What a momentous start to 2014! So many new things are happening in our family and we are happy and excited and thankful for them. Firstly, we have moved house!!! After many years of waiting and praying, the Lord blessed us with a place of our own.
There's No Place like Home
We moved house, (officially on 11 12 13... 11th of Dec 2013) and are now in a 5 room HDB flat. There was a time when I was not happy to be paying so much money for just "a flat", but somehow, I am really happy and contented.... there's no better place to be. I know the Lord wants us to be here because He answered our prayer concerning the house. It had been a long wait but we wanted God's best for our family. Finally, here we are.
The kids were so helpful in the whole moving process. Here they are assembling the Ikea shelving. (Most of our home funiture is from there!) Urgh, I remember the terrible sneezing bout I had for days from cleaning up and living with the renovation dust. Thank God that is over!
We met our church friends on one of our many trips to Ikea. They are moving house too! :)
Our eldest just turned 14 and it is so handy to have a big boy around the house! He has taken over mommy's place, helping with all the lifting and carrying of heavy stuff when we were moving house. He has become papa's right arm. What a blessing!
I had been busy with unpacking, placing things on one shelf, then finding a better spot and moving them over. I was busy trying to make the house look more homely. Out came my sewing machine!
We bought some pretty rose patterned quilt covers from Ikea and turned them into curtains. It saved us some money but mostly, it was a joy to put a personal touch to our nest. Papa does all the hard jobs (power drilling) and mama does all the soft jobs (pretty stuff!)
The top row used to be the pillowcases! lol
Oh yes, the shelf covering was some pretty kitchen cloths from... where else, Ikea.
Our Wifi-less Existence
Yes, took a while to get our wifi connected and we realized that we managed very well without it! In fact, I loved it! I took note of some the things we did *because* we were without wifi. Here's the list.
-Make believe/ play acting
The two middle boys, no. 3 and 4. (especially no. 3 the 10 yr old) are our family's slapstick comedians. They love to act and sometimes they rope in their sisters too. (Big brother does join in the buffoonery too..)
One afternoon, they were acting out Abraham sacrificing Isaac on mt Moriah. (Yes, imagine that.) And they had their 4 yr old mei mei to say at the appropriate time (in her most judicious, thunderous voice), "Behold, the Ram!"
-Talking more, communicating with each other.
You know, we really do feel for the families we see at food courts, every member of the family seated at the table from oldest to the pre-schooler, all immersed in their own gadgets. We just had a very good church camp in December and the theme of the camp was about time. we only have such few precious years with our children to train them for the Lord. Every mealtime is a wonderful time to talk and grow them for Him!
No wifi = more communication and face time! REAL face time! haha
-Enjoying Silly Antics
Oh yes, we had so much fun laughing at no. 3's jokes. He has such a knack for picking up accents and he can do it so naturally. One day, when he is less camera shy, we will get a video of him doing his jokes. Since one of no. 1's goals is to make videos, I believe this will be in the pipeline soon!
(What fun, this blog will become more lively, not just me writing but the children will be posting too. :D )
-Getting housework done
And we have a lot of housework to do.
-Picking up new interests
Again, it is the two middle boys who have in during this wifi-less one month, picked up sewing stuffed toys. So wonderful. I started sewing stuffed toys last year. (I even sold two already!) One day, I got down to tackling the sock pile and I found many partnerless socks. I gave them to no. 4 who had been pestering me for socks to make puppets. So now he had a WHOLE BAG of socks. He started snipping and sewing. His older brother joined in. And all of a sudden, we had a whole toy collection. They are very proud that they don't buy toys but make their own. :D I call it the Trickle Down Effect. *Parents, go and get busy with a hobby or something. You will ignite an interest in the kids and you have no telling where it will lead them. :)
The Eaglet and the I Love U pillow made by no. 3 for his papa's birthday that was just past.
No. 4 (8 yrs) made a whale and a Haffalump (from Pooh bear stories). He sewed little black beads for the eyes. So cute. I'm really proud of both of them! These are entirely their own projects, I didn't do anything in the process except praise them at the end. :D
And because they took up the needle and thread, I couldn't help but join in! ;)
These remind me of the cottage we stayed at in Albany, Australia. The landlady made her place so homely by hanging these little stitched hearts all over the cottage. <3
-Sports and swimming
We have moved close to Safra Yishun and it was a strategic move in that we intend for our young homeschoolers to have these wonderful facilities accessible to us. They have been swimming, rollerblading, jogging, cycling. Soon, no. 1 is organizing a rock-climbing level one course too. One more thing to do!
One weekday afternoon (nice and quiet!) swimming at the gorgeous Yishun Safra pool with our other homeschooled friends.
We really enjoy the company of brethren. :)
With that I'll end off this post. Unfortunately, wifi is up and running again but I wanted to record our happy wifi-less days. Hopefully we won't let wifi get the better of our time again. And hopefully I'll find some time to blog about what the kids are doing academically this year. Soon.
Happy CNY, folks! I'll be busy baking. Busy but happy. God bless you all :D
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