Last day of May

*Breathes a sigh of relief*.

There is definitely something to say for quality over quantity when it comes to blog posts. Thanks Jess for the experience of posting every day in the month of May, but I think I'll go back to posting only when I have something mildly useful to say! (:

In the meantime, here's a chuckle. If your sight is challenged, the caption is 'The computer failed to understand Cecily's reasoning'.

If only...

I was as disciplined in my eating habits as I am at doing this daily blog in May.

Loving children

Here's an overhead I'm presenting at a talk next week entitled 'loving your children more'.

How to change things

STOP what you are doing.

LOOK at what is happening.

THINK—What does your child need?

ASK how you can help.

HELP your child to work it out.

Oh, this is hard

A compulsory post a day is harder than you might think. I'll be glad when May is over.

Working on my talk today. Enjoying my children. Looking after a sickie (hubby) and cleaning up more vomit (baby). Great pilates class. I never knew that when you do the 'swimming' move, you lift your arm from the muscle in the underarm, not the forearm. Looking for 'tummytuck' jeans on ebay. They promise a lot!

Coming up

Next week I've got a tricky assignment.

I've been dobbed in to give a 'talk' to an ESL class. I'm not sure what the topic is exactly, but it's something about handling problems with your children.

I'm going to call it "Loving your children more."

The tricky part is the multi-cultural aspect of the class. There will be people from various parts of the world there. The other tricky bit is pitching my English level correctly. Some people are beginners, others speak reasonably well. But from experience it's always a difficult thing to get language right - neither too easy and patronising, or too difficult and overwhelming.

I might post the overheads on the blog when they're done.

Random

Flight of the Conchords on channel 10, Sunday nights. Brilliant!

Started jogging this morning. I got all the way around the lake. Yeah!

I have one hand's fingernails painted bright pink. Eeeurgh!

angry

I should probably put this on my other blog, but I only feel like typing one entry tonight so here it stays.

I felt really angry today.

I talked to someone I'd never met before and felt I had to explain that my son has ASD due to his odd behaviour.

I probably said it with a grimace, because this woman's immediate reaction was, "Oh, autism - that's such a gift for you! Those children are really talented in some ways!"

I wondered if she had taken any notice of the fact that she'd just seen me struggle through a 45 minute sunday school class with him - just trying to get him to stay in the room!

I felt really mad. I'm sure she meant to be nice and see the positive side, but I don't want to sugar-soap autism and make it all nicey-nicey. Too often people only see the 'genius' autistics who can calculate anything, draw exact replicas of cityscapes, learn 30 different languages in a day and so on. The fact is, these people are not representative of most people on the spectrum.

If your only idea of autism is to have 'supertalents', then you ignore the bad stuff that far outweighs the genius. And you manage to paint it with a nice brush and not think "We seriously need to do something about this problem."

Saying something like that also puts it back onto me to say, "Oh yes, isn't it wonderful that he has ASD" when actually it's the trial of my life and I find it really really really hard and yucky.

So there, I'm angry. Have been all day. How do you forgive someone? Am I angry at her? Or angry at the problem? I'm not sure.

Jeans don't fit

I either need to lose weight.

Or buy new jeans.

Brother

I have two brothers, one older and one younger. They keep moving away from me.... (and giving me personal smelly products for Christmas. Is this a hint?)

The younger one moved to an Asian country late last year, via the USA. He's what you might call peripatetic.

My elder brother moves to Tamworth tomorrow for work. He's pretty happy about it. All the best bro!

Jane is great

One of my favourite Jane Austen passages from Mansfield Park, culminating in the gorgeously ignorant sentence at the end:

...her cousins found her ignorant of many things with which they had long been familiar, they thought her prodigiously stupid and for the first two or three weeks were continually bringing some fresh report of it into the drawing room.

"Dear Mamma, only think, my cousin cannot put the map or Europe togheter - or tell the principal rivers in Russia - she never heard of Asia minor - she does not know the difference between watercolours and crayons..."

[Mrs Norris then said] "...remember, that if you are ever so forward and clever yourselves, you should always be modest, for much as you know already, there is a great deal more for you to learn."

"Yes, I know there is, until I am seventeen."

Our new rug...

.... was christened with vomit only three weeks after we brought it home.

Why does this happen?

Miracles

I've been reading through Mark and came to the account of the Syrian Greek woman who brought her demon-possessed daughter to Jesus to heal. And after some exchange, he heals her. Just like he heals every other person who comes to him for physical help.

It alternately excites and depresses me that those people got the help they desperately wanted for their loved ones. Because it doesn't seem that Jesus heals so completely and expectedly today.

I would so love to be able to take my boy to Jesus and touch the hem of his coat.

Wisdom from the young

After a short but fierce interchange between myself and my husband this morning, I was chastised gently by our daughter.

"No offence Mum, but when grownups get married and argue, they always manage to break their wedding promises."

"We didn't promise not to argue, sweetie," I said.

"Well, I've heard the word 'comfort' for each other. You're supposed to comfort each other and arguing is not comforting."

I was moved to silence and went to apologise to my husband.

Kneading bread...

...can bring back RSI.

Today...

~ Do something fun
~ Do something challenging
~ Try something new
~ Do something physical
~ Do something spiritual
~ Do something kind
~ Do something that satisfies
~ Have a rest and refresh
~ Ask God for help and joy


I have this printed out and posted on my kitchen cupboard door so that I'll see it and remember that life is a gift!

Day Two of the Great Bedtime Shakedown

Our boys have been staying up up up in recent months. Bedtime has become chaotic and unfun - at least for the grownups in this house.

So I'm on a crusade to get everyone to sleep earlier, in secure, warm and loving circumstances.

Night One: It took the baby 45 minutes to get to sleep next to me in the darker than usual room with the door shut. It took the older boy 1 hr and 45!!! I was extremely patient and committed!

Night Two: Baby was a nightmare. (But he had had a day nap). But this time the older boy only took 50 minutes to get to sleep. His eyes closed about 8.45 - approximately two hours earlier than he has been dozing off in recent months.

We'll see what happens tomorrow!

Hmmm

Does the fact that I posted three entries yesterday make up for the fact that I have absolutely nothing to say today? I'm halfway through the blog a day in the month of May challenge. It's getting harder.

This is a brilliant cookbook! I bought it today and have been looking through at recipes like:-

-chocolate pudding with avocado in it

-muffins with pumpkin and cauliflower

-brownies with spinach!!! in them.

Jessica (yes, married to Jerry) has been learning to hide veggies in food for her fussy eaters for years, and shares her successes in this book. It's exactly what I've been looking for. None of my children eat anything healthy by choice. I'm looking forward to trying it all out.

Why haven't I written anything deep or spiritual lately?

I don't know. Maybe because I can't type much. Maybe because I feel a little dry. Maybe because I wish I was thinking more. Hopefully it will come back...

Movie meme

1. One movie that made you laugh
Strictly Ballroom

2. One movie that made you cry
Dead Poets Society

3. One movie you loved when you were a child
Superman

4. One movie you’ve seen more than once
The Devil Wears Prada.

5. One movie you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it
Bring it On (a cheerleading flick). Oh, and all its sequels.

6. One movie you hated.
Arnie in Total Recall

7. One movie that scared you
Battlestar Galactica - when I was six. I saw it on a plane and had bad dreams for months.

8. One movie that bored you
Lord of the Rings. And all its sequels.

9. One movie that made you happy
Hairspray

10. One movie that made you miserable
Last King of Scotland

11. One movie you weren’t brave enough to see
Passion of the Christ

12. One movie character you’ve fallen in love with.
Daniel Day Lewis in the one about the IRA - he was in prison and the soundtrack had a song by Sinead O'Connor. And Ethan Hawke in Dead Poets Society.

13. The last movie you saw
Ferris Bueller's Day Off

14. The next movie you hope to see
Enchanted

15. Now tag five people.
Oh, hey, I don't know. If you read this and you'd like to have a go, copy and paste it and put your own answers in.

Fun things

I got the sewing machine out yesterday and made a couple of dolls outfits to my daughter's specifications.

Plus, a great friend visited today all the way from Castle Hill.

As well as that, my mummy is home from her overseas trip. I really missed her!

Skates are cool

The kids got roller skates a few weeks back, and there's nothing like doing it with Mum to make it more fun at this age, so I decided to get myself some from ebay too. I was a bit of a roller-queen once upon a time, and have discovered it's a little bit like riding a bike. A few wobbles and then you're right. Here's hoping I don't fall and break my arm...

Today...

...things are tough. Sick kids, no church, autistic son, weight gain. I'm not a happy girl. Thankful? I guess i can be pleased the central heating and the DVD work.

I'm a bit like this

...but my favourite show is Big Love. New season just began on SBS - Saturdays at 8.30.

Too much appreciation...

...can be cheesy. On Day 10 of my month-long blogging adventure, let me post what may be a controversial quote from Penelope Leach.

'When a big kid hits a little kid on the playground, we call him a bully; five years later he punches a woman for her wallet and is called a mugger; later still, when he slugs a fellow worker who insults him, he is called a troublemaker, but when he becomes a father and hits his tiresome, disobedient or disrespectful child, we call him a disciplinarian. Why is this rung on a ladder of interpersonal violence regarded so differently from the rest?'

Editors...

... are wonderful people, especially when they read your manuscript and want you to come in and talk with them about it! I really really appreciate that!

Learning lots and lots

I'm appreciating a lot of wisdom on gentle parenting - it's also called mindful or respectful parenting. Check these sites out:

http://www.naturalchild.com/
http://joyfullyrejoycing.com/changing%20parenting/tenwaysjanhunt.html

Can't go past...

... a second hand clothes shop. Today's haul included a $2 jumper for the baby, two $4 shirts (one Sportscraft) and an $8 pair of groovy black heels for myself.

I appreciate all you people out there who buy and then discard perfectly good clothes. And the volunteers who sort and price them for me to buy.

I appreciate...

... my 8 year old daughter -- sensitive, sweet and very funny

... my 4 year old boy -- beautiful to look at, with a great sense of humour

... my 2 year old boy -- who can't quite believe he's not 20 and a completely competent, powerful adult. Too bad he can't reach the biscuits!

on a rotten day...

... I appreciate being able to phone older, wiser friends, have a whinge, and then have them pray for me. Result? God answered with extra peace and energy to have a positive evening with the children.

On a Sunday...

... I appreciate modern technology which allows me to 'be in' church via video link while at the same time staying with my son who won't enter the sanctuary.

As well as...

... my two brothers, one who faces obstacles with peaceful equanimity and just keeps going, the other who goes out of his way to find obstacles, whereupon he leaps them in a single, energetic bound and manages to translate compassion into action along the way.

And my sister-in-law, who combines bravery with honesty and a fine blogging sense of humour.

Appreciating...

... Mum and Dad, whom I love very much.

Mum, with her continuing demonstration of loyalty, perserverance and stickability. Dad, who both dreams big dreams and has the ability to inspire others to live 'large lives' in many ways.

May - the month of appreciation

Having been challenged by Jess to write every day for a month, I have decided to follow the theme of thankfulness and appreciation. Today, I am grateful for...

...a day off, bubble bath and my new favourite drink - white tea.