Raising not managing...

I have been given a few pearls of wisdom that I want to record to remind me of when I no doubt forget!

A new friend was telling me about her weekend and she commented that her weekends were always busy because she loved them. Why? Because she loved having fun with her kids. It was so lovely to hear someone talk about spending time with their children with such joy and I wanted some of what she was having!

Another person chatted to me about the idea that parents can either chose to manage their children or raise them. Managing will focus on getting all the tasks done and being frustrated when they don't complete them. My friend with a 13 year old is still battling to get them to clean their room and I felt dread when I heard that - so many more battles ahead for me. But raising children will involve living in a mess as you seek to teach them things. There room may stay messy for awhile while they figure out the advantages of it being clean or that there is discipline and consequences for it being messy. Rather than packing up the lego make a big fortress out of it all together, leave it there to talk about the activity you did together and then all pack it away. Raising children will mean enjoying them more.

While I realise all this is easy to sit here and type and there will be many frustrations head and many lessons that will need to be taught, for now I want to focus a bit more on enjoying the lovely ladies I have.

Girls Night In.....

This year I hosted a Girls Night In for the kindergarten Mum's at MiniMe's school. The Girls Night In is an initiative of the cancer council to help raise funds for and awareness of women's cancers.

The idea was to come dressed as what you wanted to be when you grew up when you were in kindergarten or to wear something pink.

The local florist donated a bunch of pink flowers as a lucky door prize, the local spa donated a spa package for best dressed and the new cupcake shop donated some cupcakes for dessert.

I made some Martha Stewart tissue pom poms as decorations. They sounded simple but were bit more time consuming and fiddlier than I thought they would be. But they went well with the girly pink theme!

We raised $500 dollars on the night and had some fun in the process!!

Doctor, Doctor, I think I am going to die in 59 seconds.

Doctor: Hold on! I will see you in a minute!

Last night I found myself in emergency (was having difficulty breathing but all ok now) at the hospital up the road and I was once again reminded that a trip to the hospital is never quick. There is a lot of waiting around - for doctors, for tests, for wardsmen to take you to the test, for wardsmen to take you back from the test, for the night staff to catch up the day staff, to get a bed, to get home again.

But I didn't mind. Emergency was full, I was assessed and treated quickly and then they looked after the more critical patients. Everyone was busy. Luckily I soon remembered that there is a lot of waiting in hospitals and as I had nothing to do while I reclined on my little couch I decided to just practice being still. Resting. Praying.

It was a wake up call to the fact that our bodies do need to rest, that we need to be still every once in awhile. Things can wait.

I haven't been blogging much recently as there have been too many other things that have to be done but I miss those quiet minutes I took to reflect. To gather some thoughts and to not feel so tossed by the waves that pound my shores. Some stillness may in fact make the seas a little calmer and easier to sail.

However, I am going to work on how to get those still moments outside the curtains of the emergency ward!

Made it monday .... lined zipper pouch

Awhile ago I found this great lined zipper tutorial and have liked experimenting every now and again with it.

This was the latest result - a present for one of MiniMe's buddies at school.

I quite like the frayed edge of the decoration but not sure how long it will stay looking nice. The Mum said she would let me know!

Once again I am thankful to all those people who put great free tutorials out there on the web for other to enjoy!

Made it monday .... disco chickens

There is a reason for my silence recently. I have been busy sewing.  First I made 20 of these chicken heads for MiniMe's class to wear to a small concert they are having at school. I had bought this brown fabric for a 70s night to use as tablecloths but didn't use it so was wondering what I would do with so I am pleased it found a use!

Then MiniMe had a school disco and so I used some left overs from the disco dress I had made for myself to make something for her from one of Mum's old patterns. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of my first adults piece of clothing I had made - a sparkly number for the school fundraiser night that had a disco theme.

There was also a Silky (from the Faraway tree) costume made for book week.

Throw is a dose of the flu and that explains were I have been!

Young love...

The other night dinner we questioned MiniMe about her rumoured boyfriend...

Me: MiniMe, do you play much with Mike?
MiniMe, grins sheepishly: Why do you want to know?
So immediately we know something is up.
U2: Do people in you class have boyfriends?
MiniMe: Yes
U2: Do you?
MiniMe: No
Me: Does someone in your class think they are your boyfriend?
MiniMe: Yes.

We then got a run down on who was whose boyfriend/girlfriend (One boy had two girlfriends!). Intriguing what goes on in Kindergarten! When we asked what this all meant, MiniMe informed us that it just meant that you played with this boy more that the others.

U2 jokingly told her she had to wait until she was 24 to have a boyfriend but then revised this to 16. My aunt and uncle have a policy that their son (13) isn't allowed to have a girlfriend till he is 14 and it was interesting once talking to him about this. He got it and was totally fine with it. It started me thinking about what we will do when boys enter our lives as more that just friends. I started then I stopped, putting it into the pile that could wait till later.

We have a way to go before I think we need to be thinking about this but those with older children, did you have an age that your children where allowed to have a 'boyfriend/girlfriend'? Did you as a teenager?

Missing socks...

I have a basket full of odd socks. I do not understand where they go. Two come off the feet but one comes off the line.

A frustrating mundane mystery.

Our linen cupboard feel apart this week so I had to reorganise it and part of the mystery was solved.

The winter sheets that I put in the dryer as it had been raining for weeks contained two of the sort after socks in the recesses of the elastic corners.

There are many more in hiding but it was satisfying to see two pairs reunited.

Were else could the lost socks be hiding?