New School Uniform

I have been part of a committee to upgrade the school uniform at the Primary School my children attend.  When we first looked at moving to Sydney, several of my children begged me to choose a different school because this one had such an ugly uniform.  To refresh your memory, here are my children at the start of this year.  Only Ben likes it because it is 'Hawthorn' colours (the AFL team he barracks for).

  The Uniform committee has worked long and hard to come up with a new uniform, and it has begun the process of being introduced at school.  Yesterday was the first day it was permitted to be worn to school.  There is a two year change over period, where people can wear either the old uniform or the new (not a mixture of the two).  Today my children all wore the new uniform.  They were all up, dressed and sitting quietly on the couch listening to Abby read them a story before my alarm even went off at 6:30 this morning.  A new uniform is obviously a very exciting event.  Here they are, ready for school, looking (in my opinion) a million times better than they did in the yellow and brown.

Technically the hats and jackets are not official uniform as there has been a hold up with supply of these items and these are some I have substituted from local shops, but it is basically the same as the official items, just without the school logo.

The only disappointment was that the kids in Abby's class (who have worn the old uniform for 5-6 years already) are very loyal to the brown and gold and were calling her a traitor and telling her she looked stupid.  Heartbreaking to have happen when she was so excited before school, but if she chooses to go back to the old uniform most of the time, that's okay.  One girl was even hitting her (not hard fortunately) but sad all the same.

Pregnancy

I am 22 weeks pregnant today.  Here is what is happening in-utero this week:

 The baby is now about 28cm long (crown to heel) and weighs about 340grams. The eyebrows and eyelids are fully developed, and the fingernails cover the fingertips. Sounds from a conversation are loud enough to be heard by the baby in the uterus. If you talk, read, or sing to your baby, it's reasonable to expect her to be able to hear you.

I am finding this pregnancy has been a very different experience for me than any of the other four.  There are a number of reasons for this.  Firstly, I am older.  My body doesn't seem to be coping as well with some things, like having extra weight sitting on my pelvis, somewhat squished up, for long periods of sitting through lectures and essay writing.  My generally low level of fitness has also been enhanced lately.  Climbing the stairs to bed some evenings is already a problem, leaving me feeling breathless.  I will really have to work on the fitness levels after this baby is born.

I am also finding myself frustrated by the gestational diabetes.  Whilst I know it is causing me to eat more healthily, and I have already seen that my extra handles around the waist are disappearing (not due to tummy expansion, but actually disappearing) I am longing to get back to my normal diet.  This involves lots of bread and pasta, mashed potatoes, chocolate when I want, and the ability to eat when I want instead of eating to a time schedule.  Also, my poor fingers are getting callused from being stabbed four times a day to check my blood sugar levels.  I had a dream last night that I ate some chocolate and 2 jelly snakes, and then I panicked because of what it would do to my blood sugar levels and was about to go for a run around the block to work it off, when the alarm woke me up.  I was almost afraid to check my sugar levels this morning, just in case my dream had affected them.

However...

I am noticing things this pregnancy that I don't remember ever noticing before.  When I was pregnant with Abby I was the first of my friends to have a baby and I didn't really have anyone to talk things over with, or discuss different symptoms.  Also, I was working full-time and was quite busy generally.  When I was pregnant with each of the boys I was so busy with the older children, that most pregnancy symptoms went unnoticed.  I just didn't have time to stop and think about how I was feeling, or what was happening in my body.  This time, I have had many, many conversations with others who have been through pregnancy and there are a whole range of symptoms that I have paid more attention to. 

I have never had a great sense of smell (I think partly caused by intentionally ignoring it when working in a childcare centre), but this time, my increased sense of smell was one of the first things I noticed, even before I knew I was pregnant.  Some smells are good, and some I would rather avoid.  I told my kids to clean their teeth a lot more in the early weeks than I normally do as their breath was one thing I REALLY noticed.

I still lead a busy life, but I do have times when I can just sit in the middle of the day and pay attention to what is going on.  I have never really felt baby movements before 19-20 weeks before and I was somewhat skeptical of people who claimed they could, but this pregnancy I've had time to pay attention to different feelings in my tummy and notice what was digestive and what was different.  I felt this baby moving around 14 or 15 weeks.  A tiny fluttering 'something', that definitely wasn't normal, digestive process.  Simon has been able to feel her in the last week also, which is earlier than with any others and very exciting.

I am loving the 'pregnant' look in a way I have never done before.  My little basketball tummy sticking out brings me a little buzz every time I look down at it, although it also makes me wonder just how huge I will be in another 18 weeks considering how big I am already.

Another major difference with this pregnancy is knowing that it is a girl already.  I feel almost like I have a different bonding experience with this baby than I had with the others because I was still waiting to find out 'what' they were right up to the last minute.  Now that I know this is a girl (and I would have felt the same way about a boy... it's just having some more idea about who the baby is) I can hardly wait to meet her properly.

I'm also enjoying the kids excitement.  Abby asks me several times a day if the baby is awake or moving.  She is desperate to feel movements as well, but I expect it will be a few weeks yet before she can.

Book Week

This week is Book Week and today our children had a "Dress as your favourite character from a book" day.  We changed it to "Dress as someone from a book that you can find a costume for" day, as our chosen favourites were not all that easy in some cases.

 Abby as 'EJ12' from the EJ12 Girl hero series

 Tim as The Man from Snowy River.

 Ben as a 'Picanniny Indian' from the Indian tribe in "Peter Pan".

 Ezra as 'Peter Pan'.

Peter Pan and the Indian Brave.

Baby

Today we had our 19 week ultrasound to check on our fifth child.  We kept the kids home from school so they could come with us and share the experience.

So... here is our first photo of our youngest daughter.

Class Captain for Term 2.

Ezra wearing his new 'class captain' badge on his collar.

New wine

Every now and then I read a random verse in the Bible and a new thought/insight jumps out at me.  This term I am studying the Old Testament Prophets and Writings and one of the first books we will look at is Isaiah.  I decided to be proactive and actually read it before we cover it in class, or at least start reading it.

I began on Wednesday morning (20minutes before the class started... yeah, I don't give myself much time) and didn't even finish chapter 1 before I had one of those epiphany moments which always seem so much more significant at the moment you have it than they do when you try to explain them later on.

Isaiah's message begins by addressing the wickedness of the nation of Judah and for some reason I was struck by vs 22.
       "Your silver has become dross,
              your wine is mixed with water."

My mind somehow made a jump to Jesus, at the wedding feast in Cana, performing his first miracle by turning water into wine and I had my epiphany.

Isaiah is describing how God's chosen people, the best of the best, the 'choice wine' one might say, have ruined themselves.  They have been watered down and contaminated beyond repair by their disobedient and wilful behaviour by turning from God's plan and following the ways of the nations around them.  There is no way to 'un-water down' wine that has been ruined in this way.

But... Jesus first miracle suddenly seemed to me to be a symbol of what he came to do.  He is taking the water, the worthless and ruined, and he came to turn it (us, his people) back into the best of the best, the 'choice wine'.  I had never really understood the meaning of this miracle in the past (and this may still not be what a real theologian gets out of it) but it bears new meaning and significance for me now as I consider the way he is taking my ruined little self and he is restoring me to be his 'best'.

Crafting