Milk for my baby

The day before yesterday was the 13th of November, 2007 and my firstborn turned 4 3/4, which means I have been pregnant or breastfeeding (or, for much of the time, both) for the last 5 1/2 years. That is a long time, around three quarters of my entire married life, actually. When Samuel turns one on Saturday, I want to wean him from my milk. I think I do, anyway.

Jeff said "Just do it." Part of me agrees with him.

Joshua was one when I weaned him. Until his birthday, I was still feeding him four feeds each day. The day after he turned one, I dropped a feed, and then dropped another each week (the last I kept for another fortnight). I gave birth to Anna 6 weeks later, so I'm not even sure that my milk dried up. Then with Anna, my milk didn't last, and I was forced to supplement her diet with formula from when she was only six months, and she didn't get any milk from me after she was about 9 months old, at which time I was already 6mo pregnant with Abigail. With Abi I was much more careful. I didn't even give her any solids until she was 8mo, and I managed to finish weaning her on her first birthday, when I was only 3mo pregnant with Samuel. Now I am not pregnant, so my milk supply is almost as good as it was with Joshua. So there is no pressing biological need to stop breastfeeding Samuel.

But after 5 1/2 years, I am just sick and tired of the physical demands of pregnancy and breastfeeding. I want to be able to take medicine when I get a cold instead of being told my the pharmacist that nothing is suitable. I want to be able to plan a day out without respect to feeding times. I want to buy some nice clothes that aren't chosen for their accessability!

Samuel is almost walking, which means he is becoming a toddler, not a baby. When he's finished a feed, he sits up and tries to crawl off my lap, rather than snuggling in to me as he would as a baby. So it is not as if he appreciates the cuddles as much as I do.

When I was sick a while back with the flu, around the time we started him on solid food, we bought one can of baby formula. We used it when I was sick and then a few times when we went out on date nights and left the kids with a babysitter. Once we had the formula, if he woke in the night, he got a bottle because it was less physically tiring for me to feed him that way. A fortnight ago the baby formula ran out and we have switched him to full fat cows milk, and he has one or two bottle feeds a week. So he will happily take milk from a bottle, and yesterday I started showing him how to drink water from a cup.

Yes, he's big enough, old enough, capable enough. Yet I am still prevaricating.

Samuel will be my last baby. When I give him his last feed, that will be it. A connection will be broken. I won't be nourishing him - or any other babies - from my own body any longer, and I will miss that intimate connection to his wellbeing.

Weaning is one of the saddest times that I can remember from being a mother to four young children. Each of my weaning experiences have been emotional, even though I have been much more "successful" at feeding than many of my friends. Statistically, I am somewhat of an anomaly to get this far with the whole breastfeeding thing, so I shouldn't complain. But even though sometimes I get frustrated and annoyed, I am going to miss giving Samuel his milk straight from my own body.

Mark 1:35-39

35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"
38 Jesus replied, Let us go somewhere else - to the nearby villages - so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." 39 So he travelled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Some thoughts:

What's this passage all about?
Jesus prayed alone, very early in the morning, before preaching and performing miracles. Simon and some of the other disciples wanted Jesus to come in from his solitary place and just get on with the business of meeting the people. [Simon sounds a bit like a political press secretary, doesn't he?]

What can I learn from this?
Diligent, regular, frequent prayer is essential preparation for any Christian ministry, whether it be through speech or service. In the context of the rest of Mark 1, especially verses 9-11, other pre-requisites for Christian ministry are baptism (as a public confession of one's own personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour) and the annointing of the Holy Spirit (as a sign of belief - Eph 1:13-14; as a guide in all truth and righteousness - John 16:8-11,13; and as the source of spiritual gifts required for ministry that results in the common good - 1 Cor 12:4-7ff.).
It is easy for Christians to get caught up, like Simon, in the excitement of new ministry opportunities. It is easy to overlook the importance of prayer.

How can I apply this to my own life?
I need to set aside (include in my daily schedule) a place and time for prayer, praying over my "ministry work" (the life God has called me to: being a wife and mother, homemaking, homeschooling, evangelising and discipling my children.) At the moment I use my weekly lap swimming times for this, but I know that one hour, once a week, is not enough. Perhaps in the mid-afternoons, after I have finished homeschool with Joshua and while the younger kids nap, might be a suitable time with the least likelihood of interruptions. It would also help if I had a page in my filofax where I could make an agenda list of people, situations and concerns to pray over, and to record God's answers to my prayers.
I should also be praying more often in support of my husband Jeff. I have learnt that one of the most significant wifely duties is prayer for one's husband.
Another exciting opportunity for ministry is coming up for me if I go ahead with running a short series of workshops for parents at my church on "Raising Christian Kids: evangelising and discipling our own children." I need to move forward prayerfully with my preparation for this. As I prepare each workshop talk, I need to be studying my Bible for God's wisdom about this topic, rather than my own personal, perhaps worldly, understandings. I must pray for His guidance, the gift of His Spirit of truth in this matter.

Weekly Report #8

Joshua has now finished his Penmanship Reader 2, so we are ready to move on to the third unit of Basic Code from Phono-Graphix. Actually, I just pre-tested him on some of the words from the next unit of work and he can already read many of them, using his blending skills combined with the familiarity with the (new) graphemes that he has gained from casual conversation and from alphabet awareness activites we have done. This last Basic Code unit introduces the graphemes [e], [n], [v], [w], [z] and [l]. According to his reading demonstration today, he is already familiar with all of these graphemes except [v].

His last penmanship task this week was tracing A full stop marks the end of a sentence. This is his very first rule for written English. He has it memorised; I told him the rule when he copied the first sentence in his Penmanship Reader #1 and he asked what the dot at the end was. Even though he does not have the reading skills to decode long words, such as "sentence", he was able to read "sen" and "ten", and he was content to be told what the entire word was. I helped him decode and blend the shorter words before he began tracing the rule on Wednesday. We repeated the sentence several times each day this week, while he was tracing it, and at the end of the week he "read" it to Jeff, including pointing out the full stop at the end. Yes, he knows and understands this rule. The next rule I will teach him (while he completes his third Penmanship Reader) is to capitalise the first letter of each sentence: "A capital letter marks the beginning of a sentence."

And just for fun, we've been making letters with Joshua's Duplo railway tracks:

One of the highlights of Table Time this week was playing with stickers. Joshua has been loving his Dinosaur colouring book that his Grandpa gave to him recently. Each picture has a black line image for colouring accompanied with an exemplar image, already coloured. Joshua is loving the challenge of copying the correct colours with the correct amount of pencil pressure to make them lighter or darker.

Spring Vegetable Soup with Prosciutto

I love this soup, even if it isn't such a favourite with the whole family. It is quick to make as you can prepare the ingredients as the earlier ones cook, and it's ideal to fork mash for babies new to solids: my son Samuel, 11 mo, gobbled this up for lunch today. This is another recipe I originally found in Family Circle magazine and adapted for my own family.

INGREDIENTS:
50g butter
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1.5L chicken stock
2 large potatoes, peeled, cut into small pieces
2 carrots, peeled, cut into small pieces
3-4 yellow squash, cut into small pieces
1 large zucchini, cut into small pieces
1/2 Savoy cabbage (the ones with crinkly leaves), grated
4 slices prosciutto, roughly chopped
finely grated parmesan
(optional) small amount of baby cereal

METHOD:
1. Place the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. When the butter is sizzling, add the onions, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5min or until soft.
2. Increase the heat to high. Add the chicken stock, potatoes and carrots and bring to the boil. Reduce heat again to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5min.
3. Add the squash, zucchini and cabbage and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10min.
4. Add the prosciutto and stir through. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting (or off, if you have electric hotplates, rather than gas) and leave to cool down to serving temperature. This will allow the vegetables to soften further. If you are in a rush, serve immediately, sprinkled with parmesan.
5. (Optional) For the baby, put one ladleful into his bowl and fork mash. Add a small amount of baby cereal to absorb the soup liquids, stir and feed him!

Weekly Report #7 and a few thoughts on next year

This will be short and sweet. Joshua has been steaming ahead with his reading and penmanship tasks from his second homemade reader. He will finish that this week, and next week we'll move on to the third unit from Phono-Graphix, the last on the "Basic Code".

If we manage to get the third unit done before Feb next year, we'll be pretty much where I had hoped to be. We started reading lessons slowly this year with a few setbacks as I realised Joshua could segment but wasn't really ready for blending activities. I plan to continue reading and writing lessons through the official school holidays because I don't want him to forget too much.

We've been doing some more follow up after Bible Study and Sunday School with narrations and colouring pictures for the kids' Make-Your-Own Bibles, which the kids have enjoyed as well. I am impressed with how much Joshua recalls of stories he has been told. Anna is also quite good at listening carefully and retelling at least the basics, which is absolutely all you could ask from a three-year-old.

I am starting to get together a Bible story list to work through next year with the kids. I think I'll read each story from a Story Bible while the kids colour a related picture. Then Jeff will read the same story from the NIV to the kids that night over dinner and discuss gospel links and life applications with them. We might also work on teaching them some of the songs we sing in church, so that the kids can join in a bit more.

Table Time has been a bit haphazard this week but we did have some fun with jigsaws: And that's about it.

What Joshua's been learning lately

Jeff recently taught Joshua his first joke:

"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Boo."
"Boo who?"
"It's only a joke, don't cry!"

And a song that I was kinda hoping he'd never learn, not being exposed to a school playground or a school bus on long excursions or all of those things, but, well, Jeff's the Husband and Dad which means he's the Boss when it comes to curriculum choices...

"Nobody loves me, everybody hates me,
I think I'll go and eat worms.
Long ones, short ones, fat ones, skinny ones,
Watch them wiggle and squirm!

"I bite their heads off, suck their juice out,
Throw their skins away.
Nobody knows how fat I'll grow -
On worms three times a day!"

Yes, well. Ahem. Enough said.

Gaps cont.

My mum sent me an email about my latest blog to "suggest a gap for your consideration as to its priority to tackle (or not)." Sport. As in exercise. As in ball handling skills and riding a bike and running and jumping and kicking and dancing and ... maybe even being a member of a team.

I don't want physical exercise and recreation to be a gap, because I do consider it important to general health and well being, despite an article last weekend in The Weekend Australian Magazine ("Why exercise doesn't work" 27-38 Oct 2007). It also yields benefits in gross motor and interpersonal skills. I am just a little afraid that team sports could easily take over all of our free time, if we let them.

Some ideas on how we might bridge this gap:

Jeff and Joshua are signed up to start weekly Karate lessons after Jeff's exams are over, at a club that meets on the corner of our street (how convenient!). I think a father and son from our Wednesday Bible Study might join them. Thus Joshua will have an opportunity to mix with an established friend in a more formal setting. And this will also be a nice "boy" thing to do with his Dad.

As an aside, while we were driving in the car yesterday morning, Joshua told Anna "You won't do Karate, that's only for boys. Girls go to sewing lessons." (He told me he just thought that one up in his head and didn't get the idea from anywhere in particular. Jeff and I had a good giggle.) Maybe we could send the girls to ballet or gymnastics when they are a little older, rather than Karate.

This summer we are planning on teaching at least Joshua, and probably also the girls, to swim properly, depending on how they all go at it. We should take along our frisbee while we're at the beach.

We are also considering heading out for some of the Summer Season of Orienteering which is on Saturday afternoons and early evenings with a mass start. Orienteering and Rogaining are my "family" sports - I was an orienteer for over two decades, including a stint as the local club president, before I met my husband. The other family from our Bible Study will be going to some of these O events, so there would be social opportunities with them as well. Obviously with Jeff's planned career as a minister, Sunday sport won't be happening, but this might be more doable.

Our wonderful stunt kite broke last time we took it out to the local park, unfortunately. I should look into getting that fixed.

I have looked into Little Athletics, because this is something all the kids could do at the same time rather than having different times and days for team practices because of different ages. Apparently, Joshua will be old enough to do Little Athletics from next (2008-2009) season.

There is a local homeschooling group who do rollerblading, (or maybe it's ice skating, I forget,) locally once a week, once the kids are over a certain age (maybe 8) and there are other sports we could do with homeschool groups.

I realise that all of these ideas are more individual sports rather than team sports, and also none of them involve ball skills, so we might look into a winter team sport that involves balls in 2008 or 2009. Still thinking and looking around for something that gives maximum return (interpersonal snd physical skills) for minimum family impact (time committment, travel).

Jeff has been plugging for a proper bike for Joshua for a while now and I suggested we wait a while but we might get him one for his 5th bday. Every time Jeff sees them on special in a catalogue he wants to run out and get one. I remember I got my first proper bike for my sixth or seventh birthday and I think that was just about right because I didn't need to have a teeny tiny one to avoid the need for trainer wheels.

I do have gross motor skill time down on my list of "kindergarten" activities to include in our 2008 schedule when I have my week of planning in a month or so. At the moment, other than the above, I was just thinking of this being regularly scheduled but informal dance times with the kids listening to our mulltitude of fun CDs.

I also plan to make sure they continue to have outside free play every day that it is feasible. There was an article in The West Weekend Magazine recently ("The protected species" 27 Oct 2007) on the benefits of free, random play (eg climbing trees, dodge ball) rather than organised play (eg climbing a jungle gym, cricket) for developing physical skills. I think part of the idea was that more natural situations have greater diversity so there is more physical skill (flexibiility, reaction times) required as well as greater mental skill (problem-solving, tenacity). While I was reading the article, I fondly recalled my blackberrying expeditions past the bottom of our block in the Adelaide hills as a young child. I really hope that we can continue to live in houses which have decently sized back yards for the kids to play in.

Yeah, I think we'll be able to bridge that gap.

Leaving Gaps

Recently I ran across the class outline of a class from Tobin's Labs titled Are You Leaving (GASP!) Gaps? and it really made me think about what we will be leaving out of our children's education. The author, Tammy Duby, makes a point about the difference between real gaps and perceived gaps and our role in choosing how we deal with gaps.

Once we recognise that something truly is missing from our children's education, we can make a choice: will I attempt to bridge this gap, or won't I? Some gaps I am quite content to leave in my children's education, such as the need to learn to stand in two straight lines before coming through a door. Another gap may have me so concerned when I identify it that I decide I need to address it immediately.

One really helpful part of this outline listed some comparisons. The examples are mine.
1. Things that never change, which are crucial to include in our children's education, such as knowledge of the gospel of salvation throught faith in Jesus Christ.
2. Things that many change, which are "excellent" and therefore important to include, such as enjoyment and understanding of literature and knowledge of mathematics, science and history.
3. Things that constantly change as our children grow older and interests change, which are good to include, such as developing Joshua's present interest in dinosaurs.
4. Things we do not envisage changing, that are missable, such as large-scale bullying.

I will be thinking more on this when I have my homeschool planning week in a month's time, after Jeff finishes his exams. As I revisit my plans for our schedule, chores, character goals and curriculum for 2008, I will be asking myself, "Is there a gap here? Should there be? How can I build a bridge?"

Narrations from Kiddies' Bible Study

This week in the BSF Childrens' Program, my kids heard the story from Matthew 25:14-30, The Parable of the Ten Talents. These are their narrations from this afternoon.

Abigail (2yr 5mo):
Jesus told a story.

Anna (3yr 6mo):
The man gave one money to the servant. And then the servant buried it. When the man came back he got only one money from the servant. The man said “Throw him in the dark with gnashing teeth.”

Joshua (4yr 8mo):
Jesus told a parable. One man had lots of pieces of money. He gave five pieces of gold to one servant and he took it away. Another servant he called out and he gave him two pieces of money. To another servant he gave one. The man left.
The first servant put his money to work and made some more so he had ten talents. The next servant had two talents and the two talents got made into four talents. And the last one dug a hole and put the money in.
When the master came back he asked them if they had all the money he gave them. And one said, “I looked after it,” and the other said, “I looked after it,” so the man said, “You did well. I will put you in charge of many things.” The last one said, “I didn’t look after it,” so the master said, “You could have put it in the bank.” He sent him away in the darkness where there will be a gnashing of teeth (weep, weep, gnash, gnash).

Samuel's latest efforts

Thomas

Joshua and Thomas are friends. Thomas the Tank Engine, that is. Joshua loves to hear the Rev W Audry stories read aloud from his Thomas omnibus, he loves to watch Thomas on DVDs, he loves to play Thomas stories with his Duplo, he loves Thomas, full stop. (A long time ago I noticed that all the guys I dated had some sort of obsession: car stereos, RTS computer games, comic book heroes ... I just never realised until now that this obsessive nature was present in the male of the species before puberty.)

Yesterday when I woke up I found Joshua quietly drawing at the dining room table. He was drawing each of the trains that he has in his Duplo collection: Thomas, Percy, Gordon, Toby the tram and James. He showed me how he had written the correct number on each engine (although most of the numbers were backwards, and he admitted, "James' number 5 turned out a bit like a J.") He even included their faces, despite the obvious difficulty of perspective when you are drawing a train from the side, rather than the front, as well as getting their relative size correct.

Up until now, Joshua's Thomas obsession has led mainly to an interest in drawing maps of Sodor with train tracks covering the page. This is the first time he has set out to draw the engines themselves, and I'm pretty proud of his efforts.

Wanted: One Mentor

Romans 13:11-12 says, "And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; they day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darlness and put on the armour of light." We examined this verse in my BSF class this week, and the kids heard the parable (from Matthew 25:1-13) of the ten bridesmaids, five of whom were prepared for the bridegroom to come and five of whom were not.

As I re-visited this parable with my kids later in the week, and read over the class notes, I was reminded of how vital it is for Christians to be up and running in obedience to God. It is important that Christians are wide awake, diligently doing the tasks God has called them to do, in preparation for Jesus' return.

I think a godly mentor who teaches, encourages and rebukes can be very helpful in getting us up to speed and keeping us running. I know that Jeff has benefitted enormously from meeting regularly with his mentor, the minister of our church (where Jeff is a Ministry Intern). I am starting to see the value for myself in having a mentor with whom I would meet regularly. In a little over a year's time (or a bit longer, depending on how Jeff's training goes), I will be a Minister's Wife and, because I know myself so well, I know that I'm not sanctified yet! I could learn a lot from someone who has been in this position before, an older woman who could teach me how to fulfil the role of Minister's Wife in a way that will bring glory to God. I talked to Jeff about it, and we came up with two possibilities, one woman from our church congregation and one woman whose husband works at Jeff's Theological college. For now, we're just going to pray about it, and see what opportunities God provides.

Weekly Report #6

Samuel, our baby, was sick this week, so we tried to minimise our outside activities. We didn't get together with our homeschooling friends on Thursday as we usually do, but, as predicted by the doctor, Samuel was over his three-day fever by Friday so we went for a Nature Walk and then visited the library for some great picture books, all before morning tea time.

Joshua is continuing well with his writing and reading requirements, but I didn't given Anna any sit-down Pre-School activities at all this week. Instead I stayed on top of my laundry and cooking responsibilities and made sure I spent plenty of time playing with the kids and reading aloud to them. I am trying that bit harder at the moment to manage my homekeeping responsibilities well, because Jeff is at the hardest time of year with exams the week after next, and it is much better for him if I am a helper rather than another cause of stress!

Today is the first day of daylight saving here in WA, so we have also been trying to get them to bed earlier each day in preparation of the hour's jump forwards in time. At the beginning of daylight saving I am usually very thankful as the kids no longer wake up before 6am because "the sun's up, Mummy!" whereas towards the end I look forward to getting them out of bed at a reasonable hour with little grumbling. The seasonal variation that we experience here in the south of Australia has taken me by surprise because I am so used to the unvarying day length of the tropics.

On Wednesday night I stayed home from our small group Bible Study so Samuel wouldn't infect any of the other family's children, and I used the time to pray and plan about our academic plans for next year. I am planning to add in a bit of "Culture Appreciation" and some "Science" and "Geography" along with a more formal mathematics program (Early Bird Mathematics 2) even though Joshua will officially only be doing Pre-Primary (K5). I rang my Dad and asked him for advice on classical composers to include in Music Appreciation and planned out the framework of a science and geography course. In the first semester, we're going to look at one continent each 2-3 weeks and learn about animals that live in a selected habitat of that continent, as well as a bit about the physical geography (etc). To lead into this, we're doing a bit of a unit study on dinosaurs, because that is what fascinates Joshua at the moment. Graham gave Joshua a lovely dinosaur colouring book and a make-your-own dinosaur skeleton wooden kits (a Stegasaur) while he was here and Jeff has just found some Dinosaur lego that was handed down to us a while ago from neighbours with older kids. I'm trying to add into our read aloud story times some non-fiction on dinosaurs as well. If it all seems a bit much, I'll make the semester plan spead out over the full year. Otherwise I plan on doing something on Australian geography and the seasons in the second semester.

Thinking and praying about...

This morning Jeff had his last lecture for his second out of three years at Theological College, studying for a Masters of Divinity, with a view to being a church minister. Since Jeff started studying at TTC, we've talked a lot about what he'll be doing at the end. Before all this, he was an engineer (a water and sewerage engineer, to be precise) and he laughingly referred to himself as the "poo pipe man". While we're growing in our confidence and faith in the idea of Jeff being a church minister, we are at present grappling with the question of which denomination he will work with and for.

In Darwin, we attended a Baptist church. Jeff attended this church with his family when he was younger and then we started going there around the time we got married. It was through an Alpha course at this church that I realised that God was trustworthy and came to an adult faith in Jesus Christ as my saviour. When we moved to Perth, we started attending a Baptist church a few suburbs from our new home. Many of our biggest encouragements and blessings over the last year have come through the small group from this church (us and two other couples, all with young children) that we meet with once a week for Bible Study. We were comfortable within the Baptist denomination and have appreciated the sound biblical teaching we have received within its congregations.

In Jeff's first year at TTC he was sent to a Uniting church, closer in to the city, for a week of helping them in mission and ministry. He got on very well with the minister of that church, finding in him a man who loved God and His Word and also had many of the qualities that make a man a wonderful pastor to his congregation (like a shepherd who lovingly tends to his flock). Many of the congregation were born overseas - Singapore, South Africa, Indonesia - and there are people of all ages sitting in the pews. After much thought, prayer and godly cousel, Jeff asked to be taken on as a Ministry Intern one day a week for 12 months at this church, which we now attend as a family.

Jeff has learnt a lot from the minister at this church who has carefully mentored and guided him as he has taken on various roles within the congregation, teaching an older Sunday school class, co-leading and coaching the other leader of a young adult Bible Study and co-ordinating a men's breakfast (to happen tomorrow) as well as preaching occasionally. I have really appreciated the friendships I have made within the congregation: the minister's wife who always seems to have a moment to answer my questions from mundane to serious; another couple whose older daughter attends Jeff's YABS and who we asked to be Samuel's godparents; and an elderly widow whose husband was minister at this church several decades ago. Our kids have been welcomed and have made several friends among the other children of the congregation.

As he nears the end of his contract at the Uniting church, with another year of Theological college still to go, Jeff has been thinking about the possibility of becoming an ordained minister within the Uniting Church denomination. He discussed it recently with our minister after another ordained minister within our congregation suggested he think about it. Jeff also talked to his college's Principal about it, and received a positive response.

In some ways, it seems a surprise for Jeff to be even considering this step (having been 'raised' Baptist). Upon reflection, however, I can see how God has led us steadily and gently towards this point.

This morning during my quiet time, I prayed for my husband. That he might have God's wisdom as he makes this decision, receiving godly counsel from faithful Christians that will guide him. That he will be able to enter and move through the process smoothly. That he will continue forward with the same passion to see Christians discipled in their walk with God that he has had since we first attended church together in Darwin. That he will be able to balance the requirements of his MDiv study, his commitments within our church, whatever he is expected to do in this process and his role as husband and father, well and without exhaustion.

I would appreciate your prayers for him in this as well.

Weekly Reports #4 and #5

I am reporting on these two weeks together because they have been so full of social activities.

Last week we had three families over on separate occasions, taking advantage of the official school holidays to get together with friends who do school outside their homes. We also attended a birthday party. I didn't do anything much in the way of reading or writing lessons and I really let the kids have a lot more freedom than they usually have in choosing what they could do. As the kids grow, I would like to use the holidays to focus in on practical skills (such as training in new chores), as well as continuing to take advantage of the extra social activities afforded by the holidays.

As a consequence of the extra freedom that the kids had in their weeks of holidays, it was to be expected that they wouldn't want to get right down to writing and reading this past Monday, but after (quite a bit of) whining from Joshua, he did complete his set task of reading and tracing one sentence, then colouring the accompanying small picture. (During the holidays, I made him a second A5 "Reader" with simple sentences composed of words from his Reading program.) Each day, his whining showed itself less, and my commendations increased, until Friday when there was no whining and some magnificent work done.

We also enjoyed having my FIL, Graham, stay with us for the week.
Jeff took him to the plane today after lunch, and we dearly hope that it will not be so long until we see him again.

We've been making lemonade

Samuel got to the lemons first...


A while after he'd been comforted, the bigger kids made lemonade. Sugar makes all the difference!

Samuel's first word:

"Boo!"


Last week, Samuel started signing, "more, please," when I slowed down too much with the spoon at meals. Today, Anna played Peekaboo with Samuel. Between giggles, he joined in.

A brilliant day!

Today has been a marvellous homeschool day. After breakfast, Joshua started making hand gestures to illustrate letters, asking me to guess what each one was. Then he decided to move onto the play mat and use his whole body to represent the letters.Then he asked me when we'd be "doing school" ... I didn't tell him he'd already been doing it for the last half hour.

After breakfast we all headed outside to finish painting the wood panels for the cubby house make over, this time with purple paint, and when the kiddos were all cleaned up I headed out to the gym, leaving them to play outside with Grandpa. Amazingly, they were still full of beans when I arrived home one and a half hours later with a nice bakery lunch.

Yesterday, as we've just finished The House at Pooh Corner by AA Milne, Grandpa read The Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen to the kids, and this morning Joshua asked me if nightingales were real or pretend. I told him they were real, but he needed proof, so Grandpa took the kids on the internet after lunch and found some websites with fantastic pictures of birds, including the nightingale, and other sites with MP3 birdcalls (including nightingales and other animal voices) to listen to. The kids had a great time listening while I put Abigail to bed. I would not have guessed that zebras would sound like this!

For school, Joshua did a narration of The Nightingale and I transcribed part of it for his penmanship lesson. I told him that because he couldn't read most of the words, he had to put all his effort into tracing the letters neatly and correctly. He did a magnificent job, and commented "Soon I'll be even neater than you, Mum!" and today it really seemed like it. I was also proud of his attention to detail as he asked me what the apostrophe was and what it was for before he traced it. After he had finished the writing (two sentences - with no complaints!) he coloured in the picture I had found for him at Karen's Whimsy.

Meanwhile, Anna worked on her penmanship of the letter G and coloured in her picture from the Sesame Street alphabet quite nicely, although for much of it she chose black. I have to remind myself that she is only three. Sometimes I think my standards are too high as I compare what she can do now with what Joshua can do now. When I look back at what Joshua was doing at the beginning of this year (six months older than Anna's present age) and realise that she is already better than him, and I need to recognise her efforts.

As our grand finale, when the girls wake up from their naps, we're going to bake gingerbread men together for dessert (and for me to take for supper tonight at my GEMs mothers' group meeting.)

It has been a wonderful day.

Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Pie

This delicious recipe, a firm family favourite, has been adapted from one I found in Family Circle magazine. Unfortunately, this wonderful resource which helped me to enjoy cooking for the first time is no longer published, a sad loss to homemakers all over Australia.

INGREDIENTS:
50g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 kg chicken thigh fillets, cut into 2cm pieces
2-3 leeks, leaves discarded, thinly sliced
bag mushrooms, finely chopped
30g (1/4 cup) plain flour
250mL (1 cup) chicken stock
125mL (1/2 cup) pure cream
chopped dill or tarragon
2 sheets frozen pastry, defrosted
1 tbsp milk

METHOD:
1. Preheat the oven to 220C.
2. To make the filling, heat half the butter and all the oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Cook the chicken in batches until just browned. Set aside in a bowl lined with paper towel.
3. Reduce the heat to medium and add the remaining butter to the pan. Cook the leeks and mushrooms for 2min. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 2-3min, until the leeks have softened and their rings seperate easily.
4. Return the chicken to the pan. Increase the heat to high. Add the flour and cook for 2min, stirring to coat. Add the chicken stock and bring to the boil. Add the cream and dill/tarragon, reduce heat and simmer for 2-3min.
5. Pour the chicken filling into a large lasagne dish. Place the pastry over the filling and trim to fit the dish. Prick with a fork and brush with milk. (You could also bake this in ramekins for individual pies.)
6. Bake in oven for 30min or until golden.

Shh! They're all asleep

It has turned rainy this afternoon, and I can hear the wind stirring the trees outside. How on earth can this happen? Normally, I am lucky if I am even aware of a downpour. The answer is simple and oh so sweet. All of my four children are napping. I love these moments of silence, when I get to listen to my own thoughts. So I'll enjoy it while it lasts.