Autumn

Life is certainly busy in DC. Far busier than I realised. Partly I'm sure it's due to our living so far away from school and conversely so close to church. Every afternoon on the block is a party - we have four houses in a row here on the block with 13 children between us aged between 8 months and 11. It also creates a bit of a hot bed for sin which is refining for each of the children! It's lovely to watch them grow.

Autumn or 'Fall' is so beautiful. It's been hard to become use to wearing a jumper AND a jacket. For a while there whenever I said "William put a jacket on before you go out to play" he responded with great frustration saying he already has one on. But it's only a jumper, then when we were outside he'd be surprised to realise that he was wearing three or four layers. All that to say I'm glad that fall comes before winter! At least we're beginning to understand layering our clothes.

Here's a few happy snaps of late.

This is outside the Library of Congress

It dropped down to 8oC the other day (46F) and Jane and I needed to get out for a walk, so we did.

She wears 'cold' well, don't you think?

This tree is next to the Supreme Court. It's the end of the season and I really didn't put a lot of effort into taking photos of all the leaves turning, but I have enjoyed living it.

We went for a walk to the Air and Space Museum a few weeks ago. It's so fun that we walk past the Capitol Building on the way to get most places.

Three Babies at Six Months

Emma - August 2009

William - May 2011

 Jane - September 2015

Long Weekend

On Saturday we went here!

Lyle told them a couple of weeks ago that we were going to head here and a family joke began that when they ask us to pay William needs to say "No! I will not pay this is MY park let me in!" so as we drove in I could tell he really wanted to say it to the park ranger but impressively he knew better so he just sat there grinning from ear to ear. It was really cute.

The girls. Emma noticed that this tree was making an archway so we had a girly photo under it.

Jane remained cuddled in the sling, had a nap, smiled and generally had a fabulous time.

We walked about 3.5km (2 miles) around a track and it was just splendid. We're really learning how sweet it is to get out of DC and be around nature. It's going to be harder in the winter but we'll just have to learn sledding! (or go to Florida).

 These lollypops are from Chincoteague. Our neighbours went away on a holiday  there - it's off the Virginia coast - and we fed their fish (I have a bad track record with pet sitting so I'm pleased to say all three fish are alive and untraumatised - thankfully Sara (the mum) said "It's ok if they die, it's hard to be emotionally attached to fish". She's a good woman.

I must say this is a pretty good reward for the children - especially as all they did was come in and watch me feed the fish. :)

This is our mornings with our three cuties/crazies. We've had a long weekend for Labour Day so it was SO nice to chill out in bed for a little while this morning. School has started for Emma and William starts tomorrow so we're heading for the long road until Christmas!

As Summer Ends

We have experienced our first 'summer vacation' here in America and I will say this - it is long. Very long. It's been a little unfortunate that as we arrived Lyle began his job otherwise we would definitely have gone away on holiday, or rather vacation, in our time here. As it is, school is biting at our heels (meaning I must get myself into gear and get all the last items for the children - lunch boxes and shoes are some of those non-negotiables in a students life).

As usual I simply don't have the time to write masses of stories but I'll post some lovely pictures (mainly of the 5 month old!)

There were some men placing scaffolding outside his room...

I commented that his hair was so long I could tie it up like Jane's, so he asked me to . . .

Little Miss is figuring out what to do with her ninja swaddle escaping arm lately. I was resting with her on our bed and she's grabbing Lyle's pants . . .

  . . .and bunny's arm.

And this was on her 5 month old birthday!

Our weeks on the Hill so far . . .

We’re about to embark on week six of our time in DC and I have TRIED to blog repeatedly. I have stories galore filled with blessing after blessing. For now I'm going to post a few things I wrote a few weeks ago to give an idea of what we've been up to . . .

(Written in week 3) After jet-lag and sickness we’re on our feet and life feels a little more normal. After the first ten or so days I felt as though we were done with our little holiday and I was ready to go home. Thankfully this week I feel like I belong here and this is our home. The house still needs to be made a little more homely (lamps, wall hangings, rugs etc) but I have ideas!

Lyle began work which I’m sure has helped us in the settling in process. It felt like an eventful week for the children and myself also.

Monday: cutting Jane’s nails I managed to chop off the tip of her finger on her right thumb. One day I’ll tell her that story and she can respond with “Now I know why my thumb is weirdly shaped! Gee, thanks mum.” Having limited medical supplies here we walked over to the church office to ask Miss Kristen the receptionist for the first aid kit. She was greeted with the children saying “MUM CUT JANE’S FINGER AND IT’S BLEEDING!”. Oh yes, I’m so receiving mother of the year award at this rate (and it’s only monday) . . .Miss Kristen is a good nurse. Maybe a better nurse than receptionist - she did leave a lady on hold for a little too long while she cut bandages in to fairy size for Jane’s petite thumb.

Wednesday we were invited to join friends at a splash park. It’s called Navy Yard (yes the same Navy Yard that is in the news for shootings occasionally). In fact there was one reported the previous week in that exact area. There are so many safety restrictions there though that I do feel safe. So this day was PERFECT for a splash. It was humid with 33 degrees (celsius). Unfortunately I completely underestimated the distance and made the children walk back home -all 2km’s back. In that 33 degree heat and humidity. I apologised to the children and said we’d never do that again!

Another day (can’t remember which day) we had a gas leak downstairs. Now our house is three stories but underneath these DC row houses are basements. A lot of them are converted to 1-2 bedroom apartments and make for a great source of extra income. We have a converted basement which houses interns. It was the stove (that has now been ‘condemned’!) headed out for an hour and am beginning to figure out how to order from OK on to my story…the result of that was our vacating for a couple of hours. We headed to our local (and new favourite) Mexican restaurant. I barryed up my nacho’s order because in response to the cashier asking “what topping do you want? (something) or (something)”?

I responded “the first one”. Not because it sounded like right but because I didn’t have the faintest idea what she was saying. It was wrong. So wrong. It was a massive amount of melted cheese on chips with a spoonful of avocado. Luckily they had the extra’s corner where I was able to procure masses of pico de gallo (the one mexican restaurant food item I know and love) to cover pour on top. The children have discovered their love of this little restaurant also which has thankfully allowed me an easy ‘out’ when dinner supplies are running short and we’re car-less (usually I order groceries online and they arrive the next day, so when things are lacking I’m often unaware of it until it’s too late).

Week four: The children were asked to dog sit our neighbours dog Wallace out for walks/potty each day while they were gone for a week. We had a lot of fun playing with him, he’s a beautiful chocolate labrador with a darling typical lab personality. Just sweet and loving. He’s only a puppy still so his fur is perfectly soft, his paws are oversized and he loves to run, jump and chew. They kindly paid the children a whole five dollars so it was an excellent opportunity to teach them about stewardship. It's exciting to teach them this life skill at such a young age.

By friday the grocery delivery had ice blocks so I finally felt like a bit of a good mother again!

Life isn't uneventful for us on the hill. I know it's going to take a long time to settle in but it's so sweet to have this blessing. I plan to blog about our church and shares the joys of that also.

Beautiful Baby

I'm sure you'd rather be more interested in pictures of our life in DC and all the marvellous things like the Capitol Building, Washington Monument etc, but frankly I don't have the time. I do however have time to say how cute Jane is.... here's proof.

A Baby Jane Smile

Children are a blessing from the Lord. I love that in His goodness they are given to us as infants. Could you imagine if all children were given to their parents at the age of three? or five? I know this is true for some parents, for those who adopt and foster children, but generally speaking, we are given children as tiny babies who are particularly precious simply because their small. Jane of course is no exception. Although I will say she is particularly cute despite being small.

At the beginning of the pregnancy with Jane I really wanted a boy. I suppose I always thought it a nice idea to have lots of sons to be proud of, so after Emma was born I thought 'yes, this is just what I wanted, one daughter as the eldest and lots of sons'. Towards the end of the pregnancy however I was thinking how nice it would be to have some pink floating around the house . . .

I love that in God's sovereignty He knows exactly what is best for every family. Our Jane is a sweet gift.

Photos

This is what Jane looks like lately. She's very cute.

I know that because everyone says so.

We were given a voucher for a photo shoot. Here are a couple of the blurry small photos I have. I didn't go with Lyle to the viewing after they were taken so he skyped me and I took screen shots. They were very protective of their photos, it was actually a bit extreme.

 It's a shame this one is blurry because William's little face is perfect.

Wandering Again

So the title of our blog is Wetherston WANDERINGS. I called that because it was alliteration and we had moved from South Africa to Australia. And that was about it. I didn't plan to wander quite as far as DC in 2011, but the Lord had it that in hand. And now . . .we're on the move again. 

We've been in Australia again for 3 and a bit years. It’s been an interesting journey. Both Lyle and I grew up in our parents homes without moving around. Home was home. His family only moved when he and I met - he was in his 20’s and my parents are still in the family home. Neither of us imagined moving around so much. We have lived in six different houses in 7 years of marriage. I thought I’d get good at moving and making a new home a home but I still battle with it. During 2011 since the flood I became more precious about items, not less as you would expect. But I’m getting better at letting go of stuff now that we’ve had some stability in the last few years (read: no natural disasters and consequential displacement issues). So I’m happy to leave everything here in storage for a while. I think all that bothers me really is that stuff costs money and I hate spending money on a couch in one country when I have a perfectly good couch in another country. My quandary is that no matter what, I must spend money and it feels unnecessary - either shipping or purchasing new is going to cost and I hate feeling like a bad steward of money. But I digress . . .

Our move now is back to DC. We are so excited at this opportunity from the Lords hand. We loved our time there so much that it was rather heartbreaking to leave. Arriving back in Australia was hard, mostly because it wasn’t expected. Our plan at that point was to stay in the USA for Lyle to attend seminary then return to South Africa. That was always the “plan”. We no longer have a plan. Not that we ‘fly by the seat of our pants’ and do whatever, rather we have direction and hold it with an open hand - Proverbs 16:9 says “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” This is certainly something we have seen to be true. When we were first married we had grand plans about when and how things were going to look over the following 5-6 years. We made it to a certain point when Emma was 7 months old. Then Lyle met Mark. He’s the pastor at the church we’re going to in DC. He’s great. His preaching is excellent. He’s a godly man for whom I am thankful yet my life was so much simpler before my husband met him! It’s been a great encouragement to be involved with the church there as it has an emphasis on what a healthy church looks like. That church has been fine tuned over the years and is an awesome experience being a part of it. In fact it has helped me tremendously to articulate some things I’ve not liked in other churches in which I’ve been involved. Not to say those churches are no good, that’s not at all what I’m saying, rather I can see what I understand to be healthy in a church. I suppose ultimately that is why we are so excited to be back in DC for a time.

Today we said good bye to our church family here and it has been heartwarming to feel so loved. I will miss my dear friends there - not to mention missing a few babies who are arriving later this year as well!

I’m anticipating a few tears to come, but at the moment the thought of finishing off a few bits and pieces and the daunting task of a 24 hour transit with three young children is occupying me so I don’t have time to cry.

6 Week Smiles

Jane decided to smile! She has really hit that 6 week old marker. She's more alert, starting to 'coo', grab at a toy hanging above her in the bouncer, and annoyingly be VERY aware when you leave her bedroom - annoying because she'd much rather be cuddled, and of course hand out smiles.

She actually smiled at me the day she turned 5 weeks - last Thursday - and it was truly a gift from God. I had the worst, most tiring day and was just feeling all the pressures of life along side serious prolonged sleep deprivation and she just made my heart jump. After that she decided to smile at anyone and anything except me but today we're back on track knowing, frankly, who keeps her alive.

The children, particularly Emma, is thrilled with this newfound skill and raises the pitch of her voice with each repeated "Hi Jane!" I love listening to how high she goes before she realises she can't actually speak in any higher pitch. William isn't as interested. I think when she starts crawling around he'll be more of a fan. Babies don't hold much attention for 4 year old boys. Unless it's like, a baby tiger. That'd be pretty cool . . .

Guess Who's Here?!

Baby Jane is here!!

Jane Elizabeth was born on Thursday morning March 19th, 2015 after a flying 1.5hrs of labour (phew). She weighed 3240grams and is 51.5cm in length. 

We are loving having an infant in our home again. I think the kids are scared they’ll break her - they’ve been very cautious around her. The most common statement in our household right now is “She’s SO CUTE”.

She is adorable and we thank God for this amazing little gift. I can’t wait to learn of her personality. I’m in heaven. I can understand why people think humans start out innocent. It’s hard when they’re so little to really comprehend that we are born as sinful God-haters in desperate need of His great grace! I am shocked still (a week later) that she is a girl. I was utterly convinced we were having another boy. Thankfully I am far from disappointed. During the pregnancy I was worried it was a girl because darling Emma is just as emotional as me and life can be exhausting for the both of us sometimes in our relationship. But God reminded me that He knows what is best for every family and having Jane at this time is His prefect pleasure and I praise him for that.

Due to my sleep deprivation (and that I need to feed Jane and get to school for Emma’s parent/teacher interview!) I’m just going to post a bunch of photos and be done with the introduction for now . . .hopefully it won’t be too long before I have more dazzling pictures that all look the same of our newborn.

She's the best big sister in the universe. God has blessed me with her!

 The children say "Awwww, she's having a happy dream"

She is SO small.

Lasts and Firsts

Baby #3 will arrive in 2 days! TWO DAYS! Eish. I have been living in a false sense of security thinking that things will be easier in our household when the baby arrives! huh?! yeah, I know. I’m setting myself up for a big crash! That said I do think that there are a couple of attitude issues that might improve in the two big kids. I caught Emma out today in the car - she’s in the middle and the baby capsule is facing her. She was sucking her fingers (which she started doing at 6 weeks after refusing the dummy/pacifier and hasn’t stopped) and I said “You’ll be a bad influence on the baby! It’ll copy you and suck it’s fingers too!” to which she replied “But baby’s are meant to suck their fingers”. Of course it was too easy for me then . . . “so why are you sucking yours??” . . . .coy smile. It was cute.

As we were having lunch today my darling boy just said to me “It’s a mummy William day today!” which it surely is. Sadly though, it hit me - this is our last one ever!! It’s been loads of fun having him at home by himself this year and last. I had that with Emma because he still napped a lot before she was at Kindy and now I’ve had that time with Will. I love that this God ordained age gap between Will and baby is big because I’ll also have opportunity to spend one on one time with baby while it’s young. Won’t it be nice to read “he” or “she” next week? I’m looking forward to my little holiday in the hospital for four nights! Not sure how the house will look upon my return but I know everyone will have food and water while I’m gone so that’s good enough for me. Until then, I’m going to read a book with my little buddy.

(this was us last night striking a pose . . .

can you guess which parent brushed his hair after bath time?)

First Day of Kindy

Welp. Emotions run high during pregnancy but having a week like this is almost too much. Tuesday started off wonderfully with Em starting year one and thankfully it continued the same way, she loves it. Thursday saw William boy starting kindy. He was adorable. He was so excited that he actually went quiet when we entered the kindy room. Something we're not use to. At. All. He quickly found his feet and day two saw a much more comfortable entrance as he settled into the routine for the day. He is going to thrive at Kindy and I'm so glad I can leave him in capable hands each day he goes. Friday I didn't have a lot planned so I decided (wisely as it turns out) to have a midday nap. Being almost 8 months pregnant (tomorrow!) I ended up napping for a good 2.5 hours, and still slept well at night.
I love how God is shaping our son. He's a wonderful boy and we are so thankful for him.

First Day of Year ONE

Here they are. The obligatory first day of school photos. God has blessed her with an amazing first day. She loved it. I was completely impressed that she didn't cry and what's more amazing is that she said at dinner tonight "I can't wait for year one again tomorrow!" Something I never heard her say with Prep. I know it may not last but I'm excited that she really likes her teacher, she seems simply lovely.

Daddy was stellar. He moved clients around in the morning just so he could be with her for 15 minutes in the welcome morning for the first day. Both the children were verbally thankful and impressed with him with I told them what he did. I love how God is growing my husband.

In Prep they didn't have assigned desks (or desks at all actually) this year, they have their own today tray, named permanent desk etc. It's exciting. She was colouring in her yellow activity book and said "Now I'm feeling a bit sad" (I think it was shortly after the teacher said it's 5 minutes till parents leave) and so I asked her if she wanted me to pray, as I started I TOTALLY started wanting to ball my eyes out. But thankfully I managed to hold it together! (I cried later in the grocery store - far more appropriate right?)

We're so thankful to send her to this school, for the godly influence around her and her ability to learn!

The New Year

Our summer holidays have been fun. I've had a few days where I've struggled to get through the day, but the Lord is always good to bless us even when I need to put on a movie and pass out on the couch!

We welcomed New Years with the first of a few big changes in our family. In the afternoon we set up the 'big kids room'. I'll do some readjusting as time goes on (ideally moving Will's bed up to the other wall to remove that perfect jumping space between beds!) but for now the children are learning to share a room. They love it so far which is such a sweet blessing. A lot of prayer went into this room arrangement and God is so kind to let the 'big kids' really enjoy sharing. Will loves that we call it the big kids room, it has helped distract him from the fact that Emma has moved into his bedroom. It's moments like this when I feel so smart as a mother. My parents blessed me with two new duvet covers. There's grey on the walls so these covers and wall match really well. Next will be curtains and a new valance for my big girls bed.

Emma's old room is now the nursery! It has a pink wall (and still has the girly bunting) so if this baby's a boy (which I suspect it is) then he'll have to ignore the pink wall and I may get around to new bunting . . . at the very least I'll take it down.

As you can see at the moment it's very much a play room so there's still some rearranging to do. I need to throw a a fresh coat of paint on the change table before it's moved in. I'm looking forward to it looking more serene in there!

After our setting up William dutifully went to bed and Emma was treated to a movie with popcorn. Lyle wasn't too impressed that he was made to watch 'Frozen' but as our girl is smart she asked me to fast forward most of it anyway. {Rubbish movie, like most available viewing options of the 21st century, but she's seen enough of it to make sense of her school friends conversations.}

 Indoor picnic lunch! I'm not sure which day this was, but it was recent enough because the weather has been very humid this last week. We had craft all over the dining table and eating on the floor is interesting enough for a change!

My children have learned to be very patent with me as I'm getting further along in the pregnancy. I'm not up to doing much in the way of moving, so creativity at home has had to increase.

A couple of days ago (with buddy in the same shirt) we attended the Ipswich Art Gallery's interactive 'built for speed' exhibit with some church friends. This gallery has some really fun exhibits and it's always cheap entry (budget fun is my go-to!).

I pretty much made it for him as we still have Duplo at home, but he added the spoiler himself to make it a 'real' racing car.

 It took a while, but Em joined in eventually too.

We have 1.5 weeks left before our next massive transition - Year ONE and KINDY!

It's all too fast really - I don't like that they're both marching on towards formal education. On the other hand I'm so thankful for God's timing with our next baby (we're at the 9 week count down!), I don't think I'd know what to do with myself for the next few years if I didn't have another little one at home. Although the house would (potentially) be impeccably clean for once. I'll have two or three days (alternating weekly) when I'll be at home alone before baby arrives. It's really needed at the moment as I'm experiencing some intense back and hip pain - thankfully both of which are directly pregnancy related and will leave after baby arrives. It's situations like this that I'm reminded of the consequences of the Fall. Praise God for this temporary life and our eternal home!

Philppians 4:20-21 "But our citizenship is in heave, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." What a sweet thought!

IPhone photo bomb

Someone's been playing with my new IPhone . . .

I do marvel at the fact that such a handsome man can make such ugly faces . . .