I Have a Teenager

Blog, that is. It's still another six and a half years until I have a teenage child.

I have been blogging since the 19th June 2006!

I know I never seem to post anything except book reviews these days, but I'll be back. One day. Maybe next year when Flynn starts kindy (can you believe it?) and I have some time to breathe and process.

Does anyone still read this?

Pre-Teen Blog

Today, my blog turns 12.

Yes, 12!

I'm still here. Even if every post is met with silence, even if so many other blogs are ceasing to exist, even if Facebook is taking over everything, This is what Sed said remains.

It's like my diary.

To celebrate, I've given it new birthday clothes:

And here is a questionnaire to show much my life has changed since 2006:

19th June 2006
Where I lived: A unit in the Perth suburb of Cannington with my friend Emma.
What I drove: 2004 Hyundai Accent.
What I did: I was a librarian at Curtin University, full-time.
Who had my heart: No-one :(

19th June 2010
Where I lived: A farm in Buntine with Duncan, Maya the dog, Ebony the cat, Russell Crowe the rooster, and six hens - Eglantine, Maple, Reebok, Winnie, Princess Layer and Mildred. We moved in December that year.
What I drove: 2003 Holden Berlina station wagon and the Hyundai Accent still.
What I did: I worked at a grower group, three days a week, as an administration officer.
Who had my heart: Duncan and the furry and feathered kids.

19th June 2014
Where I lived: The same farm we live on now with Duncan, Rory, Maya and Gypsy the dogs, Solomon the rooster, and a declining number of hens.
What I drove: 2005 Toyota Prado.
What I did: Stay-at-home mum to Rory and casual administration officer for a ram breeding group.
Who had my heart: Duncan, Rory and the furry and feathered kids.

19th June 2018
Where I live: A farm at an undisclosed location with Duncan, Rory, Flynn, Maya and Gypsy the dogs, Brewster the rooster, and three hens - Sheba, Dixie and Esme.
What I drive: 2005 Toyota Prado.
What I do: Stay-at-home mum to Rory and Flynn, casual administration for the ram breeding group and for Flynn's daycare.
Who has my heart: Duncan, Rory, Flynn and the furry and feathered kids.


Thank you for reading along here for all or some of that time.

Halfway to 70

I'm 35 today.

It has been really lovely - friends, presents, scrumptious morning tea, gardening with Flynn, takeaway fish and chips, and, of course, this beast...

I've been wanting a chocolate Viennetta for years, and have only been able to find the vanilla ones.

Wedding 1 2018

On Saturday 5th May, we attended the lovely and very joyful wedding of Bethany and Joel in Albany. Both the ceremony and the reception were on a farm in a shed that has been specifically converted and hired out for weddings. Beth went to our church until recently, and she was an absolute godsend last year after my surgery. She stayed at our house several nights a week, helped with the boys, drove me to town, and was fabulous company.

It was just an all round beautiful day.

Double Figures

We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary yesterday.

It's amazing to think my blog has recorded all of it (and before).

Maya is 10

Maya dog turned 10 yesterday.

I couldn't have asked for a better first dog.

Loyal, faithful, gentle and true, she has grown from a timid puppy who used to wet herself in fright, to a wonderful old girl.

I will get her a big bone the next time I visit the butcher.

Five Year Re-enactment

Surely it cannot be five years since I had my first precious cuddles as a new mum?

 

Alas, it is.  My big boy celebrated his fifth birthday on the 19th January.

Since we were away at the time, he had a couple of parties - one with family and friends in Dunsborough, and a low-key barbecue in Perth.  Plus there was a very exciting trip to Scitech on his birthday. He and Flynn both threw tantrums when it was time to leave - partly because they were having so much fun, and partly because the lights and noise were overstimulating.

He wanted a dinosaur cake, so I made him 'Stella Stegosaurus'
the Australian Women's Weekly cake book.

Scitech

The Case for Christmas

We have a book nook in our local park.  It's like a mailbox where you can put books and take some that are in there - kind of like a free book exchange.  It's not policed at all, so it relies on people's generosity.  Recently I've been wondering and praying about what to do with the evangelistic books in my bookcase. I've been hanging onto them in prayerful hope that one day I'll have such a conversation with someone that it will lead to me being able to offer them a book (and hopefully a Bible).  Sadly, these conversations have not progressed to this stage, but God, in His kindness, prompted me to put them in the book nook.  Of course, there are hundreds of tourists who stop at the park on their travels.

This is one of the books I've recently put in the book nook.  I reviewed The Case For Easter a couple of years ago, and this book is much along the same lines.  In fact, Lee Strobel has written a whole series of short books (The Case For a Creator, The Case For Faith etc.)  Personally, I wonder why he has written so many books which must surely cover the same things?  His best known work is The Case For Christ (and there is now a movie of the same name, based on his journey from atheism to faith in Christ).  Perhaps it because they are short and strategically written for unbelievers.

Part of this book answers the usual questions (such as how do we know the Christmas story is true, how reliable is the Bible?), but another part surprised me. It was about a Jewish man who had become a Christian and now has a ministry among Jews. He said that many Jews have never read the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus, and have been told by their rabbi that the prophecies are not about Him. One of the key ways to challenge Jews is to convince them to read the Old Testament prophecies on their own.  There is no chance that all of them could be about someone else; they are so clearly about Christ.

I pray my copy of this book will make its way into someone's hand and point them towards Jesus - the one who Christmas is all about.

I Can't Call Him 'Bubba Flynn' Anymore

Flynn turned two last Saturday, the 23rd September.  Although he's been 'toddling' for 10 months now, I guess his second birthday also officially marks toddlerhood and the 'terrible twos' (the 'terrible ones' have been bad enough).

We headed to Perth for the long weekend, but, sadly, his birthday wasn't all that happy.  He's been suffering from an ear infection (he's had a fair few) for the past couple of weeks and will be requiring grommets.  His birthday involved screaming, a visit to the doctor, and yet another lot of antibiotics.

All that aside, I can scarcely believe it was two years ago I met him and saw his red hair for the first time, and remarked, "Hello, Bubba.  Where did you come from?"

I love him so much!

Peppa Pig cake he took to daycare on the Monday before his birthday.
Or maybe it's George...not sure (Duncan said it can be a 'gender-
neutral pig').

He didn't want his photo taken.

Nope, still not keen on a photo.

We had a small party for him in Perth.  He also loves dinosaurs,
so I made this cake. I got the idea from here.

Just Another Day

I turned 34 last Tuesday, the 30th May.  It was a nice day, but an ordinary one.

Birthdays tend to lose their magic as you get older.

This year, my present is surgery to correct abdominal diastasis.  I'm booked in for that on the 14th July.  More on that later.

Seeding is still dragging on.

Bible study was cancelled, so I spent the day just with Flynn.  Rory was at kindy.  Flynn and I went for a walk with the dogs, we had lunch and a nap, then we picked Rory up from the bus.

Duncan managed to get home from work a bit earlier and we headed into town for takeaway.  Of course there was Viennetta, as per my annual tradition.  I think I'll change the tradition next year though, as it just didn't seem to taste as good as usual.  Time for something different.

Another year, another birthday.  Just an ordinary day.

One of my more spectacular birthdays.
My belated 30th birthday party in 2013.

The Tale of Two Mother's Days

Mother's Day, Sunday 14th May 1995:
The day of the inaugural Western Derby between the Eagles and the Dockers.  This became known as the 'Mother's Day Massacre' as the reigning premiers, the Eagles, taught the young upstarts a lesson, belting them by 85 points.

What a glorious day that was!

Mother's Day, Sunday 14th May 2017:
Exactly 22 years to the day.  This one was not glorious, but it had nothing to do with football.

We were on our way home from church when we received a call saying that a fire was threatening our house.  Apparently the neighbours had been burning off, but it was a windy day and the fire spread to the bush behind our house, where our rubbish tip was.

I dropped Duncan home, so he could join the local fire brigade (made up of farmers) to help fight the fire.  The boys and I escaped to a friend's house, 10 minutes away.  She was with her husband, helping to fight the fire and their two boys were with a friend, so we had the house to ourselves.  At this stage, I didn't realise just how close the fire was to our house.  When our friend, Mel, returned, she told me to brace myself for the worst, but that they were doing everything possible to save the house.

I'm terrified of fire.  I don't know where this strong fear comes from, but I hate lighting fires.  I let the house go cold in winter if Duncan's not home, rather than put more logs on the fire.

A range of emotions engulfed me - panic, fear, uncertainty....anger.  How could the neighbours burn off on such a windy day?  Why didn't they keep an eye on things?  Yes, rain was forecast (but it hadn't come), but didn't they check the wind forecast?  I'd always thought that if there was a fire, that I'd be happy to escape with our lives, that 'stuff' didn't matter.  And it wasn't the actual stuff I was fretting about; it was the ardurous task of starting over.  Where would we live?  The farm had insurance, but how long would we have to wait?  I had no idea about any of that.  I didn't want to have to deal with people offloading piles of their old junk onto us, thinking they were being generous, but really just cleaning out their cupboards.  No, I don't want 50 smelly blankets and old high heels, thank you very much.

I worried about my animals.  I began to brace myself for the fact that they could already be dead.

But I was also freaking out because the very night before, I'd dreamed that our house was burning down.  Now it was coming true!  What was I supposed to make of that?

Mel returned to the fire, rescued our dogs and took them to a neighbour's place.  The neighbours across the road were told to evacuate.

The boys and I stayed at Mel's house and gradually we were joined by all of the farm wives and their kids.  On one hand, I was grateful for the company.  On the other hand, I just wanted to be alone.  I was numb.  I didn't want to listen to laughing and joking people, chatting cheerily around me.

Finally, I heard the news that the fire had been contained and it was safe to go home. 

Miraculously the house wasn't even smoke damaged, it just smelt horrid, like we were smokers and had smoked inside for years with the windows shut.

My animals were all safe and well.

Although I am so thankful to God for granting my anguished requests to save our house, I am ashamed to say that, once again, I was angry.  How could God let this happen?  I was challenged to think about whether He is a good God if our house had burned to the ground.

The answer: Yes, He is.

They backburned this paddock next to our house to contain the fire.

Christmas 2016

It's nearly March and I'm finally getting around to putting the Christmas pics up haha!

Last Christmas was spent in Dunsborough with the in-laws.  Due to harvest being nowhere near finished, it was a fleeting visit - over there on Christmas Eve and home again on Boxing Day.  We woke on Christmas morning to find that the gate on the chookyard had somehow got open and a lot of the chooks were out.  So, there I was at 6am helping Duncan's dad shoo his chooks back into their yard.

Our friends Isaiah, Harriet and Sarah hosted us all at their house for both lunch and dinner.  It was a low-key day with a great variety of cuisines.  Alas, going out for both lunch and dinner was a bit much for the little fellows.  It took them days to recover from it.

The boys' shared Christmas present from us....Kmart bargain.

Joshua's 4th Birthday

I got to spend an afternoon with my biggest little man in December.  Rory was invited to his friend Joshua's 4th birthday party at the indoor play centre in Albany, so I took him, while my mum looked after Flynn.

He had a ball going down a huge inflatable slide, and I was so proud of him for being so brave.  The party was a smorgasboard of all of his favourite foods - chicken nuggets, chips, sausage rolls, fairy bread, and a delicious icecream cake.

I'm all for outsourcing kids' birthday parties - it makes it easier for parents who are time-poor, or aren't gifted in the areas of cake decorating.

I Am Australian by The Seekers

I thought it was appropriate to post these lyrics on Australia Day.  I love my amazing country and the diversity of the people who call it home.

We are one, but we are many,
And from all the lands on earth we come.
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian.

Lyrics from here.

Four

I can still remember what it was like having skin-to-skin cuddles with him when he was born.  Now my big boy Rory turned four yesterday!

We celebrated his birthday early by having a party at our place last Saturday.  His last two birthday parties have been in Perth, because we were up there for other things.  This time, it was nice to celebrate with his local (and some visiting) friends. Since it was going to be 35C, I had organised for it to be a morning of water play.  Then it turned into a mud fest.  It's amazing how the simple things can keep kids amused for hours.

A Thomas-themed party for a Thomas-mad little boy.

These things were great shelter from the hot, hot sun.

Mmm Cheezels

Bubbles are always a winner.

Mud, glorious mud.

This was my first attempt at using fondant.  I'm not a baker and it's

definitely not perfect, but I'm happy with my effort.  Rory loved it,

so that's all that matters.

Nice to have a family photo.

Flynn loves balloons.

We came up to Perth on Tuesday as I have a week's worth of appointments.  Harvest was STILL going when we left (it has finished now, thankfully), so Duncan was unable to come with us.  My mum is here, helping me with the kids while I go to my appointments.

Yesterday, Rory, Flynn and I headed to the city to catch up with our friends, Sam, Aria and Boyd.  We planned to drive to Cockburn Central Park and Ride and catch the train, but there were no parking spots!  So, I tried Murdoch Park and Ride....no parking there either!  We ended up driving in (Rory took the disappointment of missing out on his first train ride very well).  I took a wrong turn, couldn't find a parking spot and ended up scraping the car on a post (thankfully it's not too bad).  What an effort and a misadventure!  I was feeling quite hot and bothered by the time we finally got to the Fire Station Museum.  The kids had a ball!

The rockclimbing wall was a hit.

Rory was stoked to sit in a real fire engine.

Fireman Rory to the rescue.

There were uniforms and hats there for the kids

to dress up in.  I dressed Firey Flynn in his fire engine
shirt for the day, then seconded him to the SES. He
was not happy.

It was way too big and heavy for him, but he
looked sooo funny toddling around in it.

Then we had lunch.  Rory loves babycinos.

He was so excited to catch up with Aria, who is also four.

Can you believe it has been four years since this precious moment?