You Capture - Outside

I just had to add these pictures of the sky at our place yeaterday afternoon. We noticed this incredible yellowy orange glow that seemed magical & a bit eerie! So I quickly grabbed the camera to see what I could capture. We are in the middle of the bush so it's pretty hard to get a shot of just the sky without any trees. I was so wishing I was standing on a mountain top yesterday arvo........!

These pics are unedited. This was exactly the colour. The middle one kind of reminds me of what the sky looked like the day of the fire storm, but there is definitely no chance of fires this season, it's still raining!.

You Capture - Outside

Summer & I managed a quick trip up to Brisvegas last weekend for Marni & Nitas Birthday. Marni didn't know I would be there so we managed to pull off a great surprise by me hiding in the back seat of the car while Nits picked her up from the airport. And I actually managed to surprise Nits as well (!) because she didn't know when I was going to reveal myself!. So when I finally stuck my head around from behind Marnis seat & said " G'day Marnz", she was just as shocked as Marnz was, and nearly side swiped another car in the process. Marni was very confused because she was trying to process what was going on and why Nita seemed to get a shock that I was there too!. It was pretty funny. And so ensued a night of ridiculous fun & laughter with Marni & her i phone. Yep, that thing had us rolling around the floor in hysterics. You see it has this little voice recorder that is a really cute little cat, and when you talk to it, it replays what you say in a really cute voice. So of course we laugh, and then it laughs back, and that's pretty funny, so we laugh harder, and then it laughs, and on & on it goes until, we are laughing through tears with sore stomachs & faces. And then she shows us the T-Rex dinosaur one that has a really low voice, and when we laughed at that one , well it was all over. I think it took us a good 10 minutes to recover from that one. Ah, easily entertained these days, I know!. Such silliness is good for the soul, and I came away from our little catch up feeling very happy & thankful for such great friends you can be really silly with. Everyone needs friends like this. Oh, and I am so fighting the urge to get an i phone !!!!. But even though the weather wasn't the best our little water babies were in the pool having the best fun with Juan chucking them high into the air. I tried hard to get some good shots, but I was perched on the edge of the pool with a big drop behind me, and I was trying desperately not to let the camera get wet!. But this is my You Capture - Outside. A bit different to the photos of snow & cold that I have seen on Beths Blog. Mind you when I see all that cosiness going on over there, it makes me dream of a white christmas!. Maybe one day......

You Capture.......Sweet

These are some little Christmas gifts I made for Nita's girls, Mia, Asha & Lola. I think they turned out pretty sweet & I can't wait to see them wearing them. They are now hanging on their christmas tree in cute little paper bags, just waiting to be opened on christmas day.

Check out some more sweetness on Beths Blog - http://www.ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com/

ABC's

" Wha dis mum, wha dis " (watch this mum, watch this)
" That's great drawing Finny, are they trees? "
" No Mum "
" Oh, what are you drawing? "
" ABC Mum "
" That's great Finn ! "
(Mum & Dad have a little chuckle)

Logans graduation.....

Yesterday was Logans year 6 Graduation lunch at the bowling club. He has had the best teacher in Miss O'Meara, she has been a great influence in his primary years. I remember quite often Logan coming home & saying, Miss O'Meara said this, and Miss O'Meara said that, and Miss O'Meara told us .........I thought jeez, this is one great teacher. And she is. She took the time to talk to Logan about things in a way that didn't make him feel like a silly little child, she gave him the confidence to have a voice, and he absorbed everthing she taught him. Isn't it great to know that when your child is away from you for so long at school, they are in the hands of someone who creates a relationship with them, that truly values them for the little individuals that they are. I don't know if it is a rare thing, if most times you get teachers who just teach, and not necessarily engage with a child, and maybe our school is lucky to have dedicated teachers all within a small community. But I think good teachers are the most important people in the world. They are a major part of the foundation for all of our future generations and they need to be applauded.........especially our Miss O'Meara!. Congratulations my gorgeous boy, I hope high school is just as rewarding for you. x
Oh, and there were 12 kids in Logans class and two of them will not be continuing on at Bonalbo, but he will be going into a grade 7 class of 23 or so kids!. That is a huge grade for our little school!.

Our girl.......

We had our girl home for the weekend. Have I ever told you how much I love her?. She is such a good kid, and I am so proud of how she is coping with the tumultuous time of teenagehood. I really admire her for her strength of character which radiates from her core in the worst of times. She will blossom into an incredible woman, of this I have no doubt. I just hope the trials of youth don't scar too deep, at a time when life should be so carefree. We had an emotional weekend due to her learning about the Child Soldiers of Africa in her Legal Studies class. The stories she had to read were absolutely horrific, and her heart ached for those children, and she felt a sense of helplessness and anger at the degradation of humanity. I started to feel really angry that the school had just dumped this into these kids laps and told them to deal with it. I mean how can a child rationalise this barbarianism in children. It was too confronting for this girl , who, has always had an innate sense of compassion for the 'underdog'. She had a feeling of frustration because her mind in all it's innocence just can't comprehend how this can happen. How a world can let this happen. It makes me weep because in my own adult mind with all it's supposed understanding of the world & how it works, I cannot explain it either. I have no answers for her. It is just the way it is. There is always one quote that comes to my mind when I think of Che'-

'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter' - Martin Luther King

May we never become silent.
Learning about these children is the best thing you can do for them Che'. By knowing that their stories didn't go untold, that people listened, they heard, they felt. By doing that, because it is all you can do, you are honouring their lives, and maybe one day we will be able to make a difference. I am so sorry that the world is not a better place my darling. x

You Capture - kindred

It wasn't hard to find my subjects to represent 'kindred'. Cleo & Summer were born 8 days apart & they are the best of friends. They are kindred spirits because they share a great imagination, they both love to swim, and play treasure hunts, and they are both very artistic and love to read. My wish for them is that they will enjoy a friendship that will stand the test of time, the good with the bad, and remain like kin for life. Oh, and I've got to mention that they also both hate having their photo taken.......wouldn't have anything to do with a camera crazed mum though.................would it?.