School Holiday Project #1: The Trauma Teddy

It's been a little while since my last post... I've been working hard on my beautiful new site, soon to be ready! Take a sneak peak if you like :o) It's pretty and flowery and everything I hoped it would be. I can't wait to get started! Anyway.

I'm REALLY looking forward to the school holidays. Is anybody else? It doesn't seem to be a popular thing to admit, but I've said it. I love school holidays. My lovely little chicken, who's in Kindy this year, can't wait for the holidays to start; she's decided that she wants to learn to knit. Why would a five year old want to knit you might ask? In her words, "Because we need to help the poor people and we haven't helped them for AGES so I want to knit them something so they keep warm." Ohhh! My mummy heart melted right about now. After careful consideration we decided it might be better to knit a Red Cross teddy for sick kids instead - hopefully a little simpler to make than a jumper - and she was more than satisfied with the decision. So off we go this afternoon to BigW to buy some junior knitting needles. Has anyone knitted one of those teddys before? Is it hard? I'm an amateur knitter so I'm not really sure what I'm getting myself into. I do have a feeling that I'll be knitting a lot of it myself though...

My daugher's humanitarian heart has mine melting pretty regularly these days. It seems to have developed this year as she's seen school friends go through difficult times with one friend's parents breaking up and others falling behind in school work. When I think about it, it was the terrible Victorian bushfires that really got her started. We rummaged through the house for things that might help out and donated as much money as we could muster (which, when I counted up the coins, wasn't as much as I would've liked to have been able to give). Since then, she's been dedicated to helping people. One day she announced to her Grandma, "I'm going to try and make my school a better school... I'm going to teach everyone to be kind to eachother by being kind to them." Really? From a five year old? Again. Melting! Her favourite show was Random Acts of Kindness and she often used to say, "I want to be like that," of the people willingly and lovingly helping others. How did this happen? I have no idea. How did she go from a normal, happy but generally self-centred child, to Little Miss Humanitarian?

How beautiful is the innocence of childhood passion. Void of all knowledge of reality and self consciousness that might quench them, children's dreams and hopes seem attainable when they're being babbled about in the car home from school. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to maintain that child-like passion and desire to help?

I'll keep you posted on the progress of our little Red Cross Trauma Teddy. Suggestions more than welcome!

xox

Memories

25 years ago a pretty little thing hobbled into Lismore Base Hospital and delivered her first baby. A girl. Later that week, on a stifling hot day, she took her new baby home wrapped in layers of pure wool cardigans, bonnets and blankets. She was terrified her little girl would catch a cold. Nine months earlier, she'd set her mind to doing the best darn job at raising and loving her baby that she possibly could and she was living up to her promise.

From that day on, she spent every waking hour tending to the needs of her growing daughter and later on, those of her two sons as well. She loved them all unconditionally and gently nurtured their little personalities. She lived with one goal; to be a good mother.

As time went by, the children grew up, got married and made her a Grandma. In her new role, this pretty little thing passed on her ability to love unconditionally and give selflessly to a new generation of her precious family.

So now, on my 25th birthday, I'd like to make a tribute to my Mum. Thanks for 25 wonderful years and for giving me such a loving, nurturing start to life. Thanks for being a brilliant Grandma to my children and a loving, gracious mother in law (who's coming to terms with the fact that her son in law will always rib her!). xox

If I could change the world...

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

If I could do anything to change the world, I'd LOVE.

I'm not talking about smoochy, smiley, I-wanna-get-in-your-pants love. I'm talking about this-sux-but-we're-in-it-together-and-I'm-gonna-stick-by-you love. Life's tough - we know that. But sticking together and managing to love each other through the really hard times as well as the good is really what life is about. It's undeniable. We all need to be loved. Love does make the world go round.

On a larger scale, if we were able to accept and love people as a whole and not see each other as enemies, our perceptions and actions would totally change. We'd become more considerate, compassionate and understanding. Poverty... War... Famine... Fraud... Murder... Child abuse... The list goes on and on. These things would be non-existent if we could manage to love.

I'm not going to sit here and say (or type) that this is possible. Of course it isn't! But imagine the difference it would make to the world if we just tried...

That was my entry for the www.BlogThis.com.au Challenge #15 - hope you liked it :o)

backpacks4aussiekids.org.au

This is just fanastic. backpacks4aussiekids.org is a charity set up to provide foster kids with backpacks full of useful and fun bits and pieces to help with their often unsettled life. These kids so often slip under the radar. I'm so excited to see something constructive and compassionate being done about it!

These are the items most needed right now:

• Clothes for sizes 5 and up for boys and girls. Pre loved is welcomed
  


• Underpants (new please) sizes 3 and up, boys and girls
  


• Nappies, from newborn to age 2
  


• Torches
  


• Dummies, for new born up to 3 years
  


• Baby wipes

Here's why they ask for torches:

"Just imagine - You have been taken from your home, possibly out of your bed or under other highly stressful circumstances. You have been taken to a strangers house by police or DOCS workers (strangers to you) and left there, in an unfamiliar environment - on your own.

Now the nice lady they left you with tucks you up in bed, tells you everything will be o.k. and smiles as she turns out the light and closes the door.

How do you feel? It's dark, all the noises and shadows are different but the light switch is too far away and up too high for you to reach. You pull the covers up close and wish that the morning would come . . .

I was afaid of the dark as a kid, and I had a loving home with a happy family. Still the dark, the fear of the unknown was there. What about you?

My hope is to give these kids a little bit of security during the night by providing them with a light source they can control."

How beautiful and caring is that.

If you'd like to be involved, you can help out by donating money or goods. You can make up complete backpacks (there is a list of items need for each pack) or send goods as per the need.

Please do your bit to support this wonderful cause - every little bit helps! Even if you can't give a large donation, how about buying a pack of dummies or wipes everytime you go grocery shopping. Within a month or so you'll have a nice little bundle of things to send off!

DJ AM - a bittersweet story.

Adam Goldstein (AKA DJ AM pictured here with ex-girlfriend Nicole Richie) is all over headlines this week. This guy had a tough life. He was emotionally abused by his father and was addicted to drugs by the age of 12. Yes, you read it right. 12. By 16 he was addicted to cocaine and ecstasy and with the help of his mum, booked into rehab until he was 18. I don’t know if he was there for all that time, between the ages of 16 and 18 but if he was, that’s a very long time to be in rehab.

By the sounds of it Adam didn’t want to be on drugs and desperately wanted to rid his life of them. “I’d go in the bathroom, break [my pipe] on the toilet and swear to never do it again,” he said in 2005 according to Who. He attempted suicide in 1998 but was saved by a jammed gun. Who reported that Adam was clean for a while but that just days before his passing, he began to spiral downwards and into the waiting arms of narcotics.

One thing I didn’t realise was that he was onboard the fatal September 19 plane crash that took the lives of four people and seriously injured Travis Barker of Blink 182. How anyone could ever recover from this level of trauma I have no idea, let alone someone who had already travelled along such a difficult path. My saving thought is the kind and gentle mercy of God. There’s just no way that physiologists and therapists and certainly not drugs could have ever helped him see a full recovery.

I feel really sad for Adam and his family. For his family - what a sad, sad way to lose someone you love so dearly. For Adam, it’s such a tragedy that his love/hate affair with drugs plagued him right to the end. I would love to be able to believe that we all work out our demons before we die, but unfortunately that’s not always the case.

On the brighter side, his friends are apparently taking comfort in the fact that he spent his last few days mixing which was undoubtedly his passion. That’s certainly a wonderful thing. To be able to find your passion, become really good and it and make a life out of it is something that many are unable to ever do. For this, I’m so happy for the guy. He knew what he wanted to do and he went out and did it.

I've just discovered the awesome blogthis.com.au! Hop on over and check it out if you have a blog - it's a great way to find some pretty swanky blogs and every week they send out a blog challenge... can't wait to get my first one this week!

Anyway. One of the great-for-a-chuckle blogs I've discovered (thanks to bt) is It's Impossible To Be Unhappy In A Poncho where I discovered (it's a discovering day today!) these cool pass-it-on questions. They came from Frills In The Hills originally.

So here goes my turn - let me know if you carry it on to your blog and I'll come take a peek :o)

How did you come up with the name of your blog? Um I don't actually like it but can't think of anything better yet (suggestions welcome!!). I chose it because I write profile articles (I dabble in freelance writing) and I was going to do a lot of those on the blog. It proved very difficult to find enough people to profile on a daily basis! Hence, time for a name change.

What was the first blog you followed? The blog of my wonderfully creative cuz Nomad Mother where she writes about passionfruit with faces and harvesting winter spuds.

What's the latest blog you followed? The Red Deer I voted for strawberry cupcakes - yum!

What blog do you follow that surprises you doesn't have more followers? Um - I don't usually notice how many followers on each blog. Next.

The blog you adore the style of? That prize has to go to Squiggle Mum - she has such a pretty, creative site with a smattering of Aussie pride thrown in. I could look at it for hours!

The blog you visit first thing in the morning? Mamamia. Definitely. I'm a dedicated MMer. Have you read her new book? I love that too!

The blog you go to for a laugh? Today? It's Impossible To Be Unhappy In A Poncho.
I laughed and laughed this morning!

The blog you go to live vicariously or get inspiration from and why? Meet Me At Mikes. They have the most gorgeous home made ideas and the photos are always so lucious. Although I'm not nearly clever enough to try ANY of their ideas!

Which blog did you get this from? It's Impossible To Be Unhappy In A Poncho :o)

Here are the q's for you to paste into your blog if you so wish:

How did you come up with the name of your blog?
What was the first blog you followed?
What's the latest blog you followed?
What blog do you follow that surprises you doesn't have more followers?
The blog you adore the style of?
The blog you visit first thing in the morning?
The blog you go to for a laugh?
The blog you go to live vicariously or get inspiration from and why?
Which blog did you get this from?

Phew! That took much longer than expected. Must get off couch and tend to child calling, "Mum! Poo!" from the bedroom.

What Do You Think Wednesday?

I found this today and thought it was pretty cool - still not exactly sure what message they're sending... what do you think it means?