Ten Photos

These things go around on social media all the time. "Ten Photo Challenge", "Albums that influenced me", "Heartbreaking moments to raise awareness for something important". There are lots of different types all with similar "rules": nominate someone, keep it going, post every day.

I had thus far in my life avoided being nominated, but with COVID-19 keeping everyone at home, I guess my luck had run out. Over ten days ago now, my sister-in-law nominated me for a "Ten Photos of Motherhood" challenge and while I didn't really participate (no nominations from me), I did post a photo of a glimpse into my life as a mum diligently for ten days.

It was hard work. Which photos would best capture life, or portray what it was to be a mum? How could I put the last seven years of mothering moments into ten photos? Why was I not allowed to give an explanation? And beyond all of these questions was the totally irrational addiction of checking and rechecking the post. Were people seeing?  Liking? Commenting?

I was so happy when the ten days were done and I didn't have to post any more. Not that I didn't value the sentiment, and it was certainly lovely to look back at some beautiful memories, but the added mental strain was not appreciated at all. Maybe I was overthinking things, but that's how it was.

So when I was nominated for yet another challenge, this time ten black and white photos, I knew I would need to take a different approach. So thankful I have this blog right now.

This time I didn't overthink it (too much). The topic was much lighter in any case. I knew I had some photos I'd like to share, or others that would look cool in black and white. I spent the rest of the week taking a few shots when we were out and about that I knew I'd convert and use too. I intentionally waited until the last photo challenge was done before posting this one up. There is only so much I can do.

Without further ado, here are ten black and white photos (or photos I edited with the "Eiffel" filter on my phone because there was no straight "Black and White" filter and that was the one that I felt fit the most, so sorry to the real photographer people out there).

Cheezel's Moment

It's funny how the simplest things can sometimes have the clearest meanings. I suppose that's part of the reason Jesus taught in parables. The every day moments can reflect some serious wisdom, even when you are not expecting it. This was one of those moments.

The girls were having an early shower one afternoon after they had been playing in the sandpit after school. I knew they were still hungry, and it had been a bit of a long week, heading back to school after the COVID-19 shutdown had kept them at home for the last five. So as a treat, I grabbed out a pack of cheezels and measured out a bowl for each of them (and Steve).

I wandered around munching on what was left in the pack myself and went to check their showering progress. Sometimes they are not the best bathroom buddies, can often get distracted by each other and forget the main purpose of being in the bathroom to begin with. As I entered the first thing they notice is the pack of cheezels.

"Cheezels! Yes! Can we have some?"

As I pop the last one in my mouth, I show them the now empty box. "These are all gone," I say.

"What!? You ate them all! NONE for us!! Not fair!! How could you?"

"Wait a minute," I reply. "Who am I? I'm your mum. And how do I feel about you?"

"You love us," Sophie replies.

"Yes I do. So do you think, I would eat all the cheezels, not leave you any, and that I would do it in front of you?"

"No..."

"Exactly. Have a little faith girls."

And as I said it, I knew it's what God says to us, again and again. So often we see someone else with something that we want, and we complain. Or we are given to dwelling on things we don't have. Or we are worried about not getting enough.

In Exodus 34 God says this about himself:

"The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin."

Compassionate and gracious, abounding in love and faithfulness. Time and time again, the people of Israel choose not to trust, to forget this, to doubt that it might be true. So do we today. So do I.

Even as my girls doubted that I would love them enough to have provided cheezels for them, so I doubt that God might love me enough to make sure I'm provided for too. Not that my life will be roses and sunshine because of how God loves me, or that I will always get everything that I want, but I will absolutely get everything that I need because of his love for me.

So I'm thankful to these girls and their reaction to the cheezel moment that reminded me I also do the same. That I too need to learn and relearn to trust in God. That my first response shouldn't be doubt, but faith.

Hanging up my Cape

For the last five years, I've been running a family day care. I started with my two girls and my nephew, and then it grew to include another little one as well. You can only have four under school age, so that was pretty much my life until Sophie went to kindy. Then I got new kids to fill the gaps. Everywhere I went, four small children in tow. Some days different kids, other days all the regular ones, but mostly every day, four children.

I got a lot of understanding looks from people, and a lot of awe. So many people would tell me they didn't know how I did it, or I must be so busy. There was appreciation for the hard work I was doing in many conversations. Disbelief as they contemplated what it was like to have so many children around all the time. Wonder and admiration as I would navigate my crew across a car park, or call them off the playground and they would all come (well, most of the time).

To be honest, I never felt like I was doing anything particularly heroic, or amazing. Just doing what I could do to get through each day and come out the end of it with four little people alive. But the responses to the work also made me feel like a superhero. Like I was doing something unattainable by mere mortals, normal people, everyday folks.

Now I've made a decision which effectively leaves me hanging up the cape of a superhero: I'm finishing up with family day care.

In the Time Before Children, I was a teacher. Oh how I miss being a part of the bigger world of teaching. The shaping children as they grow, and challenging their thoughts and world view on a daily basis. How I miss being a part of a team, teachers who understand what it's like when you have that kid you just can't click with, or the class you so love going to. Teachers who are an infinite resource of ideas and encouragement.

I don't think I missed it as much before COVID-19 changed everything, because before then, I was just family-day-care-ing every day, keeping kids alive and well, helping them breath fresh air and building their endurance with some quality tough love as I made them walk up hills for school pick ups. Then COVID-19 happened, and we were all told to keep our kids home; that for the foreseeable future, their classrooms would be here. Suddenly, I was getting to deliver lessons to two attentive little girls (while juggling the usual family day care stuff too) and I was loving it.

At the start of 2020, I had dropped to three days full time, and two days for paperwork/cleaning/groceries/life stuff. The plan was to see how that went, and then probably just drop a day a week as I gradually moved back into teaching. Thanks to COVID-19 the two weeks teaching at the start of Term 2, I realized I didn't want it to take that long.

So I'm hanging up my cape. Everyone can now know, I'm only going to be doing family day care for the rest of 2020. Come December, I'll be selling up all the baby toys, taking down the safety gates and putting the change table away for good. I'll no longer be the superhero that herds four children into school at 2:55 and then six children out the gates and down the hill at 3:05. And I'm ok with that.

In the meantime, I'll keep doing what I'm doing, and remembering that the time I have left with these kids is all the more precious because it's about to come to an end. Even if I'm never a superhero again, the last five years when I was have been pretty amazing.

COVID-19 Children's Reading

Madeline's Rescue, The Smartest Giant in Town, The Very Noisy Bear,
That's Not my Dragon, That's Not my Piglet

The girls have been home for some time now, thanks to the precautions and restrictions of COVID-19. For the most part, they have been happy friends who have enjoyed running around the house outside together and making up stories. So much of their days have been outside basking in the perfect Brisbane weather. They have also been reading.

I took this photo at the end of March, when we were just starting to settle into the social isolation. Rachel was literally sitting on Sophie's lap while Sophie read to her. It was so beautiful, and my prayer was that they would continue to be such good friends as the days at home lengthened into weeks and months.

Princess Pracilla, My First Book of Japanese Words,
Tigger, Dr Seuss' Sleep Book, The Singing Mermaid

Time passes, and I don't particularly know why, but I started to photograph the books that we were reading each day. Maybe because I had to show the girls' teachers what I was "home schooling" with them, and also because I was using it to show my day care families what I was doing with their children.

Dr Seuss Books

Some days I would read all of these, other times, the girls would read a book or two. Hop on Pop, and Fox in Socks were the books that Rachel literally used to teach her self to read before my eyes. Unbelieveable.

I'll Wait Mr Panda, Possum in the House, Sebastian Lives in a Hat,
The Bad Guys, Christopher Robin and Pooh come to an Enchanted Place

I've gotten really good at knowing where are the good places to read, and how to position myself so the kids can all crowd around to see. Interestingly, sometimes it's easiest for me to sit on the floor with my back to the couch, so three or four children can sit on the couch and see over my shoulder, while two children can sit either side of me on the floor. Who knew!

A Squash and a Squeeze, The Sandcastle Contest
Each Peach Pear Plum, Hairy Maclary and Zachary Quack

Sophie needed to work her way up to longer reading stints, so sometimes we would take turns reading pages of books together. Stopping to sit down and read with my girls and the day care kids really took me back to when Sophie was much smaller, and we would spend large chunks of our day together with books. It was wonderful then, and it's wonderful now. Even more so because of the greater variety of books.

Dr Seuss, The Message Bible,
Rabbit Organises Almost Everything, Winter Story

Some of these books are current favorites of the girls, while others had been out of rotation, forgotten on the shelves for a while. It was nice pulling out some old favs to mix in with the new. All of the Pooh books are first-time reads for these girls. We are slowly working our way through the entire collection of Pooh stories.

Little Koala Lost, Handa's Surprise,
Pooh Invents a new Game

When I was reading some of these really jumped out at me as excellent teaching tools. Little Koala Lost, for example, has numbers, Australian animals, emotions and feelings and literary devices. My teacher hat was well and truely on for that one. I hope you enjoy looking at the variety of books that we have been reading as much as I do. As I posted these pictures up to their teachers, I was excited to see the different books that we had read each day.

Sofia Valdez Future Prez, Rosie Revere Engineer, The Tiger Who Came to Tea,
How to Build the Perfect Cubby House, Tell Me About Your Day Today

Do other people have such a vast library? I wonder, and sincerely hope so. I may have spent a large fortune on books (and been gifted a vast number as well), but it was worth every cent. We've read nearly 40 books! And I didn't photograph every day. Isolation time well spent I think!

Possum Magic, Giraffes Can't Dance,
Why Do I Have to Eat off the Floor?, Rosie's Hat

And, just so you know, over six weeks into social isolating, these girls are still friends, who are sitting together to read.

Sewing in Isolation

Neither of the girls had a particular gap in their wardrobe, but I wanted to sew. Three weeks into self isolating many things have been crossed off our to do list (including things that had been there for about a year, like "oil the posts") but I just wanted to do something a little more fun.

We had a look through my stash, and they each picked fabric that they liked. I sewed it into a reversible half circle skirt for each of them in a night. Pretty quick sew actually. I used the Circle Skirt Calculator by Hand Made London, which did the maths for the waist measurements for me.

Because I didn't particularly feel like hemming a circle skirt, and because the girls both liked a lot of the material (their initial pile of material that they liked was about eight different fabrics high), I offered to make their skirts reversible, so they could have options. Such a great choice because it was really easy to sew everything.

And now they have effectively two skirts each right? I went against all of my instincts and let them have essentially matching skirts. I mixed up the waistbands for variety and to use up scraps, but the main fabrics of the skirts are the same. The mermaid print was just so cute I couldn't give it to one girl and not the other. There was just enough of it for a skirt each, so it was good to use it all up in one go. I think I got it on sale at Spotlight for $2.00.

Rachel chose the butterfly material which I got from a material swap day at the local sewing studio, Sewing Adventures, over a year ago now. Same time I got the material I used for the K.I.D.S. outfits last year. There was heaps of it. Sophie liked the stars (which I've used before in shorts here), but there wasn't quiet enough, so she was happy to have the butterfly material too. I think her half half skirt is possibly my favorite.

Here they are in their matching skirts. Actually, they have spent the day swapping them over every few hours, which has been just hilarious. So cute that I don't even mind the matching. Is social isolation finally getting to me? Maybe.