what to do when kids have flu

I've had two kids home with the flu the last two weeks.

It's been a bit of a trip down memory lane, back to the days when I had kids at home all day to cuddle, read to and play with. Hard work, but lovely!

While he was convalescing, Thomas and I made a jigsaw tablecloth.

no new plugholes around here

Thomas: "Mum, you got a new plughole!"

Me: "No I didn't!"

Thomas: "Yes you did, look!"

Me: "No I didn't!"

Andy: "It's the same plughole, it's just clean, Thomas."

Ouch!

starting school

Here they are, all ready to start school.

Lizzy, beginning year 9, wondering if she will make friends in her electives, looking forward to subjects like Design and Food Tech, already missing the holidays, learning what it means to be a Christian, ready to live for Jesus at school.

Ben, starting secondary school, a little apprehensive about making friends and migraines (he got one half-way through the first day of school), but "energised" (his word) by the thought of this brave new world where he gets to study science, history and geography.

Thomas, all set for grade 4, looking forward to having his best friend in his class again, constantly surprising me with his affectionate, considerate, helpful nature.

Andy, heading into grade 1, so cute with those two front teeth missing, facing school with his special brand of independence, determination, thoughtfulness, and friendliness.

I love the various stages of our children's lives. I'm enjoying (though a little exhausted by!) the in-depth 10 o'clock chats with adolescents, and the way their minds are unfolding and their faith growing. I revel in the cuddles and morning nestling of the little ones, knowing they will grow up all too soon.

We make our way through worries and tantrums and whinging and arguments. We face sickness and doubts and rebellion and repentance. We teach the Bible and try to model godliness (and often model complaining and grumpiness instead) and pray, pray, pray for our children - so many prayers!

They are growing, and they are growing well. And for that I give thanks.

do you love life?

The other day Thomas (9) asked me, "Mum, do you want to live? Do you love life?"

I answered, "Yes, and can you guess one reason why?"

"No..."

"It's because you're in it!"

(Smiles and hugs and motherly things like that.)

"And, Thomas, can you guess some other reasons why I love life?"

I'm expecting him to say, "Daddy and Lizzy and Ben and Andy".

But Thomas says, as if there could be only one answer,

"The Royal Melbourne Show!"

my special person

My 8-year-old son Thomas wrote this about me. I'm sure you will agree there's a striking resemblance.

My mum, out of every person in the world, is the best!

Now I will tell you what she looks like. She has blue eyes and long, brown hair. Her arms are normal and strong. She has smooth skin and nice, healthy white teeth. She has perfect ears.

Now I will tell you what she does. She makes hot chocolate and sometimes she does jobs. She cooks dinner, breakfast and lunch. She also takes us to different places and at night she puts us to bed. On Saturday she watches movies.

Finally, I will tell you what she is like. She is nice and she cares for us. She loves us and helps us. She is simply the best!

I particularly like the Proverbs 31:17 touch about strong arms. Although it does sound a bit like he's describing a horse, sound in wind and limb, along with the "healthy white teeth" and "perfect ears". And no, I don't watch movies all Saturday, just in the evening, which is family movie night. But I do cook a lot of meals. And put kids to bed. And sometimes I even do jobs.

an easy volcano cake that almost worked...

This volcano cake was one of the easiest we've made, and almost one of the most effective...;) Okay, so it looks kinds of pudding-ish. But Thomas and Andy, whose birthday it was, didn't mind!!It's super-easy. Here's how we did it:

We baked a butter cake in a pudding basin,
made some chocolate butter icing,and iced the cake.We made runny red icing,runny orange icing,and runny yellow icing;then poured them on the cake - first red,then orange and yellow.We put some dinosaurs around the sidesand stuck in some sparklers.Voila! One volcano cake!

shown up again!

On the rare occasions he steps in to teach Sunday School for me, my husband always shows me up.

After a Sunday School class in which, with little-to-no preparation, Steve managed to incorporate a simple biblical theology ("Jesus is better than Moses") into the story of Jesus feeding the 5000, and entertained the kids with riotous games which they clearly preferred to my quiet crafts, eight-year-old Thomas bounced in the door and declared, "That was the best Sunday School class ever!"

Then, sensitive to my feelings as always, he stopped and added, "Daddy is the best in Sunday School, but you are the best in love, Mummy."

And then, in case I needed a little extra reassurance, "I love you and blankie best! I do, Mummy, I do!"

Well, that's a relief.

family catch-up: Thomas

Thomas hasn't changed a lot. He's stillaffectionate,hilarious,enthusiastic,inquiring,irrepressible,and the family clown.Some things have changed. He learned to ride a bike,and grew a tooth -but he'll always be our Thomas.

deja vu

Echoes of last week's conversation...

Thomas: I love going to church! It's good to go to Sunday School and learn about Jesus, isn't it, Mummy?

Andy: I hate going to church!

Mum: I thought you liked going to Sunday School, Andy.

Andy: Well, yes, I do like Sunday School (implying that it's all the rest - whatever that may be - that he hates...)

Thomas: When I go to church, I like learning about Jesus, and eating, and wrestling!

The earnest and eager-to-please meets the honest and outspoken? Who knows - only time will tell. Cute, all the same (at least to mums and grandmas) - although it does make you wonder what's to come! Ah, the manifold joys of parenting.

how big is the Bible?

We were sitting around the dinner table, lazily contemplating not bothering to read the Bible, when 7-year-old Thomas piped up and 4-year-old Andy responded.

Thomas (enthusiastically): 'Can we read the Bible tonight? I love God's word!'

Andy (bemused): 'I don't like reading the Bible.'

Thomas (concerned):'If you don't like the Bible, that means you don't like God! It means you don't like Jesus!'

Andy (upset): 'I do like God! I do like Jesus!'

Mum (reassuringly): 'It's okay, Thomas, the Bible is a very big book and Andy is a very small boy.'

Andy (indignantly): 'I am so bigger than the Bible!'

shaking the eggs

A couple of offerings from the family camera...first, from the younger 2 kids of the house, then from the older 2...

One of our favourite things is collecting the eggs at Grandma's house...




...but best fun of all is...SHAKING THE EGGS!



And that's how we make scrambled eggs in the shell. Shaken, not stirred.

(Just don't tell Grandma.)

the importance of shoelaces

Thomas has 3 dreams for when he grows up. He tells me,

"I want to be:

• a digger (he and his school friends were happily digging a hole in the ground at playtime until this wonderful game was forbidden)
• a band-player (Thomas' most treasured ambition is still to play the drums)
• a sports teacher (sport being his favourite class at school)."

There's a problem with the last one, though. The other day he said, in heart-wrenching tones, "Mummy, I don't think I can be a sports teacher because I don't have shoelaces!"

Oh, dear! I never realised I was defeating Thomas' ambitions by insisting he has Velcro on his runners for ease of doing-up.

Once Thomas gets shoelaces, all his dreams will come true. On that day, he tells me, he will be good at sport and fast at running.

It makes you wonder what other problems could be solved through the simple application of a pair of shoelaces.

more cute stuff

It's time for more cute stuff. Here are some sayings I've collected from Thomas and Andy during the last 12 months.

When Andy was 3 and saw a cat:

"Do you push a button to make it go?"

Thomas (6) earlier this year.

"I want to be bigger because it looks a bit cool when you can see the ground from up high."

A conversation with Thomas after my husband led Sunday School.

"Is Daddy a better Sunday School teacher than Mummy?"

"Only a little inch better. Only a dotted inch better. Only one dot better."

I realised later he thinks an inch is a millimetre. So that's okay.

Andy (4) earlier this year, sitting in the car and holding a large stick.

"Mummy, I want to break my window."

"You're not allowed to break your window!"

"Well, then, when I get home, I will poke the wall."

"Why?"

"I will make a new way to go out."

Thomas (7) when he saw a little girl with an artificial leg.

"What's that?"

"It's an artificial leg. She only has one leg, so they've made her another leg to walk on."

"Is she real?"

And my personal favourite, from when Thomas was 6:

"Mummy, not all the other mummies look so beautiful like you."

Aaaaaaw.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

One of our favourite children's books is Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (it's part of a whole series of books, which we haven't read, and it's been turned into a DVD series, which we love).

In this book the intrepid Harold, dressed in a sleepsuit and armed only with a purple crayon, draws his own imaginary world across the blank white pages of the book in dark purple lines. As he draws objects they come to life and he interacts with them, accompanied by the moon as it follows him across the pages of the book.

He draws an apple tree and a scary dragon to guard it, and some pie and a friendly moose and porcupine to share it. He accidentally draws an ocean, falls in and draws a boat to rescue himself. He draws and falls from a mountain and draws a hot-aid balloon to escape in.

Tired out, he longs for his own room and draws houses and windows until he realises that he knows where his own window is: around the moon. He draws a window around the moon, draws his bed, draws up the covers, and falls asleep.

It's a wondrous and simple story which I love because of the way it explores a child's imagination as expressed through their drawing. Thomas (7) said to me today,

I would draw anything I wanted if I had a purple crayon. I would draw lollies and stuff. It would be very handy and it would also make life a lot funner if I had a magic purple crayon.

I'd have to agree.

words of encouragement from a 6 year old

"I just can't wait! We don't fear death. Others do, but we don't."

- Thomas, 6, talking about heaven.

a pinata cake for Thomas's 7th birthday

Thomas turned 7 a couple of weeks ago. In the grand tradition of complicated cakes, and due to some parental prodding (I've always wanted to make one) he asked for a pinata cake! It was LOTS of fun.


After a couple of false starts, we got it to work ... it's pretty easy once you know how! I'll tell you how in case you ever decide to make one, so you don't make the mistakes we did.

I bought a chocolate mud cake from the supermarket (the gluten free cake I baked failed) and we piled chocolate coins and lollies on top. (You're supposed to hollow out the top of the cake and pour the lollies in but this didn't seem necessary, and the icing looked too yummy to disturb!)

You have to mould chocolate in a pudding bowl so you can put it over the cake. After one failed attempt to remove the hardened chocolate, I realised that it's best to line the bowl with Glad Bake (use more than we did - or you can just grease the bowl like the recipe says if you're brave) and put the bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes (next time I'll read the instructions!) before you pour the chocolate in. (Check the comments: apparently if you use a metal bowl, the chocolate slides out easily and you don't need Glad Bake - sounds like a much better solution to me!!)

I melted 450 g of chocolate, and poured it into the bowl. You have to swirl it around until it begins to set and evenly coats the sides of the bowl, especially the edges; then stand it until it almost sets; then freeze until it sets completely.

Once the chocolate is completely hard, the instructions say to upend the bowl over the cake and rub the outside of the bowl with a hot cloth, which I did (but don't overdo it or you'll melt the chocolate, like I did the first time!).

Then, with lots of thumping and shaking (no, it didn't just slip neatly from the bowl, despite what the recipe said) the chocolate should demould - SUCCESS!!

Stick some Smarties and M&Ms on the cake and some candles around it with a little more melted chocolate (giant Smarties look better than little ones, but we couldn't find any).

Sing "Happy Birthday", blow out the candles,

then SMASH the cake with a toy hammer!

If at first you don't succeed,

try and try again.

Okay, so maybe you should put the cake in the fridge for a while to get the chocolate REALLY hard before you smash it. Ours squashed rather than smashed! But we had a LOT of fun anyway.

Here's what was left of the cake after everyone ate it *sigh*. Yum!

Happy 7th birthday Thomas!

This cake is from the Australian Women's Weekly cookbook Fantastic Cakes.