Being country kids, they're not really the sort to go outside in shoes - we tried that once and ended up paying a fortune replacing the worn out - mud-engrained shoes. So now we invest in gumboots and are always looking out for good gumboot buys.
I found these on a trip to town recently, and they were 50% off which made them $10. I didn't have my daughter with me, so I had to guess at the size, but I got it perfect and my girly-girl was thrilled with them. They're her favourite colour and the diamantes sent her into ecstacies.
However, I do wonder how long they're going to look like this. They already have a layer of dried mud around the bottom.
Right now, I am counting off the days until the end of the week. That's when I'll be 12 weeks along into this 5th pregnancy of mine. (This will be our fourth child born as we lost our first baby to a 14 week miscarriage).
Somehow after so many pregnancies you get familiar with the medical lingo. Like UTI's and BM's, and the colour of your urine if you're on the brink of dehydration, and knowing what's a good bloodpressure rate and a good iron level is, and where your good veins are for drawing blood, and the comfort (for me) that I will not ever faint during a blood test (even though I've had nothing to eat or drink all day), and even though they seem to be drawing multiple tubes of blood - just don't look at it! I know not to wear long sleeve tops when I go for my checkup so the midwife can strap her blood pressure belt around my arm easily, and to wear a skirt so I don't have to hike up my dress to my waist to check the baby's heartbeat. All these funny little things that are almost instinctive after several pregnancies - and yet I cannot remember if I'm allowed to take Panadol for a headache in the first trimester. Why can't I remember that?
Last week I was hopeful that my morning sickness woes were getting better. I haven't thrown up in over a week - that's got to be a good sign, right? Then this weekend, just when I wanted to be feeling great, because we had old friends visit - I was terrible. I actually think the last few days have been my worst. I haven't been able to get out of bed much at all, and my back is aching. At first I thought it was because the acid building up in my stomach was making it hurt, but now I think it is because I am just not using the muscles there at all, and they are losing condition. I have mentioned it to my obstetrician and she told me to try Gaviscon, but I'm one of those that is paranoid about taking anything during the first trimester.
We had one of our favourite people come and stay with us during the weekend. A single guy who is just one of the loveliest Christian young men around. I tell you he will be a catch for some girl. We hardly ever see him, as he lives in another part of the country, and I only got to see him on Saturday afternoon. I was so bad the rest of the weekend that I couldn't even get out of bed to say goodbye when he left yesterday.
And then yesterday another lovely young man who we've known since he was little, and he played his violin at our wedding reception nearly 11 years ago, and who we haven't seen for years, called up and wanted to come and visit for the afternoon. We were so excited to see him. He's at Med School now (having been homeschooled all his life), and we wanted to see him again and catch up with him, and hear all his family news, and I had to cancel that as well, as I was too sick. I tell you I'm getting fed up with the morning sickness. I'm over it already!
We did have one answer to prayer last week however. I was due for my first visit with the obstetrician and I was only 10 and a half weeks along. I knew it was unlikely that she would be able to pick up the baby's heartbeat at that early, but I did pray that God would allow her to. We lost our first baby to miscarriage, and the first sign of that was at 11 weeks when the midwife couldn't get the heartbeat, so for me that is always the first hurdle to get over in my pregnancy.
Well, God answered my prayer and did even better than I expected. My obstetrician had a little mini scanner (no bigger than the size of a book) which I held while she put the doppler thingy on my abdomen, and up pops a picture of our precious baby - no bigger than about 2 inches with all its little feet, legs, arms and hands, and the heart beating away strongly. I know the danger period is still not over, but for me that is the first good sign that all is well. Thank the Lord for giving me that last week.
"An extra, extra special treat! " Those were the words of my son today. The last day of the school holidays and we went to the zoo for a treat with some good friends of ours. It started out a beautiful day - hot and sunny and a blue sky. We packed a picnic lunch to share. We didn't realize that in a few short hours we'd be freezing cold, wet and running through a storm for shelter.
Me and Noni pushed our baby buggy's around the paths as the older children ran from each different animal. They were so thrilled with each animal they saw. It's so lovely to see and hear. The first big thrill was watching the tigers being fed. We had 'front row' viewing. The little ones were the teeniest bit scared, but the older ones loved it. I caught my 8 year old trying to jump/climb a tree later just like the tiger! It's hard to see clearly in the photo, but the tiger is halfway up the pole getting his meaty lunch. Note the blue blue sky.
We loved the tigers. They're so beautiful and we actually got quite close to them later where the path goes down the side of their enclosure. This one here in the photo was making soft growly noises at us.
We chose a nice little spot by the river in the center of the park to have our picnic lunch. The ducks joined us, and we had to jump up a couple of times to stop the very little children going too close to the edge of the river! We dined on egg sandwiches (I had to buy the white bread - first loaf of bread I've had to buy in months, but egg sandwiches just aren't the same on thick slabs of wholemeal), potato chips, an iced orange cake, fruit loaf, cheese slices and buns and lovely sweet mandarins. It was a feast and food always tastes better in the outdoors.
I love this following photo I quickly snapped when four of the bigger kids were lined up on the fence watching the Rhinos (in the far distance). Note the sky starting to cloud over. Only grey clouds at this stage though, so nothing to worry about.
We went up to see the Cheetahs. We have been studying them in our homeschool science study and Hugh especially wanted to see the fastest land animal on Earth, the one that 'breaks the speed limit' according to him. One day we learned that the Cheetah can run up to 112 kilometres. The children wanted to know how fast that was, so I said I'd show them next time we went out in the car. We have a nice long country road out here, and I put my foot down and got up to 100kms, but I didn't dare go over that. 100kms is our speed limit on the open road, so I explained that the Cheetah could go faster than that. They were fascinated and Hugh has remembered it as the animal which breaks the speed limit! LOL!
We spotted this sign on the cheetah's fence. It made us laugh out loud. I just had to get a picture of it.
We would have liked to have come back later in the afternoon when they release the cheetahs for their run, but unfortunately the weather intervened.
Noni took the baby back to the car for his feed, while Vaughan, Robin and I took the rest of the children on the little train ride. They'd been desperate for a ride, and we could see grey clouds had turned into very black, threatening clouds and low rumbles of thunder sounded in the distance. The little train trundled in to our station and we jumped on. It has a canopy roof, but no walls. We got halfway back to the zoo entrance when the skies burst open and it began to rain..... hard!! And then it hailed - big solid white balls of ice. I was on the end of the seat and it was blowing in through my end - fortunately I had on a big winter coat, so I turned by back to the hail and tried to protect the kids from it. They thought it was fun, fun, fun, especially as the hail kept landing on my lap - and they could scoop it off my knees to look at. Just as we got to the entrance the thunder and lightening were giving us a splendid show. There were lots of screams and laughs as everyone piled off the train and made a dash for the building. The children were having a great time, and I love thunder storms, so I was too. Then the hail turned to snow!!! Yes, snow!!!! Meredith yelled out, "God has answered my prayers. I wanted snow!" The cars in the park were thick with a mixture of hail and snow and the grassy banks were white. It was so much fun. We loved every minute of it - so exciting.
When we arrived home, we found that it had snowed out here as well - just little bits left over. I hope it is a taste of things to come this winter. Snow in Canterbury is a bit of a novelty - it doesn't always happen and we do love it.
I don't think the children will forget this day in a hurry. As Hugh said; going to the zoo was a treat, but having the storm happen as well made it an extra, extra special treat.
Theodore, who is 3 years old made me laugh out loud today. He had been playing outside and came in especially to tell me that he has 'pwickles in my eyes."
He wasn't crying so I thought maybe he'd got a bit of dust or dirt in them, so I checked carefully, but there was nothing at all in his big, clear blue eyes.
"Where are the prickles, Theodore?" I asked.
"Here", he says, pointing and brushing his very long eyelashes. "They're pwickles in my eyes, Mummy."
I love this photo of my little birthday boy. It was taken about 6pm tonight out at our new house. The colours on the barley are just beautiful and I love the dark green of the trees in the background and you can just make out the Southern Alps in the background - no snow on them anymore! We're in the middle of a heat wave here in Canterbury.
Well, I cannot remember a more busier time in my life, not even when I was working as secretary for a high profile Christian leader in the USA. I'm just spinning and feeling like I'm putting out fires and not really accomplishing anything at all. This week we are moving house - I haven't even begun to pack - I just keep hoping it will all happen in the night while I'm asleep - maybe the little mice will come out and do it for me. DH Robin is trying to get the final details finished with the house - and trying to coordinate and organize tradesmen is like trying to run a 3-ring circus! Meredith has 4 ballet rehearsals this week for her big night on Saturday night, they have their French lesson on Tuesday which happens to clash with a ballet rehearsal, so I'm not sure which teacher I should upset by telling them she can't come to one. Robin is going up to the north island for a day on Wednesday on important business, my mother arrives for the weekend on Friday, and somewhere in between moving, and the children's activities I have to do the last of my Christmas shopping so my mother can take it back up north with her. It all makes me want to pull the blankets up around my head and shut my eyes!! On the other hand it is fun - I love this time of year - Christmas is great fun - it's just the moving house part that makes it all stressful!
Today we had my little 2 year old/now 3 year old's birthday. He's soooo cute. He really just wants to open presents and blow out the candles on his cake. He wanted a tiger cake, so I made one out of the trusty Australian Women's Weekly Birthday Cake book. My mother used this when we were kids, and it's a really good one - alot of variety and some really great children's cakes. We got home last night at around 8.30 pm, and I had to turn around and make the cake. It took two hours, but I was pleased with the result. And he loved it. It's worth the hard work to see their little faces light up when they see their special cake. I can't believe it is 3 years already since I gave birth to him. His labour was the longest and hardest of the three children, but he is a delight to us - he's so happy and loud and joyful. He can be naughty like any three year old, and I have such a hard time being serious with him when he is, because he'll interrupt me and say, "do this Mummy" and pull a face like puckering up his lips or a cheesy grin. Our church sang him happy birthday this morning and he had to go up the front to get a crunchie bar and wait while everyone sang, and my best friend (who was playing the piano) and I got the giggles, because he stood there looking so solemn about it all. He's had a happy day today and loved being the centre of attention.
Yesterday we spent the entire day out at the house and I was determined to get my Christmas tree up. It's really the only time I have available to get it up, so me and the children had fun putting it together. We have a very pretty angel to put on the top every year, but after hunting and hunting through the boxes, we can't find it anywhere, so the bow will have to do as a stand in for now until it turns up.
I think the tradesmen will get a surprise when they walk in tomorrow morning!
Welcome to my blog. I'm glad you dropped in. I'm a wife and mum to 3 children. We are blessed to live in the beautiful South Sea islands of New Zealand, and I love to write about our life and the things we do on our homestead of 10 acres, our adventures with animals and homeschooling, and the little things that touch my life and those around me. I hope you'll enjoy visiting.
