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Sunday, January 1, 2017

Sj's 2016

The second half of this year has seen a very quiet blog. I think most of my energy was focused on getting through each day of teaching and being pregnant at the same time.

Praying with Bethany Anne
I have enjoyed going for early morning walks and listening to my three favourite podcasts: Making Biblical Family Practical, the Arts Of Language by Institute for Excellence in Writing, and the Read Aloud Revival. I've also listened to numerous books, one of my favourites was: "Seven Women and the Secret of their Greatness" by Eric Metaxas, so many wonderful women to admire and learn from. All of their stories are amazing. I was particularly interested in the story of Susanna Wesley, mother extraordinaire and pioneer home educator, insisting on a proper education for her girls in a time when it was frowned upon. But in all of this passing on the Faith to her children and making a huge impact on the world through two of her sons: Charles and John. My favourite parenting books of the year was: "Give Them Grace". I personally find that listening to books is easier for me...and it works well when feeding in the middle of the night too.

Becoming a child of God
Our school has continued with a strong focus on "The Basics"...Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic. Our favourite time of the day is just after lunch when we put the young ones to bed and I read aloud to our children. First a picture book or two and then a novel or biography. One of our favourite read alouds was: "A Long Walk to Water" by Linda Sue Park. This is a true story about Sudan, the war there and one of the Lost Boys. It was heart wrenching at times, but it has a beautiful ending. Being a true story, it has taught us about what is going on over in Sudan and given us a further interest in the Lutheran refugee camps that we support over there through Australia Lutheran World Service.

The birth of our beautiful Rosebud has been quite a big slow down for me. It's been quite exhausting and at times frustrating, dealing with significant feeding issues and concern over her health. I'm pleased to say that we have finally succeeded in breastfeeding (we were feeding expressed breast milk for 6 weeks) and that she is moving towards sleeping larger blocks of time at night (7 hours last night). I'm extraordinarily grateful for the extra care Christian has taken of me and our children throughout my pregnancy and since the birth. We have also had much wonderful support and care from our parish for which we are very thankful.
Our most gorgeous Granny

Rosebud was baptised on January 1st AD 2016. A glorious celebration for our family and parish.

I'm looking forward to starting school again this year, next week (no, we don't run to school terms) and having a few getaways with some other pastors wives.

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