Yom Teruah (Day of Blowing or The Feast of Trumpets) is one of the special feasts that God set apart for His people. The special feast days are given to us by Yah to help us remember him, to come together to celebrate and for us it has been a beautiful way of sharing our love for Him with our family and with others.
As we prepare this year, I thought it might be cool to make our own trumpets as our centrepiece. I was inspired by the Spirit of God to do this after reading the chapter in Numbers 10 about how 2 silver trumpets were used for a number of reasons. This set our theme for this year's feast which is;
Go! Gather! Battle! Celebrate!
This paints a glorious picture of what we hold to as our hope that Yeshua will return and we will those 4 keys things (go, gather, battle and celebrate) will all happen at the end of the age also!
More to come on this soon!
I thought I'd share a link to THIS SITE which had some great ideas; making paper mache shofars out of toilet rolls or foil.
In the meantime, here is what we did to make our own trumpets (and they work too!)
You'll need:
* A funnel
* Some old hose or pipe
* Silver electrical tape
* Cotton and tassels to decorate (optional - ours are still plain right now)
If your hose is too small, cut a little slit in one end to open it enough for the funnel to fit on the end. Use the tape to hold it in place.
Otherwise, shape it so that the hose forms a loop and then start taping it up!
{Um...nope, it's not for sucking people's brains' out...it's for making a trumpet! lol ;) }
{Liji fits the hose into the slit we cut because the hose opening was too narrow}
{Stass and Ethi work on their trumpet together}
{Covering the funnel}
{Um, nope...not for a moustache either mate ;) }
{Taking it outside to have a turn...it works!}
All ready as our centre pieces for our celebration!
This week we were without daddy for most of the week who went out to the house with Poppy to lay the chipboard yellow tongue and groove sheets along with cut out the archway and put up the lintel. Great job boys!
We had swimming lessons. Kids are LOVING their classes and teachers and especially love meeting with 15 other homeschooling kids each week!
Zip, Zeeki and I visited a new playgroup this week too.
{We read through more of our read a loud 'Henry and the Clubhouse'.
The boys made a cosy clubhouse of their own this week in the backyard.}
{Checked out Chapt 22 of our Story of the World; life in Ancient Sparta and Ancient Athens. Made knuckles to play out of the Ancient World book and some air dried clay and painted them up.}
{Stass' 3 new books - from the Little House on the Prairie series- The Rose Years- arrived. There are over 200 pages in one book and over 300 in the other two. Stass enjoyed reading through all 3 this week! I must say that it's one thing I lOVE about our learning-at-home journey; the time afforded to the kids to be able to read or do things that really interest them. She was so happy to have finished each one.}
{Liji had an assessment for visual dyslexia at the Alison Lawson clinic here. We are hopeful this may help him at some stage. Just trying to work out when to start.}
{The kids made some NO BAKE ENERGY BALLS as a gift for Sulley (Dannii my SIL) who returned to work this week after an extended break. The boys wrote out the recipe in their new recipe books.}
{Stass wrote out the recipe for the cheesy chicken slow cooker meal we all made together on Wednesday.}
{I sewed up some bunting for the girls' room out of handkerchiefs from a play tea set the girls were given. They never use these from the set and they just always get trodden on when they play so I thought I might put them to another use ;) I just tacked the ends of the triangles together and threaded them onto some twine. Totally dodgy hand sewing but the girls liked them!
Simple but cute with their pink and purple butterfly curtains.}
{Our memory verses book got a work out this week.}
We took a bus and train ride to a town an hour away where Jas, our friend, was organising her first baby wearing meet. I wanted to go along and support her. Unfortunately, a lot of mums couldn't make it and my kids were the only big ones there. This always makes me feel a bit self concious since they are an energetic lot!
It was lovely to catch up with Jas and Sophie though.
{They did, however, enjoy the train ride there. Zippi got quite overwhelmed and kept asking to go home.I felt overwhelmed too. This was the day I wrote the post 'You are not alone'.}
{Zippi still has to have two dummies like this to self soothe.}
{Babywearing means that I can still hold Zippi's hand, whilst carrying Zeeki on and off public transport.}
The kids started getting excited about the Olympic Games in London.
{Front cover of the OLYMPIC GAMES LAPBOOK that we made. Thank you Homeschool Share!}
{Stass with Sulley's help, looked up the athletic history of two of her favourite athletes; Lauren Jackson and Sally Pearson.}
{Inside we talked about the food pyramid and we are keeping track of Australia's medals. That little flap bottom right flips up and there are three columns for gold, silver and bronze medals.}
{Zeeki began crawling properly about 2 weeks ago and is now going to a push up position and has begun to pull himself up a little on furniture. Man time is flying by! In a month and a week, he'll be one!!! He loves this lovely and warm jumper Aunty Sumi gave him. Since he has been crawling, he's less anxious which is really great - for him and us! He's a gorgeous little boy whom we all adore.}
We measured him up and then he helped me assemble it.
I took a video of Liji using the sewing machine for the first time but can't seem to upload it here.
{Liji cutting the material.}
{The boys in their body socks.}
{Liji's has to be resewn now after the feet got holes in them but they really like these!}
{The kids enjoyed a game of scrabble with Nan after dinner one night. Nan, Sull and my lovely next door neighbour once again all came and pitched in while Brett was away. I'm so thankful for all their help.}
An invitation to craft: making cards
{An invitation to craft: making cards using foam letters, paper embellishments and double sided tape for Zippi.}
{Happy for ten minutes or so choosing from the bowls and adding to her cards.}
{Great fine motor skills}
I had a lovely night out with my 'M' girls...except we were missing Michelle :( Next time mate.
{Mell, Mel and Me}
{My yummy steak}
All in all another busy week full of learning experiences and faith-stretching experiences too!
There was much to organise before we went to Fiji; little and big things!
From passports to luggage lists, from bum bags filled with fidget toys to watching ceremonies and talking about expected behaviour and responses....the month leading up to our departure was FULL to say the least!
One of the things that is important for our family is to prepare our munchkins in terms of two key
areas:
1. expectations
and
2. stratergies for self regulation especially during times of transition.
This is important in most families but in ours (we have 3 children who experience anxiety, are on the Autism spectrum and who struggle with change) it is crucial.
Firstly, I must explain that where we went was not your typical 'Fiji'.
We went rural.
We went remote.
We stayed in a hotel but up North (where my family are) is still quite untouched in many ways.
You won't find a McDonalds (although they have recently branched out to add Chicken Express), a laundromat or dedicated newsagency. They still travel in busses with no windows and when you reach a bus stop and you are at the back of a full bus, many simply lower their items out the window and then jump out themselves!
Yep.
That's my Fiji!
In the village where my Grandmother currently resides, there is a pipe with running water but there is no electricity and until now only a pit toilet (more to come on this later). There are no huge medical centres (there is a hospital), there was only one place I noticed you could print off photos from a disc and there is no wi fi.
Off grid is not only possible, it is the main way to live.
Self sufficiency isn't a movement, it is the way you survive, especially on such low wages.
Plain and simple is the Northern Babasiga life; just the way my heart desires it.
You may not find these things up North but what you will find are open hearted people willing to invite you to their table (even if they've never met you before!) You'll find a relaxed pace, amazing fresh produce, hard working Fijians and Indians trying hard to raise their families and offer them the best life they can.
I'm digressing (as per usual!) I'll talk more about the Labasa way of life in posts to come but I want to share about our little travel countdown calendar that we made to help us count down the days and prepare for our amazing trip.
I had in my mind to make a little interactive calendar which the kids could not only help make but learn from too.
We went up to town one day and purchased these cute little yellow envelopes from the stationers.
When we came home (for our Monday Crafternoon rhythm) we began arranging them on a corkboard and then started to decorate them, numbering them down from 21 to 1.
All of the kids had a wonderful time contributing to this project.
We chatted lots as we worked and the word 'countdown' was mentioned alot so we looked up Europe's hit 'The Final Countdown' and let that blast VERY LOUDLY at us as we crafted away together. Liji did some amazing air guitar solos and we all rocked it out to the song in our own silly way!
Man, those old scrapbooking supplies of mine come in handy sometimes ;)
Look what we made!
Each little pocket facing out was fastened to the board by a single pin.
We opened an envelope first thing each morning. We were all really excited to see what would be the activity for that day.
Inside each day had activities such as:
* Label our Fiji maps & map out our travel route
* Enjoy a bowl of rice and black tea in a bilo (bowl) without a spoon!
* decorate our travel journals
* play a game of pani together(a game where you stack coconut shells and then try and knock them down with a ball and restack them again. I used to love playing this as a kid in the village - especially in the rain and mud - and our kids enjoy playing it too!)
* Play a sevu sevu (ceremony) video and practice sitting still with a fidget toy the whole time
* Label our black Fiji photo album full of things we might see in Fiji!
* Eat dinner at a runner on the floor
* Dance to some reggae music!
* Learn to sing the chorus of Isa Lei
* Pack our suitcases using the packing list(more to come on this later too)
* Buy some kasava & suli(root crops),cook and eat them!
* Watch the airline animation videos on youtube which show you where the exits etc on a plane are. We watched several of these many times leading up to the trip and when it came to them doing the demo on board the flight, the kids sat silently through them and were aware of what they were saying.
* Practice singing Waltzing Matilda as an item to perform for the family under the volau (shed) one night
* Draw up our Fijian family tree and discuss
* Organise batteries/sim card for the kids' camera to take
* Make a little booklet of drawings for Nau Levu(my Grandmother) as a gift
* Make up a book with some basic Fijian words/phrases and their meanings in English too
On the last morning, the day we were flying out, Dannii did the honours for us and opened up the last envelope.
It said, "TODAY IS THE DAY! PRAISE YAH!!! Grab our passports, suitcases and head off to the airport for the trip of a lifetime!"
I think most women who have been pregnant would be able to say that physically, the final couple of weeks of pregnancy can be difficult. Everyone is different though and each pregnancy different; some seem easier or harder than others. The body is heavier, more tired and you are up more often in the night. Couple that with very strong + regular contractions, intense pubic bone pain and the fact that as a homeschooling mama you have 4 other kiddos around you all day every day and there is the very real fact that life is harder in these last few weeks.
{I must add here that I have been very blessed to have had Brett at home during this season and he has helped out alot around here}.
Since we've had a baby born at 34.5 weeks before, we always try to be 'ready' just in case that happens again even though the rest were either 'over due', a week early or pretty much smack on! When you get to 40 weeks, you feel as though you have been 'ready' for months!
So I think sometimes it can be hard to maintain a positive attitude during these final weeks and days. There is no denying that it is uncomfortable and at times, painful....it is! But I want my attitude to be one that reflects the joy and love that I feel towards Yah for allowing me to carry this precious life.
I want to choose to be thankful in the midst of the challenges.
I want to choose to be joyful in the midst of difficulty.
I don't always do it, but I want to try to!
So, to help me, I decided to keep a little list on my iphone that I called,
'Reasons to Be Glad I Haven't Given Birth Just Yet'.
Then, when I need the encouragement, I can look at this list and be thankful for the things that I've been able to enjoy in these last weeks and days of pregnancy.
Here are some things on my list from this past week:
Reasons to Be Glad I Haven't Given Birth Just Yet:
* Got to have a 9am sleep in today on Shabbat (last weekend)
* Bubby gets more time to grow stronger in the womb which means less chance of complications arising
* I have been able to get almost everything on my pregnancy 'to do' list done!
* I got to start making two MCN (modern cloth nappies)
I finished making them! Wooohooo!
I tried to remember what my lovely Natti had shown me in the past (thanks Nat!) but I was hopeless at remembering how. I googled SO many MCN tutorials and was about to give up when I found THIS ONE ON YOU TUBE. I feel very thankful that I found this and was able to have a go at making two newborn MCN's!
{I snapped 5 - yep 5 - sewing machine needles in the process lol but I got them made! They have 4 layers of microfibre as the sewn in booster, organic bamboo lining and PUL for the cover}.
* I had time to bake another batch of lactation cookies
* I got a chance to try out a new recipe - my own version of curry cauliflower and veg soup
* Had time to play a family game of 'Sorry' with Brett and the kids
* We had a chance to go to some Garden Nurseries together shopping for vegies and herbs for the garden
* We had time (and money!) to go to enjoy lunch at our fave cafe today...perhaps the last time we will get to do this as a family of 6!
* We had time to enjoy being outside in the garden while Brett showed the kids how to plant strawberries...
...to be hung inside the new greenhouse...
* We had time to notice that Liji's peach tree is growing some new leaves! He planted this from a peach seed himself last year and it is really taking off!
* Got to price materials for the ABA (Australian Breastfeeding Association) card making fundraiser that I am helping to organise and made all the sample cards for the workshop :)
* We had time to read aloud '50 WAYS TO BRING OUT YOUR CHILD'S BEST' over dinner one night and discuss as a family as to whether the kiddos felt we were doing some of the things mentioned on the list and what we could all work towards improving.
Was a great discussion starter!!!!
* We were able to play cards before bed together as a family
* We got to have our first turn at cultivating sprouts (see previous post!). Been wanting to try this for so long and finally got around to doing it!
* Had the chance to have our last long catch up with Ben & Jas and also Elissa and the kids which was so lovely :)
* Took time to marvel at how quickly the herbs have grown and thanked Yah for it!
* Got to have a long game of family charades before bed with everyone participating
* I got to play chess with Stass today
* Got to have a great skype with my sis Dee
* Had the chance to video bubby wriggling under my skin in my tummy! Such big movements and I really wanted to relish this perhaps for one of the last weeks!
{Fair warning before you press play....bare tummy here!}
* Got to have another chiropractic adjustment :)
* Had the chance to have a LONG soak in the tub with candles lit one night...bliss!
* Got to get the baby car seat fitted (the lovely guy didn't even charge us to fit it! Praise Yah for his kindness!)
* Took the kids to an op shop, bought some plastic skittles, went to a cricket pitch, ate icecreams and played bowling together! So much fun!!!
* Also went on a lovely bushwalk that day
* Got to experience Hazel using a REBOZO {traditional Mexican style scarf} to make sure bub was in the optimum position ready for birth...he had kind of been sneaking off to the right hand side a bit and we both wanted to try to see if this would help to bring him around more to the centre...
* Took Zip out on her own to a local Play Group for the first time. She LOVED it (and so did I!) Was lovely seeing her interact with other children so happily. Yay Zippi!
* Got to menu plan and get home organised for another week :)
* And speaking of weeks, here I am one day shy of 40 weeks!
{lol I always seem to be wearing this shirt when I remember to take these shots. Hilarious!}
This list reminds me to be thankful.
It reminds me that soon, our life will change and we will have new family dynamics.
It has reminded me that while pregnancy can be tough, the joy of sharing life with the little one growing inside, is not always the outcome that all families may get.
One such family, is one of my closest and most precious friend's NAT.
During this, her fourth pregnancy, Nat found out that her sweet little boy, SEBASTIAN LEVI had a congenital disorder called TRISOMY 18. Nat is currently 33 weeks pregnant and the prognosis given at the time of diagnosis was not good. Nat and her sweet family have endured alot these past months and have clung onto the hope that God may grant them a miracle and spare Seb's life. However, their prayers is the same as what Yeshua (Jesus) prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane..."Take this cup of suffering away from me....but not my will but your will be done Father".
Please, keep this family in your prayers during this time leading up to Sebastian's birth. Please take the time to read about TRISOMY 18 and Nat's post on HOW TO SUPPORT US (which has helpful tips on what to say to families during challenges times like this that their family is going through).
Please pray for little Seb and for Nat and Greg and their family.
I was also really moved by the press conference today that showed the GRIEVING LALE FAMILY who tragically lost 11 members of their extended family this week in a house fire in QLD. I can't imagine what that poor family must be dealing with. Incredibly difficult stuff. The father reminded me of my own dad and of how close islander families are. I know this first hand. Praying for this family too.
Once again, it is a reminder to me, that life can be very short.
And it makes me even more thankful for the life that I have right now.
Thanks to everyone who has commented, texted, rung, emailed or prayed for us this week.
It has meant alot to me.
I send my love to you all :)
Well, more to come another time.
Shabbat Shalom all.
