Weekly Highlights 11th May 2014

imageProphetic painting – a friend’s daughter has a fantastic hobby of painting canvases for her friends’ birthdays and writing prophetic words and character words that describe that person on the painting. She uses masking tape to make white lines on the canvas and fills in the gaps with different colours. We decided to give it a go this week and the kids both painted a canvas each. I then got them to list 20 words that described them or what they wanted to do/be in life. We then grabbed a Sharpie texta and wrote those words on their painted canvas. The kids loved doing this. It was also very interesting to see how they described themself.

Mothers Day. I always find that Mothers Day is not an easy day. If I am not hurting, then I know so many other females who are. For ten long years we struggled to have children and Mothers Day was extremely hard. Entering church and the women on the door would say, “you don’t get a flower because you are not a mother”, would always cut deep. Then, three weeks after our eldest was born, my mother died. Into the mix put celebrations where we are expected to do the extended family duty and not what I would like to do. This year, I put my foot down and said we would not be with other family members but would just celebrate it on our own. Consequently we then had Princess’ swimming graduation ceremony from one squad to a higher squad on Mothers Day of all days and spent the afternoon there.

I still have a lot of friends who are hurting for various reasons. I truly believe that Mothers Day is a bit of farce and very much a money making revenue. I really feel that our family instead needs to look at it a bit different and see how we can focus on some other females on that day and help them. Females who are struggling, whether because they are single and would desperately love to get married, females who have been trying to have kids and haven’t been able to for whatever reason, those who have had miscarriages or have had children die, those with little ones who are really struggling without extended family support around them, those whose mothers have recently died, those whose own mothers weren’t loving but abusive, and the list goes on.

This Mothers Day we were able to look outside of ourselves and to help a mother with numerous young kids who is struggling and doesn’t have support around her. It was a pleasure to be able to come alongside her briefly on her journey. Next year we plan to be more intentional and focus on more females in their various journeys.

Geography Competition. Several months ago, Princess took part in the Australian Geography Compettition. The youngest section was the Junior section for Grade 8. Although she is only in Grade 5, I thought it would be good practice for her to sit an exam in test conditions. One of the faults of homeschooling is that the children usually don’t get to sit enough exams and tests. Princess got her results back this morning and she came 2nd in Victoria (our state) for the competition. She gets a book prize and is hoping that it is not a geography book but that she can choose it!!

Cambodian Trip. Our family is going on a mission trip to Cambodia for 3 weeks in a couple of months. We are flying Vietnam Airlines so we also get to spend a night either way in Vietnam. We will be staying at two different children’s centres and helping out plus running various programs. We will also get to see where the ‘Books 4 Cambodia’ container and books have ended up. This last week was the week for getting our injections. Thankfully we only needed a typhoid injection. One of our children freaked out a little due to their past experience with injections. I now feel that we have crossed a huge hurdle in their handling of it.

Dance Cabaret. Our children are involved in a local dance school and every May they have a dance cabaret. It is a really fun night as the dance school owner’s husband is a comedian and his 2 best mates and him are the M.C’s for the night. This year I have taken up the adult dance class. Basically it made sense to do some organized exercise that was at the same time as the kids dance class. I had the option of going in the cabaret and thought that I would give it a go. Another mother pulled out as she didn’t want to get up on the stage but I really felt that it was something I had to do for both myself and to prove to my kids that I could try something new. It was a fantastic night. I had a ball dancing. My 8 year old son shared his wisdom with me beforehand that “you get stage fright the first time but then you love it”. Now for the end of year concert. Honestly it has been a great way for me to make some new friendships with people I wouldn’t normally associate with and to also push myself out of my comfort zone.

How are you pushing yourself out of your confort zone?

 

2 thoughts on “Weekly Highlights 11th May 2014

  1. Andrea Wright

    WOW WOW WOW Jessica and I loved your prophetic canvas boards. AWESOME!!!!
    Roselyn also saw them and loved them.
    We (finally – thanks) showed Roselyn and Margaret Jessica’s boards and they also loved them and the idea.
    Love reading how you and your family are running with ALL of God’s plans/purposes/dreams. Inspiring testimony of your life’s journey.
    Love and blessings
    Andrea and Jessica

    • Jane Post author

      Thanks Andrea for your encouragement. Seeing Jessica’s prophetic canvas boards is what inspired us to do this and for the kids to hang them in their bedroom to remind them of their qualities and dreams about themself. Thank you.

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