday dinners where loving words are shared around a communal table. I pray that our children will want to tell their children about the time that we went horseriding and the horse scratched its bum against the tree and we all laughed ourselves silly, about trips to Bonnyvale beach and playing Pani in the backyard. I hope their dominant story is filled with memories of planting and harvesting in our vegie garden, of prayers shared, of learning and exploring on bushwalks together, of dressing up, dancing + celebrating the Biblical Feasts and of many cuddles and 'i love you's' whispered into little ears before bedtime each night.
I guess I've realised that part of why I blog is so that I can remind myself of what I want our dominant story to be.
We are not perfect.
Life here is hard.
Often.
But it's also wonderful and fun, beautiful and comforting too.
{Thanks Michelle btw for sharing with me.}
So in light of that, I wanted to share about one day last week.
We'd done some maths bookwork in the morning, our afternoon rhythm and some reading together.
We'd had several days of rain {and hail!} and we wanted to make the most of a sun-shiny afternoon.
Liji asked if we could pleeeeeeeeeeeeease go catch some tadpoles!
So off we went.
{When we got to the first place, there was still hail left in HUGE chunks TWO days after it had fallen!!!!!! We couldn't get over it!}
{I love watching our kiddos go off on adventures like this!}
{The water at the first place we went was running a little too quickly so there were no tadpoles around so we decided to go somewhere else}
{Love my Ergo!}
{Zippi loved sloshing about in her boots in the 'muddy puddles' - which of course must be said in your best Peppa Pig voice! lol!}
{Enjoying a short trip to the second spot. By the time we got there the mozzies were out in full force}
{Eagerly they show Brett their 'catch'!}
{You can see the little guy Liji caught in the bottom corner of the bag!}
{Ethi asked that a photo of his be taken before being released back into the water}
Now please don't get me wrong.
I'm not sharing this to gain pity or a pat on the back or anything at all like that.
I'm not sharing these things for any other reason than to remind myself, when I look back in years to come, that this was a bit of a pivotal moment for me.
I know that just by talking about our Dominant Story that I am not excused for my poor attitudes or sinful nature.
I constantly ask that Yah would make us more like his son, Yeshua, whom through the Scriptures we see as a perfect example of our Father's nature.
I want to be pruned and become the best parent to our children that I can be.
And so does Brett.
But I guess that while we are working on that, it is a comforting thought that as I remind myself and my family about the positives in our life, I can be leaving us all with happy memories of a dominant story that was full of us being real, learning how to work through life's challenges and loving well.
Yesterday for our crafternoon rhythm we made paint :)
I'd seen the recipe on Pinterest somewhere and had jotted it down.
I'd bought a yoghurt maker from Aldi that we tried to get to work several times....unsuccessfully! So instead we used the base to try and sprout beans and the lovely glass jars...well they were begging to be used to something a little pretty ;)
So doubling the original recipe, we came up the recipe above.
In went the cornflour, salt and sugar before the boys measured out the 4 cups of water...
...in goes the water...
...reading books while waiting is optional lol....
Liji getting in and having a stir...
{um love his little flour hand print on his behind! too cute!}
...it wasn't hot enough so we changed hot plates, increased the heat, kept stirring and all of a sudden it started to thicken!
Gooey!
We found and cleaned the jars...
...the kiddos added food colouring to their liking....
...and then whacked it into a jar...
Baby Zeeki who had refused to sleep most of the day, sat for about 2 mins happily eating his rusk before getting grumpy while we finished up putting them in jars!
Zippi decided she just couldn't wait to use some and made a lovely painting using left over paint that wouldn't fit into the jars...
Ah lovely thick globules of paint like this take me back to my own childhood preschool days!
Final step? Get as much of the paint as you can in your mouth, on your hands and your princess costume with white shirt... :-D
...and think pensively about how lovely your artwork looks.... lol!
So there you have it!
Our verdict? A great fun and creative activity that doesn't cost the earth.
Gotta love that ;)
