Weekly Highlights 6th October 2013

imageThe week started with the family going to the Royal Melbourne Show with the tickets that Princess won. We had a great day and enjoyed ourselves but all agreed that we would only go again if we won more tickets as it wasn’t really worth the money if you paid. We arrived early so were able to avoid the queues. Princess had her picture taken with a tv star and the kids enjoyed a couple of the rides. Matey loved watching the sheepdogs round up the sheep. The horse and carriage competition was interesting. The quality of decorated cakes was extremely high and we spent a bit of time all enjoying looking at the various cakes.

School holidays was still in progress so no official school work but the kids were determined to get points to convert to prizes. They received 10 points for every new board game they played that they had never played before or had not played for a long while. These included Sorry, Brain Quest, Uno Stacko, Battleships, Boggle Slam, 5 Alive, 5 Second Rule, Twister, Lego City Police Chase, and Trouble to name just a few. They spent one entire rainy day playing game after game. The learning and life skills that they pick up from board games are invaluable.

I spent the week dejunking the games and schoolwork cupboard and finishing Matey’s bedroom. I love being able to give away no longer used clothes, games and toys to the lady organising a container load to help set up a kindergarten in the Solomon Islands. Matey also loves the fact that his bedroom is very clean and he can easily access all his toys. The added bonus is that he is loving playing with toys he hasn’t seen for awhile.

We received over 300 book boxes for packing the books for Cambodia from two different removal companies plus over 400 books from friends and a local private school. It takes a while to sort and pack the books in their various categories. Another lady also donated over 700 text books which had already been packed ready for shipping and all sorted into classroom packs with enough textbooks of each kind for separate classes.

The kids and I also went and helped out at our church’s meal for people who are doing life tough. A number of these folk have mental or psychological problems and it was great to reconnect with them and see how some of the people are changing and growing in their life skills and their ability to relate to others. I believe that it is an important life skill also for my children to learn to relate to folk who are different to themselves and to learn how to serve others. This meal helps facilitate this for us.

Another highlight was for my kids to help pack backpacks for disadvantaged kids in the Pacific Islands. Into the backpacks went text books, pencils, pens, ruler, eraser, pencil sharpener, pencil case, handkerchiefs, skipping rope or tennis ball, soap, towel and a lunch box.

An important lesson that I learnt this week was that I need to take time for myself to refuel so that I can keep giving out. After a disastrous event late in the week, I spent some time Saturday morning at the beach whilst the kids did their triathlon training. Even though the weather was rough, it was refreshing walking on my own along the beach.

Family night this week included watching an olden day movie of “It’s a wonderful life” with Jimmy Stewart. The kids loved watching this and it has great morals about what is truly important in life – chasing our dreams and financial success or helping other people who are really doing it tough and impacting other people’s lives.

We are continuing our ‘soaking’ time every morning where we listen to a piece of reflective music and ask God questions during that time and listen to God for the answers. This morning we listened to music that wasn’t that reflective but it was inspiring. Firstly, it was Matt Redman’s 10,000 reasons so we each came up with five things to thank God for. Next Princess chose a Taylor Swift piece whilst we looked through the Woolworths animal albums and chose an animal that represented each family member and why. Very interesting insight to each personality!! Matey’s responses included a tiger snake for Princess as she can heal people and a dingo for himself as he prays (preys) for people. Princess’s included an emu for me as I am always on the run and never sleep for a long time and a blue tongue lizard for Matey as he shoots out happiness (instead of poison) from his tongue. Princess’ own choice of animals for herself were the Major Mitchell cockatoo because of being an individual with its own multicoloured crest, a black swan for being elegant and graceful, a Ulysses butterfly for being bright and painting a nice picture and a rainbow lorikeet because it helps people when they are not cheerful. A great activity to do to get an insight into how they view themselves and each other.