We have really full weeks.

From Mondays to Fridays, Sophie goes to school both in the morning from 9 - 12.45pm and on Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays, she also goes in the afternoon from 2 - 3.15pm. Personally i think it’s too long for a little kid of 3 years old to be away from her parents, I really struggle with that. I know she really misses us and sometimes she whines about going to afternoon school because she’s a bit tired and just want to cuddle up. Sometimes either James or myself have to do work duty in between those times. Of course in addition to that, she sleeps at 7pm so we really don’t have much time with her.

But but, it’s only for a season and only for 3 months at a time.

So we try to make it up during the weekends!

During the weekends, I spend the earlier part of the morning with her. We do some crafty things and sometimes we get the paints out and just do painting. And then I CRASH. Serious. By 10am, I need to go back to nap. That’s when James takes over and he’ll bring Sophie out. Last Saturday, he brought her to the old pool area by the back of the base and they had a great time jumping in their boots (Thks DN!) in muddy puddles and searching for tadpoles. It’s really great fun.

There’s something about a child jumping in muddy puddles that makes me smile!

Last nite, after the kiddos have gone to sleep, we gathered around a bonfire to cook stick bread and marshmallows.

It was SO FUN!

I’ve never done this before. Tina made the bread dough and all we needed to do was wrap that around a stick and put it over the fire and cook it! After that we eat it with honey/butter/jam. YUMS!

I had a really interesting experience today. Our topic for these two days is Learning Styles. We are learning about our individual learning styles and how that affects our learning. Sheryll, our lecturer who is also our base director, used to be a school teacher so this topic was right up her alley.

As she was teaching, she got us to reflect on what we enjoyed most about school or hated most about school. As she did that, she started to share what she enjoyed most about school in New Zealand and she said "Playtime" and "Nature Study" and I was like going, "Huh? What’s that?!?!".

It took me a while before it dawned on me, oh ya we used to have recess time and we did attempt to do some sort of nature study. But thing was that, it wasn’t a big part of my school days at all. I hardly remember it. I remember eating really fast, playing some games and we were back in class. I even remembered that sometimes I used that time to study for the upcoming test in the next period. How long were our recess times anyway? 30 mins? In NZ, they have 1 hr! 

We have such different education systems. It’s amazing that I managed to survive ours without much scars. I guess I’ve always did pretty alright in school and it wasn’t so stressful during my time (yet.). I’m also thankful that my parents hardly put any pressure on me. 

Anyways, it was interesting to note what was missing in our education system. Guess I’ve always known it and tried to expose Sophie to as much of that as possible. Sheryll also got us to pray and redeem those moments when we had scars from learning and said to ourselves, "I’ll never learn that again!" and it was a powerful time. It’s amazing how many people have been hurt through the education process either by teachers or fellow students.

I also learnt that both James and I are visual and kinesthetic learners. No wonder we can’t hear each other very well! Ha! Looks like we’ve gotta write to each other more. It’s amazing to also note that so many of us are visual and kinesthetic learners but so much of our education system is auditory learning! No wonder so many didn’t get it!

From Babycenter:

Your fetus now looks like a baby, with tiny but fully formed fingers and toes. As his body grows and becomes more developed and functional, he’ll start twisting and turning like an acrobat, cushioned and protected by your amniotic fluid. You, on the other hand, are probably feeling less like a gymnast every day. Leg cramps, which can sometimes be a sign of calcium deficiency, and heartburn (caused by pregnancy hormones that relax the valve which separates the oesophagus from the stomach) may be annoying you during the day and keeping you up at night. Just remember, all this suffering is temporary and it’s all in a good cause you’re having a baby!

This week has been amazing! I feel like I’m in the 2nd trimester already. Energy level is up and I’m feeling pretty upbeat most of the time. Which is super cool because school is in full swing now and we have been really busy! I still need that little lie down in the afternoon but generally I’m good. I’m eating every 2 hrs and feel really greedy most of the time. The cravings are really bad this time. I’ve been thinking of eating that pink triangular steamed thingy with glutinous rice (what is that called!?!), duck porridge (Vic/Dan, the Maggi packs you sent are now coming to use! It’s my supper now.), fish noodles etc etc… HELP!

I’ve been reading this book by the Usborne called Flip-Flap Body Book to Sophie. It talks and shows how a baby grows in the mother’s womb, stage by stage. Pretty cool! A bit cheem for her but she enjoys looking at the pictures. Now she says baby is in the womb, not tummy.

L: Sophie and Leanna, check out how they picked up the same drink.
R: Me feeling the heat from the thermal pool. It’s boiling!

We spent Saturday in Rotorua with our friends from Vanuatu.

Rotorua is only about slightly more than 1 hr from Matamata where we are. It’s famous for its smell. You’ll smell sulfur as soon as you drive in. There is a lot of thermal activity everywhere. We went to an open park and you really walk at your own risk! Sophie was really fascinated with the bubbling mud pools and smoke. Ooo the smell!

Spending time with the Ni-Vans is always wonderful, always relaxing. You see the wonderful provision of the Lord everywhere they go and travelling with them, we get to experience that as well! They managed to borrow enough vehicles to take the entire team, someone arranged a BBQ lunch for them, free parks and free culture tours! It was so cool. Gonna miss them when they return and I’m hoping that we’ll get to go back to Vanuatu sometime this year. Maybe after baby is born.

As you know, we’ve just began the new FMS for 2010.

It’s been a great start and I’m so excited about what God’s doing. Led class worship this morning and felt such an openness in the class towards God. Very cool. (Btw, I didn’t throw up at the class. Turned out to be a bug and I prayed last night in the name of Jesus for the bug to go and I was perfectly fine by dinner time and totally alright this morning! Praise the Lord! My morning sickness is rather mild.)

Here’s a picture of our orientation last weekend. The creche and homeschool staff prepared a parachute game for the kids but noticed what eventually happened?!? The adults had more fun than the kids! The kids were pretty amused. So funny!

This class has only 9 students - 2 singles, 1 single parent and 3 married couples but we have a team of 9 staff so it’s one-on-one! So far so good. James has 1 guy for one-on-one and I have 2 ladies. One of the ladies is a Korean lady who is a missionary in China and she’s planning to pioneer FMS in China. Aiyo I’m so impressed and so excited to be her one-on-one, so many things to talk about. I love people who pioneer stuff, always super exciting for me.

Please do keep us in prayer. James and I are doing well, struggling a little with discipling Sophie at times because she’s really quite strong-willed by nature but with God’s grace, we know that she’ll grow and learn.

We’re actually in week 10, at least that’s what my Babycentre email says. YES! Almost done with the 1st trimester.

I’ve been so off yesterday and today. I’ll start the day super well and then at the end of the school day, i’m so tired out and I threw up twice today. I’m not sure if it’s the bug that is going around coz a few people have got it already or it’s morning sickness. It’s all kinda hard to tell at this point. But it’s making me unable to take in much food at all. Hopefully it’ll get better.

All my grand plans about homeschooling Sophie has come to a standstill since school started this week. The over ambitious me always ends up committing to more than I can do. Anyways I think I’ll take it slow… keep the important things in mind and leave the minor things till later.

YES! We’re expecting!!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!! Sophie and James are super excited. Sophie kisses my tummy every day. James started thinking about where the baby was going to sleep etc once we found out we were pregnant.

We really feel so blessed. It’s really God’s timing. We kinda told ourselves we’ll start trying end of last year and within a couple of months we were expecting. We found out on New Year’s Day. It was such a great start to a new year.

This pregnancy has been a bit more happening than when I had Sophie. I actually threw up for the first time! Like serious throw up. When I had Sophie, I hardly had any of the symptoms that people talk about - no morning sickness, no cravings (I was really hoping for some so I can make James do something ridiculous for me! HAHA!), no nothing.

But this time, WAH! it comes in full force.

I am hungry like ALL the time and when I look at food, esp dairy, I wanna throw up! Even writing about it makes me feel a bit queasy.

And I’ve been having cravings. Serious cravings. Like chilli crabs. HELP!

And I’m only in wk 9 and I can’t fit into my Miss Sixties jeans anymore. Ya ya the one pair I wear almost everyday. (Rem the Miss Sixties jeans that I kept trying on after giving birth to Sophie to make sure I could fit into it? It finally fit again when Sophie was 6 mths old. Sigh… have to wait long long this time.) Of course if I can’t fit into my Miss Sixties jeans there is no way I can fit into my skinnys. And that means, no clothes to wear! Have to ask my MIL to send the maternity clothes soon. So fast!

Complains aside………… WE ARE SUPER HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Baby’s due date is approximately 25th Aug 2010. We went to the local midwife on Sunday and had a chat with her. I think we’re quite comfortable giving birth here if we need to. We haven’t quite decided if we’re staying or going home, still praying. But whatever it is, we’re coming back to Singapore in Apr/May for a break and I’m seriously going to eat myself silly.

Dearest Sophie,

You’re going to be a che che in a few months! You’ve been really looking forward and talking about what you will do with your little sister/brother. You would like a little sister but we’re still not sure what baby is going to be. I do hope that you will get your wish. We all think that you’re going to be a great older sister and he/she is extremely blessed to have you as an older sister.

We love you dear one.

Love,

Mummy

The Family Ministries School (FMS) begins tomorrow! I’m really looking forward to staffing it. 

We’ve got John Rush teaching on Worldviews on family (he did a great teaching of Biblical Worldviews during the last DTS), Ian Hooker back to teach on Parenting, Jono on Communication, Sheryll will be teaching on Learning Styles Multiple Intellegiences (understanding how we learn and how our kids learn, very interesting), Bruce Thompson on Family Counselling and much more.

This time all the school staff have also been invited to share on different topics so James and I will be teaching in a school for the first time. Guess what our topic is? Pre-marital counselling. Funny coz we’ve never done that in a formal way before BUT realised we’ve always done that with our young adult friends in some way or another. So pls pray that the Lord will show us what on His heart for this new generation of counselling couples who are preparing for marriage.

So what would you have wished someone told you about marriage before you got married? Or if you are single, what questions do you have about relationships or marriage?

Btw, if you have some thoughts about this topic, I’d love love to hear your thoughts. Doesn’t have to be a Christian viewpoint. 

I hope that being on staff this time will give me a bit more time to summarise some of the teaching and post them here. The last time the school was so intense mentally and emotionally. I mean there’s no way you can go through a school like that and not have to deal with inherent issues in your own marriage with God and your spouse. So James and I had lots to deal with. Plus all the level 2 homework, intense! So hopefully hopefully, will be able to condense the teaching because it’s been SO good.

I’m a big fan of Sophie’s drawings, only coz I love how it just develops over time and it’s so cool to watch! It prob doesn’t mean much to anyone else but it’s super cool to observe how little kids develop their sense of proportions and spatial understanding over time.

Here’s a sample of her drawings over the past year.

Jan 2010 - That’s Daddy. Check out the hair. She never drew hair like that prior to this. So cute!

Sept 2009 - Our family. Daddy, Mummy, Sophie and Baby lying on the floor with a balloon upside down in its face. She’s been wanting a baby brother or sister and makes her requests known through her drawings.

June 2009 - She drew this and said it was Tigger’s House while Ling and I were having tea. The green thingy on the left is a flower. She got me to draw a roof coz she said she didn’t know how to draw a roof. Btw, at this point in Jan she draws her own semi circle roofs on buildings that she draws.

May 2009 - She drew this in Vanuatu. James coloured it in. It’s a smiling King she says. So cute lah.

YeYe, this photo is for you! Sophie ate ji jiao! Chicken feet! And she loves it!

Pris, ya! Chicken feet!

Btw, this was our first dim sum meal since we left Brissy. So shiok ah….

And thank you MaMa for sending the Xia Jiang Ji (Prawn paste chicken mix)……. So so so shiok…. really helps with the cravings!