Money Tantrums

We knew money would be tight when our housemate moved to London. Things became a little more frantic when our tenants in Australia gave us their 30 days notice before moving out. So when the letter arrived from Centrelink today, asserting that the government has mistakenly overpaid us $6,000 and would like it back rightnowthankyyouverymuch .... it was laugh or cry. Actually, in my case - tantrum, cry, laugh, in that order. I knew it was dangerous to share "It is well with my soul" as my favourite worship song at Bible study this week! (and the incredible and heartbreaking story behind it)

But it has reminded us that any money we have is God's, and he can have it back if he likes. Also, that he has blessed us with a house ... and he can have that back too, if he likes. It's a good reminder that what's ours is ... not really ours, but his. Because for some reason, when we are weak, it points people to God, and his strength.

Tim laughed that our reaction is like the kids demanding their dinner, not seeing the work we're doing behind the scenes to bring it to the table ... that everything we're doing in that moment is already for them, despite the tantrums, tears and long car trips. So my prayer tonight is for a heartfull of peace. It is well with my soul.

Postscript: having made the call to Centrelink, we discover the bill is due to our tax agent last year becoming disillusioned with the industry and resigning before having a chance to submit our tax return forms. It seems once that is sorted out, Centrelink will be appeased. God is good. And we caught two mice over the weekend, which means the plague of epic proportions is on it's way down. Hurrah. (for those perhaps planning to visit, we do not live in a mouse infested hovel. It is a nice English brick terrace house, and only slightly mouse-infested.)  

Your very first email

Tim has opened an email account for each of our kids. I love this idea! It means we can send personal emails to them over the years and when they get old enough to read them they will hear our perspective on their lives as little ones. It's also a great way to save family memories for them in a way we know they will be able to access easily - I know trawling through my blog in a decade's time will be a pain, even if my blog is still accessible then! (I'm assuming gmail will be ...?) So I thought I'd post Tim's very first email to Sam for you all to read.

G'day Sam,

Well, at 1 year old I cannot even start to imagine what it will be like when you are old enough to read this.  But as you sat on my lap this morning while we watched the start of the Rugby Union World Cup in NZ, I really enjoyed the moment of being your dad and watching you grow.

Not sure how to say this mate but ... you can be hard work at times.  I realise your teeth give you a hard time, but boy you stretch Mum and I sometimes.  You are walking really well now, like chatting away in baby talk, have a great little laugh, and as you can see in the picture attached ooze cuteness in the good times.  The problem is I think I am scared from your screams!  :)

This being said, I am more proud to be your dad than I can put in words.  From the second you were born I have thought and prayed about all that your life will hold.  It is hard to explain, quite different to Rosie, and must be a dad thing.  I am so excited to see what God has made you to become.  It does not even matter what it is, I am just looking forward to seeing you walk, run then fly.  Dream big Sammy, go with God and you can be sure of an amazing ride.

Your Mum and I hope and pray that you will come to know God as your best friend, who made you and knows you and who loves you.  He is patient with us.  He is gentle with us.  He has a plan for us (Jer 29:11) and he wants to fill us with his strength and wisdom to change the world.  

So over the years we will drop in an email to you now and then, and be assured we will always be there for you.

Love you mate.  Your Dad.

Never Work with Children or Animals: The Making of a Family Portriat

 

 Start with a family portrait session, or, as in this case, a few minutes stolen at a wedding.

 Pick a photo where at least one person looks lovely.

 Fix the colour.

 Add some grass.

 Add distracted parent.

Add baby.

Make dad look at the camera. Edit in some edges. Crop.

Toddler Reminiscing

My beautiful Mother-In-law is always pestering reminding me to remember my children by writing things down; from those funny sayings to medical details. Well currently Naomi at Seven Cherubs is running a Cherish your Cherubs project to help us appreciate and adore our children a little more, and as a way to record and remember them in our lives. This week's task is to remember. So here, off the top of my head, are some of my enduring memories of...

Sam

he's just 14 months old but we've had some good moments:

The 6 hour labour was pretty brilliant!

Sam was a cuddler and snuggler right from the start.

Sam and I squinting at each other under half-closed eyelids ... me because I'm trying to use peer pressure to get him to go to sleep and Sam because he knows the minute he drops off mummy will sneak out of the room .... 

Me (picking up a wailing Sam from his cot) - "It's sleep time. Go to sleep." Sam (shakes head) - "Nu." Me (indicating cot) - "Bed." Sam (points at books) - "Gook." Love him to bits.

Sam coming gleefully in for a cuddle with Mummy - "Daaadeeeee." Nice.

Rosie 

Rosie's birth took 73 hours of contractions. (enduring!)

She was so serious - she took 6 months to decide to smile. 

At 2, play-cooking "Soup pie with honey, blackberries and anything." 

Rosie loves animals - I remember how gentle she was with our Staffordshire terrier Bess. When we moved to our first home in England we spotted through the kitchen window two fat rats playing in the back yard. (shudder). She wanted to know "can we give those dirty rats a bath mummy, so I can play with them?"

Her first word was "duck", because we fed the ducks at the park down the street together almost every day. We adopted her words for fingers (dingers) and dummy (dee-dee) into our family vocabulary. She also said efelent (elephant) for a long time.

Rosie, collapsing into tears at me giving Sam medicine - "No mummy, his mouth won't smell of babyness any more! I want him to smell of babyness!"

Other Rosie quotes:  

"Rosie a wake up soon, play a helicopter." (2 years old, on going to bed.)

After looking at baby pictures; "Mummy, I love me when I were a baby."

Almost 3: "You need to be the doctor mummy because a Giant came into my room and killed me."

When asked what sports she will play: "Um, ... skipping ... hopping .... maybe ... helping people when they're sad and hurt their head?"

"Mum, I have two emos on my shirt!" (Clownfish - Nemos, age 3) 

"I love my pony knickers cause they show I'm a 'stralian girl, cause I don't loose my balance on the grass. We don't got no grass, but the neighbours do." (age 3) 

"Naani, Daddy's a sick dog!" (3, after hearing me say sick AS a...) 

Mummy: (groaning)- "I feel siiick. I need a cuddle." Rosie, 3½- "I don't need a cuddle now. I'm working."

R3½- Mummy, why are you looking in that book? 

M- I want to find out how to make French Toast for your lunch.

R- You put some eggs in a big bowl, and soak the bread, and then put some butter in the pan and cook the bread. 

Apparently it's on a Playschool episode. 

Princess Rosie-Posie

It's Rosie's turn in the limelight, due to the 'Cherish your Cherubs Project' by Naomi at Seven Cherubs. Rosie is 4; sensitive, brave, and an odd combination of caring and independence. I laughed today when I heard her readjusting her accent not from but TO a Brum - "Are you better dolly? Are you be'ah?" 

She's changeable and beautiful and wilful and loving; she just loves to organise everybody - "hey EVERYONE! I've got a GREAT idea!!" (This might even be shouted before the great idea has arrived, which does cause a lack of focus in the troops.) Here she is indulging in a strop:

 and riding her bike in the rain at the park, what a star.

 

Rosie's language skills have always been excellent and she can get a point across confidently. She's also displaying a conscientious streak this week; on a strict dairy-free diet to check for lactose intolerance she's shown amazing fortitude for a 4yo, foregoing her favourite things patiently, down to over a treasured pile of M&Ms I'd mistakenly given her. With no fuss. She loves;

guinea pigs

princesses

her cousins

playing doctors and 'school-school'

the neighbours' kids

her little brother (most of the time)

reading books with us

getting a parcel from Australia

wrestles with daddy

riding her bike

pink

'doing something fun' 

and

flying to Australia, as long as it is via the Disney shop at Singapore airport! 

Love the Neighbours!

Have I told you how much I love our neighbours? We live close to two amazing families who are currently observing Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. Our neighbours prepare lovely food for their own evening meal, but also share it with us! Observe all the food that arrived from the two families this evening:
 

  

Upper right in the plastic bag is my favourite, chilli chicken, mmm. The other plastic bag contains Jalebi, an Asian sweet that is basically batter, deep fried, then soaked in sugar syrup. This photo may also explain recent weight gain in the Fawssett household, as well as why my freezer is about to explode and shower the neighbourhood with pakoras and samosas.

I've been contemplating lately the strangeness of learning to be a better Christian from someone of another faith. Our neighbours are amazing examples of Jesus' command to 'love your neighbour as yourself'; not only do they give food, they also trust us with their children and invite us into their homes for family celebrations. Being immersed in another culture can teach us things that we love about our own (check-out people packing my groceries for me! Aaah, Australia!) and things we would like to adopt. I would love to adopt the attitude of love and caring that our neighbours have shown to us, and take better care of my own neighbours (near or far) from now on.

Has your family adopted any new traditions lately? Love to hear your ideas.

Still Waters

A friend invited me to see the movie 'One Day' with her this evening. It was lovely to get out of the house, away from my 3 darlings (kids & their daddy!). I don't do that often enough. Rosie my 4yo knows I sometimes need space, and is quickly learning to use this to her advantage; today she suggested she and her brother watch some television, "so mummy can get some quiet time."    !
As I was about to head to bed, I glanced at the Psalm for today on my homepage; it is the famous Psalm 23 -

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 
He makes me lie down in green pastures. 
He leads me beside still waters. 
He restores my soul.

This psalm is so precious to me; - meditating on it strengthened me for the birth of our little Sam a year ago, and during the short but harrowing period of postnatal depression which followed. I remember times where I had no strength to do anything except listen to a reading of this psalm, head in hands, despairing.

But the Word of God is living and active - sharper than a double-edged sword. And he did cut through despair and pain to lead me beside still waters of peace, and restore my soul.

Jesus used to take time away from the crowds to talk with his Father. It left him refreshed to do his ministry, and strengthened and nurtured for the path ahead. 'Still waters' are important for all of us - we all need refreshing and renewing to be able to do our jobs well, whatever they are. I'd like to hear how other parents take time out from the daily scramble; what are 'still waters' for you, and how do you get to them?

Party for Rosie

Today we celebrated Rosie's 4th birthday. She turns 4 on Monday so 10 of her buddies, 9 of their siblings, and 7 extra parents squeezed into our back yard for a PARTY. (We're very thankful it was fine so we didn't have to squeeze 29 people inside). We played musical statues, hit the decks, pass the parcel, and pin the tail on the donkey. And no one cried! At least, not for very long. One of the highlights for Rosie (apart from friends) was the Barbie doll cake, which took me a good few hours work so her delight was a just reward. Amazing what motherhood can prompt you to! It's lovely to see how far God has taken us as a family in 18 months - the great crowd of friends and neighbours he has blessed us with, despite leaving home and family in Brisbane. It's still hard to be away from them of course - I particularly missed both our mums in the lead-up to the party, (they would have been asking what they could do to help!). But we're thanking God for friends, for (comparatively) healthy kids, and for being our provider in all things.

What I love about the little man

I've been inspired by Naomi at Seven Cherubs to record feelings and thoughts about my own two cherubs. Sam's turn tonight. It's been challenging to see either of them as cherubs lately! For two weeks one year old Sam has had big sad eyes, with teething, then a vomiting bug, followed by an alarming rash (Monday night; Birmingham riots - ambulance ride to Children's Hospital - we're thanking God it ended with the all clear). He makes me laugh with his crawling - stopping every now and then to rest his little head on his arms in a little nap on the floor, and then taking off again so seriously. When he's held he wriggles and squirms and jiggles to get down, only to break into angry wails at being put on the floor! We do get lovely head-on-the-shoulder cuddles however, and his wee Bob the Builder jumper from Great Grandma in New Zealand makes me chuckle. When Sam grins, with just the first 8 teeth out, he looks like a cheeky little monkey and you can't help but smile with him. He says hello by pointing at you; that's the sign for 'tickle dingers' (fingers) too, and he gets a huge kick when we pretend to be tickled by him. My loveliest moments with Sam lately have been reading 'Guks'. We sit together in the rocking chair at bedtime and devour baby books - Sandra Boynton's 'Moo Baa La La La' is currently a big favourite. He turns the pages, sometimes impatiently, but always wants more. When it's time to sleep he reaches out for his snuggle blanket (which my mother-in-law bespoke when his daddy was still a teenager!), and cuddles it as he falls asleep. I love his smile, his cuddles, his strength and determination. And I'm looking forward to watching his world expand exponentially as he gets more and more confidant on his feet. Ooh, and I love his huge mud-puddle eyes ... even when they're sad.

Jolly well and truly there

There, and some. It's been 9 weeks or so since we arrived, to the accompaniment of lashings of lovely white snow, skidding vehicles and Brits, Brits everywhere. I must confess to some surprise, despite being forewarned of the 'peculiarity' of the Brum accent (to put it politely). If I find myself saying, sometime in the future, "Oi doin't thoink yoye can have a loylly nowe", please remind me to shoot myself in the foit. Today there is a vast blue sky and hot English sun (who would have guessed it existed?). No sign of the foreboding cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland that has effectively stopped many European travellers, Brits among them, in their homeward or holidaying tracks. The woe has not spread to Moseley, Birmingham, as far as I can see. No, the check-out fellow at Somerfields still launches my groceries across the till (as I mutter Aussie-toned curses under my breath at having to pack my own shopping) as if Paris, Rome and London were not at a newsworthy standstill. Life goes on. Oh, and Happy Birthday mum.

To Birmingham, then!

Not being sure where to start the Fawssett journey, I thought the official 'day' was as good as any! This is also key because we love coffee. We hope there will be lots of good coffee in Birmingham, where, God willing, we're moving in almost exactly 6 months time. Mid-Feb '10 is the plan ... and off we will go, into the gray, rainy yonder. Prior to that, we're hoping to catch up with all of you, pack, find tenants for the house, find someone to love Bessie our anxious staffy, loose about erm, several kilos each (so we're not referred to as "You know, those fat Australians!), and have plenty more coffees. Possibly skinny espressos.