VIDEO: Delivering Ezekiel - Calm, Loving, Joyous and Worshipful Homebirth

So, Zeeki was one yesterday. I was watching his birth video and realised that I could cut and share a small portion of it. This was the most intense part of my labour with him.

The following is the description I've added to go with it on Youtube:

Our 5th child (first homebirth) was born in home in the water after only 34 minutes of labour from the very first contraction until when he was in my arms. (If you search for Ezekiel's 34 minute labour you'll find a slideshow that my photographer Mell Mallin put together).
This video records the last couple of minutes of labour and our family welcoming him into our lives earthside. We had candles lit and so the recording is very blurry as the camera couldn't focus in the dark conditions.
Present in the room at this point are me, my hubby, our kids, my midwife Hazel, my photographer Mell Mallin and my parents. Later my SIL arrives but I've cut this video short 'till just after Zeeki is born.
The room was so calm and peaceful with worship music playing as he entered the world. We really felt Yah (God) was with us the entire time.
You can hear me say, "He's here, he's here, I think he's almost here" just before he arrives and then calmly say, "Thank you Yah" as I reach down to bring him out of the water. I am sharing this to encourage others that birth can be calm, joyous, peaceful and loving.
That's not to say I didn't have a birth-song...I did but it was still gentle. Zeeki was born into a room filled with love and encouragement while the Word of God was being read aloud by my mum.
We praise YHVH for His goodness!

It was such a peaceful experience even though it was painful.
More another time,
Lus x

Preparing for Fiji: Airline Videos

Our trip to Fiji saw us take 4 flights in total; one to get to Nadi and the other to get to Labasa (on another island from Nadi). Our boys & Zippi have never flown before! So in order to best help our kiddos prepare for the flights, we watched lots of different videos and talked about what might happen on the flights.
One of the things I didn't want have happen was that Liji (in particular) would get stressed about not being able to hear or see the attendant doing the safety message on the plane. I knew that if he didn't know what they were saying, he might get worried about it; especially the parts where they demonstrate life jackets, oxygen masks dropping down and such. So it was one of the things we talked alot about before we flew.

Here were some of my favourite videos for the kids to watch.
This first one was by Virgin Australia and was their all time fave.


This next one from a Sri Lankan Airline was also cool...



This is possibly the cutest one online...



This one was of some kids boarding an Air Pacific 747 which is what we were going on. It was good because it showed the kids going upstairs (and that's where we ended up sitting as it turned out since our seats had to be changed on the day).



We also talked alot about what turbulance means and also about the noises and feelings you might hear/feel on take off and landing. This vid helped show them what take off might look like out their window from Nadi.


All in all, I think we prepared them really well with these airline videos and I was glad we had put in the effort to show them to the kids.
More to come soon.
Lus x

Our First Week of Homeschooling for 2011...

Before I share photos from this week back here are a couple of things you should know:

1. Our kids fight

2. I am not always as patient as I should be and I lose my temper

3. I don't often take photos of my kids throwing tantrums or being sent to their rooms for time out

4. My house gets messy too

Why say these things?

Because sometimes I think people get the wrong idea; they look at the pictures we've taken and think our life is 'perfect' as opposed to theirs and that everything always goes smoothly around here; the kids all hold hands and never fight and the house is always immaculate.

This is NOT the case!

Our kids ARE getting along better, the meltdowns and tantrums occur less often and are less intense. I really do like order in my home as much as I can + I am trying to be more patient but we are all works in progress here! By Yah's (God's) grace, He is making us into who He wants us to be, slowly, bit by bit.

Ok, so with that out of the way,here is some of we got up to this week...

Our first Hebrew lesson using one of the printables that HEIDI FROM OVER AT 'SERVING THE CREATOR IN MY RUBBER BOOTS' BLOG made. Our first lesson was on Tzit Tzits. These are the tassels that YHVH (God) instructed his children to wear (Numbers 15) so that they would always have a visual reminder of the commandments. It's like a WWJD band except God actually told us to wear these! The kids did copywork on this lesson (i made up a PDF to go with the tzit tzit (tassels) lesson which you can find on Heidi's blog HERE UNDER 'WALKING OUT THE WORD'.

The kids asked to learn how to make their own tzit tzits too. We just made our own design up. Hoping to post a little video tutorial on an easy way for kids to make their own tassels without having to know how to braid or plait.

They made a good effort with theirs and I helped by finishing them off.

They made a good start on their Math U See books (Liji kicking off with Alpha for the first time and the other two continuing from last year).

Liji got really frustrated intially when he had to sit through the intro part but I keep telling him that these things are good for his patience levels!

The matching-the-cutlery-from-her-picnic-set-to-the-picture game was a success for Zippi...

as was the leaf matching game. Her fave by far though is the button + pom pom matching.

I'll post photos of that next week.

She had a good go at the alphabet matching...

and she likes reading this 123 book.

I'm still reading aloud 'Famer Boy' from the Little House on the Prairie series to the older kiddos. We read another chapter or two this week...

The kids (+ I!) learnt the Hebrew Alphabet using the fun Hebrew Aleph-Bet Song this week...

They coloured some worksheets from THIS WEBSITE. They did the first two letters; Aleph and Bet/Vet this week...

For the last 2 years Stassi has been learning piano casually from my mum (who is a piano teacher) and she knows all her basic theory but since it is sporadic i thought I would include more musicianship this year. The boys are both learning the recorder. They have been watching Mr Gilliard's Music School Lesson on You Tube and learning heaps from that! However they don't have basic music theory so I thought I would dig out an old favourite from my own childhood and teach them the basics through the wonderful 'Not Just Noise' book!

It gives them the basics through a story-telling like narration with fantastic illustrations. I used to LOVE flicking through this book when I was a little kid...

They learnt about semibreves, minims and crotchets this week and did some basic copywork about these...

At the end of the week, the kids asked to put on a concert for me and Brett and Zippi. They had learnt one song together (a simple 4 bars consisting of 2 notes with rests and various note values!). This was them practising very hard!!!!

We had a lovely visit from DONNA AND HER ADORABLE GIRLS this week.

Lily and Stassi made choc chip cookies from a recipe from Stass' recipe book....

They did a great job + had fun making them!

Yummo!

Auri + Zipster being total cuties outside and having a great ol' chat...

Liji carefully followed all the step by step instructions and made this 'Jail' from Toy Story 3 lego he got for his birthday last year from Nanny Poppy and Sulley. He loves his lego sets and always tries to make the sets over and over again or even something completley different!

For dinner one night this week we had a salad and tried a new salad dressing that we had downloaded the recipe for from the internet. Stass wanted to follow the directions and make it for me.

And then wrote it up in her own recipe book. It was sooooo yummy!

There were lots of cuddles during the week (especially when my back was sore or when the kids were tired)...

Zip did the thing she does the MOST and LOVES the BEST...

Played in the sandpit dirt pit...

We made our first braided loaf of bread which many people make as a special bread for Shabbat. It is called a Challah. We made it just because it looked fun really!

The kids had a good go at mixing and cracking eggs...

and kneading the dough...

and this was the end result...

which we ate (and enjoyed so much!) with a yummy chicken + white wine casserole...

The boys both worked on their AbC Reading Eggs and Star Fall programs while Stass discovered THIS FUN LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE website. She is currently reading through 'The Long Winter' and is doing SO well with it!

They played checkers and cricket together...

and jumped on the trampoline...

We read about Cyclone Tracy this week with the arrival of Cyclone Yasi off the coast of Northern Qld. Brett did a lesson with the kids on the differences between the categories of cyclones, showed them the symbol for a cyclone and printed off a map of Australia for them each so that they could color in where on the map Cyclone Yasi was reaching. He also got them to do some copywork about some very basic facts about a cyclone.

We made a mini cyclone in a bottle after watching THIS VID ON YOUTUBE.

Put some water in a bottle and two lego men then pop another bottle on top + deal with duct tape...

then swirl the water around and watch the vortex that is created...(more of a tornado lesson that a cyclone but the kids still enjoyed it!)

We finished off the week with a trip to the pool. Lij is swimming more without his back float and dived in for the first time off the blocks in the deep end in the outdoor pool! Way to go Cracker!

Stass is swimming well too and Eth and Zip also love the water.

Their enjoyment and confience levels in the water have improved heaps!

Looking at getting them into a local class to help imporove their swimming technique later in the year...

This weekend we are looking forward to another SHABBAT (SABBATH) GATHERING with our friends Jono and Christine and their lovely fam, Donna and Keiran and their precious girls, our great mates Heiko and Lori and Ben + Jas along with a couple of others.

It will be a FULL HOUSE this week I think!

May you be blessed as you enter His rest this week.

Love Lusi x

Learning to Play Checkers :)

We watched this great video this morning on Youtube to learn how to play checkers this morning. The kids love chess but hadn't learnt the rules of checkers so they were making up a whole lot of funny things and they were starting to argue too much about them. So we googled up this vid and it was great fun so thought I'd share it with you. Now they are having fun playing properly! Great rainy day activity :)

Oh and for any overseas readers, we are not in the flood zone which has really devestated most of QLD.
My thoughts and prayers are with all those up there who have lost loved ones and their homes.



More soon,
Love Lus x

Waving bye bye...

Ok so I kind of labour the whole 'wave bye bye' thing to her but she is just too cute to not show you!!! lol :)

5 things I am thankful for today:

1. A very active and funny baby

2. Dinner last night with my beautiful mum and dad

3. Mum and dad sending Brett and I out for some *us* time yesterday arv

4. Endurance

5. God's faithfulness and kindness which never ever ever fails

L x