I'm coming back!

I am returning to blogging land but am having issues with this google account on blogger so have had to restart with a whole new profile. Come and visit me at www.cazgreen-acrazybeautifullife.blogspot.com.au hope to see you there :-)

Seasons of blogging

So the verdict is I have decided to stop blogging for now. For one thing I just don't seem to have time, but I am also in a different season right now and don't have a lot going on that I want to actually share with the rest of the world. I am processing many things in my faith and that's a personal journey and I am also being challenged a lot as a mum and doing some personal growing this year and so this is a year of a bit more introspection, family things, and less grand plans or goings on that I feel the need to talk about. So adios blogging friends, thanks for all the comments and sharing my life with me, maybe we will catch up again in the future :-)

blog issues

It has been ages since I updated my blog and I finally made the time to sit down and reflect on how the changes for our family this year are going and upload pics and update my header, but blogger is telling me I have exceeded a download limit and isn't letting me do much so I'm thinking maybe start a new blog from scratch for this new season or maybe just sign off from blogging for a while as I seem to be too busy doing life at the moment to write much, will let you know the verdict when I figure it out myself :-)

Happy new year.

Hello 2012!

It's a new year with new seasons for our family.

Our girls are growing up. Elora started climbing out of the cot so she is now in a toddler bed and the cot is going to the pregnant daughter of a friend. We have decided we are content with our 3 treasures and our 4th bubba who we will meet in heaven and so the last few baby things are disappearing from our house as our girls enter new phases.

New beds for growing girls.

New season of toilet training (and it's going pretty well so there's not always this many pants in the wash lol)

New season of big girls, so the baby swing has been replaced by another single swing as the girls were not wanting to use the baby swing and fighting over the other one.

It is also holiday season and the weather has finally warmed up to feel like summer after a cold, rainy and miserable December. So we've had lazy mornings, lots of outdoor play, catching up with friends, and enjoying the slow pace of life before it all goes crazy in February.

Lovely cups of tea in the sunshine.

Playing with cousins.

Helping daddy in the veggie garden.

Water fun.

Playing in the great cubby we got given.

There's also been changes inside the house as I did a thorough clean out of Jaden's room so that he could actually find his desk to do the homework he will have this year, and I did a big clean out of the learning room as well and sold off a lot of the curriculum materials and books and even the shelf they were all on. It was a little bit sad, a very final end to our homeschooling journey, but we needed the money for the costs of Jaden's new high school and I was ready to let it go.

I have to admit as exciting as the change all is, I am also emotional. My baby boy is starting high school, my little Bethy is going to pre-school, and my baby girl is no longer in a cot, they are all growing up so fast!!

 I also had a week of feeling like an utter failure because I have chosen to no longer homeschool, I felt like if other people could homeschool high schoolers and have little people as well then why couldn't I do it, but the reality is that it's a very tough job and one I am willing to admit I am not cut out for. Choosing to do what I believe is best for my kids and for my own sanity doesn't make me a failure, it means I am brave enough to say I am not supermum and don't want to try to be. I also felt like the financial pressure that school will put on our family was all my fault and I have been super stressed about money, especially as it hadn't been budgeted for as this was all only decided in mid December and we have rego for the van coming up soon as well, but I have had to surrender that to God. He has provided me with a job, He has provided Brett with lots of overtime this January which is very unusual for this time of year, we got a Centrelink advance to pay the enrolment fee, and we are learning to budget a lot more carefully. I learnt a lot from God last year in the journey of home schooling, and I am already learning a lot from God this year in my journey of not home schooling, the journey may look different, but it is all still the same journey walking with my God. I look forward to seeing how this year unfolds :-)

Wrapping up 2011 Part 3: the journey of our family.

When I think back to this year the overwhleming feeling is one of sadness and grief, attending funerals and crying, and some of 2011 was like that. I lost my beloved grandma who helped raise me, we lost a very close friend who was like family to us, I lost a baby, and there were others, 2 ladies i've known from different churches who succumbed to cancer, a friend's twin girls who never breathed this side of heaven, my brother in law's younger stepbrother, several relatives of a friend of mine, it seems that grief was everywhere to be seen this year. Not just in my circle of friends but around the country and the globe too, catastrophic floods in Qld and Vic, the tsunami in Japan, at times the sadness and loss in this world has seemed overwhleming. And yet at christmas time as I reflected on the manger I realised that there is always hope, there is always light, because there is always Jesus. It is Jesus who breathes life into us each day, it is Him who holds my hand and helps me keep going when I don't want to, it is my Father in Heaven who provides sunsets, and flowers, and it is He who reminds me again and again of how blessed I really am, of what a miracle each day is to be enjoyed and that there is joy in life if my focus remains on Him. And so when I look back at 2011 I see far more than just the tears. I see:

Many birthday celebrations

Bethany turned 2

 and had a Night Garden party with a Makka Pakka cake.

I celebrated my 36th birthday with friends and family.

My beautiful baby girl Elora turned 1 and we had a ladybug party.

Jaden turned 12 and enjoyed a party at lazer zone with some of his old school friends.

Brett celebrated his 35th birthday with family and friends.

Family Outings

Featherdale Wildlife Park.

Going to the Opera House to see Yo Gabba Gabba live.

Meeting the characters from lazy town (with cousin Abi).

A day at Taronga Zoo.

A Wedding

I was matron of honour in June for my dearest friend in the world and it was so lovely to be part of her day. It was bittersweet as she then moved back to Indonesia with her new husband, but it's been a long journey for them to get there and I was so thrilled to see them finally get married. I also scored a bonus of meeting another bridesmaid Michelle. We had previously heard a lot about each other from Karen but had never actually met and found that when we did we hit it off straight away and I now have a lovely new friend I met this year.

Holidays

We were blessed with 2 family holidays this year. In August we spent 4 nights on a farmstay in Bathurst. It was something i've wanted to do for ages but it's not in the budget and I got a few hundred dollars inheritance from grandma that I wanted to spend on a special family memory so this is what we chose to do with it. I also just wanted some time out from dealing with normal life for us to just be together. The kids loved it!!!!!

In November we spent 4 nights up the coast at Umina and had a really lovely break and enjoyed some sunshine that hasn't shown up much here this summer.

Christmas

We just celebrated a truly lovely and memorable christmas. We had family from both sides at our house for lunch on christmas day, we all got lovely presents, we enjoyed all the christmas offerings of Hillsong this year including carols by candlelight, the christmas spectacular production of Scrooge, the christmas day service with the live nativity scene, we were able to reach out and help some local families with christmas deliveries, there were parties and fun, it was just a beautiful time throughout December celebrating Jesus' birth and I am so thankful for how blessed we were.

The girls got new trikes on christmas morning and after presents we had a yummy cooked breakfast.

New princess dresses for church on christmas day.

Lunch with family.

 (There was another table of grown ups but they weren't very co-operative for the photos and all look grumpy lol).

So.....

When I look back over all of that I see how truly blessed I am and what a wonderful year it has actually been despite the sad times. These are only snippets, I didn't put in photos of mother's day or father's day, of my first ever Colour conference that was AMAZING, of the first live album recording i've ever been to that was also fantastic, of all the daily moments of playing on swings or in the sandpit, playing with playdough, making cookies, or just hanging out toegther with my family who are all healthy, growing and thriving. I am also VERY, VERY, thankful that my brother in law is still with us after the motorbike accident he had back in September. He shocked the drs by being alive, we know he's a walking miracle and every time I see him, even though he is limping and still in pain, I see the hand of God and I can't help but feel grateful.

So that wraps up 2011 for us. Our plans for the holidays are to just relax before our new busy season begins next year. Another new thing for us in 2012 is that I will be working Saturdays at the cafe my mum manages. I am very excited about it. It means we can actually afford to pay for the school and pre-school fees because that was a step of faith that we took without being quite sure we could actually afford it, and it also means that I get 1 day week to do a job not involving poop and tantrums (one would hope so in a cafe anyway) and daddy gets to be the hands on person for a day which I think is good too. Hapy new year everyone :-)