Controversy? I call it common sense!

What is up with fashion and the way young girls dress themselves these days?

We went to the mall last week, a pretty frequent trip we take. The kids needed new school shoes and socks, so we went to Kmart to get what we needed. After walking around for bit, I was horrified. I honestly felt really disgusted by what I saw. Girls as young as 10 (they appear at about that age, they are very young anyway) dressing themselves like they were much older and even the older girls (16+) are dressed like they are in a stripper club. Very short skirts, barely hiding their private parts, tops that only cover their chest, showing their waist and more, well, they don’t leave much for imagination. And it seems like it is getting so much worse lately.

I mean, come on! Who are these girl’s parents and who lets them walk out of their houses dressed like that? What sort of modesty example are they setting? These are the girls who will be mums one day and that makes me wonder, what will the next generation be like?

This is a problem. Because it opens other cans of worms.

We all have to take responsibilities for our actions, for sure. But who can blame a man for looking at these girls? They do not hiding anything, and like I mentioned before, they leave nothing to the imagination. The worst part is that these girls are not old enough to understand how some people have evil intentions and take their thoughts of lust to a different level. But who can be blamed for it?

I think parents have a HUGE influence in this matter. I don’t know, call me tough. But there is no way I would let my daughters walk around like that or even dress like that at home. Our bodies are sacred and modesty is definitely something valuable, especially in our society, because these days it’s something rare, as I am finding out. As a parent of two girls, it is my duty to call for inappropriate dressing, it’s my duty to teach (not dictate, well, sometimes the ‘because I said so’ might be applicable) and to show them how it can affect them and others. Also, fathers have a huge part to play in this problem, after all, they have been a teenage boy before and they know what goes through their minds.

So we also need to teach our sons how to respect women and love them, because they are beautiful inside first. It’s not all about the image. These girls don’t understand they don’t have to show their most private parts, so boys think they are beautiful. Sometimes I feel like giving them a good shake and yell: ‘You are beautiful no matter what! Go put some clothes on! Value yourself!’ I get really mad, maybe because I do care about my girls too much and I am so scared about what influences they are having while young. It’s so sad the world is coming to that. It really is.

Being a parent can suck sometimes. But the ultimate goal is to guide our children as they grow up and teach them what is best for them. Can I plea with you: let’s please do our small part in our girls lives. They are precious and grow up way too fast. Let’s protect them as much as we can, and what we can do to help them become great girls who know how beautiful they are without having to show their bodies to the world.

My award

I received an award from Nicole at the Life in the Boy's Locker Room - which is really sweet!

Sunshine Award rules:

1. Include the award’s logo in a post or on your blog.

2. Answer 10 questions about yourself.

3. Nominate 10-12 other fabulous bloggers.

4. Link your nominees to the post and comment on their blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.

5. Share the love and link the person who nominated you.

And the questions...

Favorite color? Pink

Favorite animal? Dogs, they are adorable

Favorite number? 5 (the number of people in our little family)

Favorite non-alcoholic drink? water :)

Prefer Facebook or Twitter? Facebook

My passion? ugh, I am not really sure about this one... I enjoy a lot of different things, but don't have one thing only that can be considered a passion....

Prefer getting or giving presents? both! But I thinking giving is a little bit better. I love seeing the face of whoever is receiving a gift

Favorite pattern? .... of what? polka dots?

Favorite day of the week? friday! I love the antecipation of the weekend

Favorite flower? Gerberas because they are really pretty and look very happy

And now I pass this award to:

Frenchy at the Chatteau de Fleurs
Katie at the Love, Life and Pursuits of Katie
Kenzie at KF
Kristin at What Happens at Naptime
Benay at Benay's blog

I can't give it anyone else as my bloggy friends might not even know who I am after being away for so long. I do hope you gals accept my humble award! And I picked you, well, because I really enjoy their blogs and I hope you will too xx

New friends? Yes, please!

One of the cons of moving to a new city is you don’t know anyone, or just a few people.

When we first got here, we only knew a few people (consisting of my brother and his wife, and some good friends from hubby’s childhood). At first, it was all great, you got together a few times... then life starts happening, we got busy, they got busy. The people we know have other friends and we can’t expect them to hang out with us exclusively. Specially because we can’t include our three babies all the time, some activities are not kid friendly at all, and fair enough too. We didn’t expect people to change their lifestyle to suit us. So, suddenly we realised it was time to get to know new people, and make new friendships.

That’s is so much easier said than done. It’s so hard to get out of our comfort zone and start from scratch again, specially when it comes down to talking to people you never did before. I don’t know about you, but I am not the kind of person who can just walk into a room and start chatting about the weather and such, unlike my hubby who can. So we balance each other nicely that way.

We have been here for 5 months now (time flies I tell ya!) and here are my findings. I have done this moving thing a few times so I want to share what I learnt:

· Make an effort. You are the new kid on the block, so you have to find where you fit. Join in something. Church, a craft group, a sports team. Since we found a church, things have been much better in the social department

· Don’t settle for something that doesn’t suit you or your family lifestyle. We all have many kinds of different friends, and we do different activities with different people. It’s ok to join in activities that you are not that into, but mostly, try and hang out with a group that is similar to you. (I have learnt this as we only knew couples with no children, it doesn’t always work – not the friendship part, but just the ‘hanging out’ part – we still love those friends and hang out with them sometimes). But also, it's ok to find people who love doiung what you do. Chances are, you will get to spend a lot of time together!

· Don’t expect people to re-arrange their lives to fit yours. Remember, people already had their life before you moved. So they already have established routines/activities they like to do. If you have that in common, great! If not, it’s ok!

· Be patient. It takes time to form friendships. Be persistent, go the extra mile, invite people over to your house. Get comfortable with people you like. They can become people you love!

· And lastly, don’t forget your old friends. We have met some incredible people in our moves and they are always gonna be special to us. Catch up with them, let them know what it’s new, be there for them despite distance.

And in the spirit of new friends, I am linking up to

I really need to shake the dust off this blog and new friends will make it perfect! Don’t be shy, say hi :)

Weekend and Phobia

Happy Monday everyone,

It’s been a quiet and hot weekend in these parts.

Saturday was very uneventful as hubby worked and I tackled housework. Saturday is my cleaning day, the day I restore our nest to its livable conditions. I guess with me working full time, I gave up to the fact that my house it’s not gonna look like a catalogue photo every day (not that it ever does anyway). I must say that I personally think we are doing really well, that means I don’t fall into desperation every time I walk in through the door. I do the dishes every morning before leaving and my laundry is always washed (folded is a different story).
So on Saturday after hubby got back from work, we went swimming. It was 39C here and we were cooking. Sunday wasn’t much different, after church we got to hang out with some real cool friends, we went for a drive enjoying the cool air conditioner, more swimming. The weekend never lasts long enough.

Weekends are great but I have a confession to make. Lately I have been feeling scared.

TERRIFIED

I have one word for it: Cockroaches

It seems like we have an infestation at home. I have phobia of cockroaches. Actually my whole family does apart from my mum. My dad, two brothers and a sister, we all inherited this illogical fear of the ugliest and grossest bug there is. At the moment we’re getting one or two every day which is way too many. I honestly haven’t even seen a cockroach in a long time (8 years of New Zealand living and one year of Australia – but it has changed since I moved to Perth – we live across the road from the river and also a swamp and it does not help that we have scorching hot weather either)

I have a super trained eye that can spot them even in a dark room. This super powers do not work in other situations but I am a super cockroach spotter. Hubby thinks it’s hilarious that I completely freak out and I can’t be in the same house as a cockroach. So you can see how having an infestation is a problem. A big problem. It leads to extreme paranoia, visions, loud screaming, tears and loss of control.

Yes, we are gonna get the house sprayed for bugs. They have a waiting list, it’s the high season apparently.

Meanwhile I am armed with my cockroach spray, super vision super powers and tissues (for my scared tears)

Things that kids say

I am not likely to post on the weekend as we have no internet connection at the moment (I know!!)

But I wanted to post today to reassure myself that I am indeed back this time. So here I am and this is a short post but it's funny.

My boy is 5 - and I love him, I love how his little mind works and how he asks 125673456 questions in a single minute. But lately he has been saying the funniest things, like:

'Mum, why didn't you name me Josh, I want to be called Josh...' Ok, why didn't I know that before?

and

'Mum, when am I going to be a street kid?' No idea where he got that from

And he also decided that armpits are really disgusting and he makes me laugh everytime he sees someone's armpit

Love my boy

The resurrection of the blog

Well, it's me again, trying to resurrect my blog...... again!

Every once in a while I have the urge to write my thoughts and feelings, but have not had the courage to commit to writing a blog again because I know I will get busy and I will be likely to stop... again.

But here I am and this is what has been going though my head and my life lately. I have a lot on my mind so I am just gonna write. And I better let you know, in case you are looking for clever writing or words of inspiration, I am sorry to disappoint. I am just going to write and post this, and that's usually my writing style. It might not make sense sometimes, other times I must just say a lot on a lot of different subjects in one single post. It's just a warning and I do hope you stick around.

So where to begin? Just a brief catch up on how things are going in our corner of the world.... the weather has been very hot which means lots of swimming. We are really blessed to live very close to the beach, so we enjoy it whenever we can. Summer has officially ended and we are in the middle of a heat wave - it's supposed to be 40 degrees on Sunday (102F). As a family, this is the hotter summer we experienced, moving to Australia we knew the weather was a lot hotter than what we are used to, and I must say we are coping quite well.

I am still working full time but this time, I am mostly enjoying it (apart from being too tired in the evenings). Hubby is back at work but still deciding what is best for us as a family after being off work for so long (due to spinal surgery). Kids have been busy with school. Elijah has started school full time and that means my baby is finally a 'big boy'. Where has time gone?

I have been so caught up with the busyness of life and sometimes it's so hard to appreciate moments, specially when I am so tired and grumpy.

At lunch time yesterday, I found myself reading a blog about a mom and her little girl drowned. The grief, sorrow that come to her and her family and it really brought tears to my eyes as I read her journey through her beautiful writing.

I really felt so blessed to have my kids being healthy and happy, even if they drive me crazy sometimes. It made me vow to myself that I will try really had not to let the 'green eyed mummy monster' visit us anymore. I love my kids with all my heart and I want them to remember me as being a good and patient mum, and not being impatient and intolerant. It's so easy to get carried away and get wrapped up in our own moment, it's hard to decide which battles to fight instead of fighting them all and die from exhaustion and guilt. Kids always seem to quickly forget our wrong doings and forgive us and love us no matter what and that's amazing.

Being a parent is tough. Because we love our kids so much but sometimes other things get the best of us. Tiredness, grumpiness, moodiness - you name it. But think about it, we are so blessed to be able to kiss our munchkins good night even if we are having a bad day. Some parents don't get to do that anymore. And it is so sad. I feel so sad for that mum. I felt her raw emotions and prayed and prayed that I NEVER get to feel them.

So the lesson learned here was very strong and very real. I will love my little ones because they grow up very fast and soon I will be missing the times they were little. I will renew my vows to myself every time I feel like green eyed mummy wants to come around. I never want to see that lady again.

I am back!

Long time no see! A very long time no see!

I am not going to give excuses for being away for such a long time. Let’s just say life happened and I went along with it. A lot has happened since I was last here, so I better start from the beginning…

Well, when I last wrote here, we were living in Mt. Gambier, South Australia. We now live in Perth, Western Australia, and we lived in Adelaide for 6 months. A lot of moving around, yes, and this is why…

When we decided to relocate to Aussie, it was because my hubby was offered a job in Mt. Gambier. We had a five to ten year plan to stay there – but God had a different plan for us. We arrived in Mt Gambier in June 2010, by the time it was January 2011 it was clear that my hubby was in a lot of pain. After visiting doctors, and eventually a surgeon, it was established that he needed spinal fusion surgery! And 6 months recovery after surgery – which meant I would have to go back to working full time and he was going to do the stay-at-home-dad for a while. So with that in mind, we moved to Adelaide in April 2011, so I could find work and it was where surgery was going to take place.

He finally had his surgery in July, and thank God it all went well. What did not go well was my job search. I wasn’t able to find full time employment and I had temporary jobs for the whole six months we were in Adelaide. God blessed us immensely during that time, gave us some life long friends, and we were never in need of anything. But the stress of not having a stable income was taking its toll on our family and after 6 months of searching, we decided to broad the search to Perth, for two reasons: I have family here and Western Australia is going through a massive boom economically because of the mining sector. So I started applying for jobs and a week later, I kid you not, I had a full time job. So it was like having a confirmation on what we had to do, so finally, in October this year, we came to Perth.

We have been here for nearly 4 weeks now and we love it. The kids started going to a Christian school and they are very happy. I have started working and really enjoy my job. One last thing that needs to fall into place is, we going to move to our own house on the 19th November and we cant wait. We have been staying with my brother and his wife, in their ONE bedroom apartment. Let’s just say we are a bit squashed and my kids don’t have control of their volume sometimes, hehe.

What a journey! Even though we feel like we haven’t had a ‘proper’ start here in Australia, we can definitely say we have seen God’s care all the way. God provided for us in a way we would not think possible. He used people to bless and humble us when we saw no light in the end of the tunnel.

Sometimes it’s hard to understand why things happen the way they do, but no matter what happens, God is always there. Which in itself is a very humbling thought, why us, the undeserving people who are always impatient, unsatisfied, worried? Because He loves us – why? - that’s mystery in itself.

yep, it's me!

I know I have not been as good as writing here as I should. I have been trying to get inspired and write meaningful things but to be honest, I can't seem to find my light.

What have we been up to? Well... not much. You know the same old wake up-get ready-clean-cook sort of routine. I have been venturing out a little but the weather has been so miserable that it's hard to plan anything. Ughhh, wet weather is not great is it? The lawns are so long now it looks like we live in the jungle. But can't mow them until this rain decides to give us a break.

I found a really cute shop in town, it's an antique shop and I love it. I also have been browsing around, getting to know this place a bit better.

Other than that, I am planning Allyah's birthday party which will happen next weekend. It will be at the park - weather permitting of course. For the first time, I will be making the decorations, so watch this space....

If there is anyone that even still reads my blog, don't be shy! Say hello! Make my day :)

Who's the bargain queen??

I AM THE BARGAIN QUEEN!
Well. I have to admit. I NEVER pay full price when it comes to clothes or shoes. I actually mean it, our money is hard earned and I dare not pay $50+ for a pair or pants of shoes. No my friends, this mum does not do that. And I must add that I don't have anything against people who does, just so we're clear. I love second hand shops and half of my wardrobe is thrifted!

So today I was in town and after I got a call from school to come and get Isabella who apparently was sick (trust me, that child is NOT sick, she can really put it on - so we're home and she wants to play outside, hmmm, sorry dear, sick people stay in bed...) I ventured into one of the shops here and I was giddy! Give me $20 and I can get a lot. To be exact, I spent $18. I got two jackets for me, one pair of really good pants for Isabella, one for Allyah, one for Elijah, a toy spider man and toy ten pin bowling game for the kids! So, two jackets, three pair of pants and two toy items for $18!
Not mentioning when I went to K-Mart I got a jumper for $5 and a maternity skirt for $3 (the skirt is very vintage and I wear it as a top... I should take photos!)

I only buy good quality and I have to like it, I don't buy it just because it's cheap. But it is always cheap and that's a bonus!

Like I said, bargain queen is my middle name!

Maybe I should expand and share my bargain hunting tips? Would anyone be interested in that? Leave me a comment if you would!

I LOVE fridays!

Even if I am at home and my days are pretty much free (well... we are not counting housework and climbing Mt Laundry here - even though they do take a lot of my time, humph) there is something about fridays. Would you agree?

Is it the " I don't have to get up so early and rush like a mad woman to get the kids to the school bus" feeling?
Or the "even though hubby is working this weekend we still get to spend time together as a family" feeling?

I don't know but whatever it is, I just have to declare my love publicly: Friday, I love you. You are wonderful and you make my heart sing!
Hehehe

Now that that is out of the way, here is the linky party for today:


If you are here for new friend Friday, welcome!! Make yourself at home :)