What I'll Remember...

What I'll remember about you Brett, on days like today, is what a kind and thoughtful person you are, what an incredibly helpful husband and doting father you are.
I know in years to come my memory bank will be filled to the brim with vague memories of all the incredible things you did as a man, a hubby and a daddy but I thought I'd specifically note it down today for posterity's sake.

Today you:

Woke and tended to Zippi while I fed Zeeki

Went to Coles early to buy cabbages since my mastitis had flared up again suddenly overnight

Brought back hashbrowns to cook up for brekky for us all

Cleaned the bread maker Hazel kindly leant us, milled some wheat and put on a loaf

Cleaned up the vomit when it went all over the kitchen from poor little Zip

Made me a cuppa and sent me back to bed so I could sleep while Zeeki slept

Set up the bigger kids with a Little House movie so you could stay with Zip while she rested

Made lunch for the big kids while I slept

Put on and hung out several loads of washing

Cleaned up more vomit of Zippi's

Made me hot soup when I woke up and brought it into me to eat in the quiet of the bedroom while Ezekiel slept

Showered with Zeeki after changing his nappy and had him pee on you!!!

Made dinner (yummy Tomato, white bean, carrot and zucchini soup served with the yummy fresh bread) while I tried to settle our very unsettled bubba boy in the afternoon hours

Cleaned up more vomit and disinfected and washed more clothes and buckets

Made the bed while I slept on the lounge

Brought me panadol and water

Showered Zippi

Took time to praise kids for their drawings and effort at helping out today

Put the kids to bed after reading Zip her special bedtime story

Woke in the night with me. Took Zeeki while I tried to get Zippi's temp down

Took Zippi to hospital to get the rash (which appeared very quickly)checked out despite being tired and wanting to sleep!!!

Thank you for all you do my mate. We both have our faults but I think we make a good team!

Today, especially, when my own immune system is fighting hard, you did so much without complaint and still managed to laugh with me! Thanks for doing all the stuff that no one but me sees. I appreciate it all and love you my Brett x

More to come another time,
Lus x

Two Words...Catching Up + My Birthday

Well, so much has been happening lately + thought I'd try and squeeze in a quick Two Words post!

October Snow...

Chicken Soup...

Being helpful...

Playing dominos...

New chook-house...

Capillarity Science...

Shabbat (Sabbath) Worship...

Garden Abundance...

(Thank you Yehovah!)

Textured bowl...

(These are extra large rattan balls which I got for only $2 each when we visited our dear friends Jono and Christine a little while back when we went out west and I found the perfect bowl to put them in $12 from the Reject Shop! Bargain! I wanted something to sit on our big coffee table but didn't want anything breakable on there - perfect compromise! And the striped cloth was from my mum which she used as a cot sheet for my brother when he was a baby.)

Tall ted...

(Liji was so excited that he worked out how to make his teddy stand up by balancing in his shoes!)

Cinnamon candles...

Learning Money...

Cousin snuggles...

(with Donna, Brett's cousin who visited from QLD)

Park fun...

S.O.T.W (story of the world -our history programme) colouring...

A Shaduf...

Obedience Experiment...

(My online friend Cara from THE PETERSON PARTY BLOG talked about having done this experiment with her girls and I thought it would be cool to do too. I put out one plate with fruit and the other with chocolate. I told them they could eat as much fruit as they liked but they weren't to touch the chocolate plate. That was all I said. I left it out in front of them for the whole time we were doing afternoon lessons and colouring in. I was surprised by how many times they asked if they could have the chocolate. They kept persisting with it on and on and on. When they asked I just said, 'You may have something from the fruit plate and didn't say anything about the chocolate. They got the picture and eventually stopped asking for it. They didn't eat any which was an encouraging thing for me to see. We talked about the Garden of Eden and how Adam and Eve may have felt and what they did about those feelings which led to them sinning and going against God's Torah (instruction) which was to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We finished off the night with them eating a couple of choc pieces and having some cuddles). I'll be doing another special post about Cara's blog very soon :) If you have preschoolers - pop over there and stay tuned!

Cuneiform writing...

Making Spider's...

('safe' lemonade (-ie: lemonade without additive 211 which is the Schweppe's brand ) + icecream)...

Birthday flowers...

(specially delivered by the florist from my Brettsky. was my birthday yesterday.)

 

Birthday love...

Beautiful flowers...

(Special flowers + a lovely card from the church ladies...)

Birthday visitors...

(My mum and dad, Pam and her fam + Ben + Jas)

Birthday cake...

(from Ben + Jas!)

Birthday singing...

(and dancing!)

Special cuddles...

Birthday Dinner...

(We went out for a yummy dinner and a special time - just the two of us! Dinner at our fave Thai spot and cake and coffee at one of our fave coffee shops.)

Thanks for the texts and calls too :)

Well, hope all is well in the lives of my friends out there!

If you are keen to do a Two Words post two, then just write one up on your blog and then fill in the Linky Box below :)

Love and blessings to you + yours!
Lus x

I just stumbled across this old post...

and wanted to repost it here since it is how I am feeling about my precious Brett this morning. He looked after all of us over the weekend while the gastro bug hit + now he has it himself :(

We've had some big changes here (more on that another post) but I am now, more than ever, so THANKFUL for my amazing best mate, Brett. Together with Jesus, our "cord of 3 stands cannot be quickly broken" (ecclesiastes 4:12).

HERE'S THE OLD POST LINK

Love + blessings,
Lus x

It's never too late...

to say how much I love + appreciate you mate.

To the one who suggests a bushwalk + then packs the bags with safe food and drinks...

to the one who adores his kids + loves making them laugh...

who will have a crack at almost anything (normal or crazy!) I suggest like EC even (!)...

who has learnt how to comfort crying babies + children (even though it is still a difficult task)...

to the one one who takes us to the movies as a family treat...

who holds his kids close + tells them many times a day how much they are loved...

to the one who is like a son to my dad + loves my family...

who, as hard as it has been at times, has gotten on board with understanding what Autism means, how to help our Liji boy + discern in the Lord what is right for our son (and our family)...

to the one who has embraced adhering to the safe diets (despite how overwhelming and tricky and time consuming they can be) who enjoys finding safe things to cook for our kids. To the one who knew the kids had been interested in learning how pasta was made, saw a pasta maker in the Aldi catalogue and went and bought one + then cooked it with the kids....

who runs himself ragged playing with our kids at the park + even the mother's group kids when we all go out together...

who enjoys taking us out to our fave cafe for a treat...
to the one who supports the learning that goes on around here + who leads us in activities around the Feasts of God...

who plays sport in the backyard + plants healthy veggies to eat...

to the one who thinks that my suggestion to go to Dee Why beach more than 2 hours away, to have chips + fish on the beach for dinner when it is 4.30 in the arvo, is NOT crazy...

to you who goes and buys a tent for the kids + then endures enjoys the night out there with his sons for a sleepout...

to the one who supports me + loves me through so much...

all we say is we love you...
to the best daddy in the world who is flawed like me, trying to just do his best in raising his children, to you mate who falls short often just as I do + yet is willing to apologise to our kids when he gets it wrong...
love you. love you. and then some.

love you sweetheart even through all the ups and downs :)

5 things I am thankful for today:

1. All the support I've had regarding breastfeeding

2. The comfort of the Holy Spirit. A dear friend of mine is going through a really rough patch and just knowing that the Lord is there for her comforting her, rejoicing over her with singing and quietening her with His love. Still tough but the Lord is getting her through. Thank you Lord :)

3. My family. Having a beautiful day with my mum + dad, my loving in-laws too on Sunday for Father's Day. Just so blessed that our kids have both sets of their grandparents around loving them, playing with them, reading to them, laughing with them, listening to them, helping them and so much more.

4. The dietician - good things to learn from her

5. Brett cooking tea as I work on Liji's homeschool program for our obos visit :)

Love + blessings,

Lus x

Put your money where your mouth is...

is what I've been saying to myself over the past few days.

On Friday, Brett was diagnosed with CELLULITIS which is a bacterial infection - an inflamation of the cells - and nothing to do with cellulite (for those wondering!) Actually, it can be a very nasty (and potentially fatal if untreated) thing so he has to rest alot at the moment. They treat it as a staph/strep infection and he has to have his leg raised above his nose most of the day! My poor guy :( We are praying for full healing for him :)

I'm always declaring that God is bigger than our circumstances (which He is!) and so this is a perfect time for me to put my money where my mouth is in these other areas that I believe too;

* Be joyful, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17)

* The Lord is my Shepherd....He restores my soul (even when I feel exhausted! Psalm 23)
* Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you (Psalm 63:3)


I am making the choice to acknowledge that it is a tough time at the moment - broken sleep, bubba feeding so often still, doing lots of extra house work, homeschooling still (not really taking holidays since we had so much time off when Zip was born) but that God is able to strengthen me when I am weak - He really is my all in all and I am so thankful for His grace. He can and WILL see us through.


In other randomness...

* Zippi has been growing sooooo much with all that demand feeding which is fantastic :) She's in 00 suits now just for the length! So sweet :) She is also now VEEEERY vocal! Loads of chatting, mimicing and loud vocal interaction. Such a wonderful stage :)

* Stassi (and actually ALL of us) have been LOVING watching Little House on the Prairie dvd's. Stass has asked me to make her a bonnet (I've found a great pattern online for one but just need some time to make it now!) Most of the epsiodes make for great family viewing.

* Ethan has hit a really tough place at the moment and we are praying God will continue to help us know how to discipline him, how to have his heart and how to disciple him.

* Liji had a piece of cheese last week to see if he would have a response to it. It was a thin piece of normal tasty cheese and he hasn't had any for 2 years now. Everything else in the diet remained the same low saliyclate stuff. Within 24 hours he'd broken out into a major eczema like rash all over his back, bloddied from scratching it so much and his behaviour was...hmmm....let's just say very irrational and completely ott. No more cheese for now.

* My email has completely crashed so I apologise to anyone who may have emailed that I have not responded to. I'll let you know when its up + running again.

* Pretty ordinary post hey but it is real life, my life and I want the good and the bad, the hard and the easier times all recorded here.

5 things I am thankful to the Lord for today:

1. A great time with church family yesterday + especially hearing about amazing answers to prayer :)

2. That Brett is still feeling relatively well during this time + that we get to spend more time together

3. The LEM phonics program

4. Liji slowly + confidently learning to read - so wonderful to see :)

5. Time with Stass today teaching her sewing + enjoying being together

Love to you + yours,

Smiles Friendship +Creativity

Daddy + his little princess sharing some smiles + sweet giggles last night...

Hanging out with our lovely friends, the Mallins...

They are all growing up so quickly...

It is a blessing to be able to freely share about the joys and challenges of motherhood with my dear friend Mell. Love you mate :)

A sky writer plane today...

Stassi absolutely LOVES this gorgeous handmade hat from Mell (and Zippi loves her handmade rattle too!) Talk about a clever crafty lady!

Last week I mentioned that I bought this new mag which the very gifted Mel Goodsell is editor for. Well I made a little project from in there (kind of sort of little bit different but still!)

Here it is: a pajama bag! I made a little pocket on the front with stitched areas that fit toothpaste and toothbrush nicely :)

Isn't the fabric so cute? It was on a bolt from my lovely friend Kaz :)

Thanks mate! Now I need to make one each for the boys :) Here it is all drawn up and ready to go :)

5 things I am thankful to the Lord for today:

1. Chatting with Sumi last night. My beautiful-you-so-could-live-next-door-to-me-anytime-friend :)

2. Magnifying glass and the fun my kids have with it!

3. Creativity

4. Great thoughtful friends

5. Warm clothing during such a cold winter

Love,