Giving back to someone who needs it.

I don't do this often. I know there are plenty of causes on the internet, and we all get caught up in them, so that after a while we can become almost immune. Worn out, drained. Struggling with guilt over not being able to give enough.

If you are feeling that way, it's ok. Not everyone can give every time. But perhaps you can let your friends know. Someone needs us, and as has been proven time and time again, the internet can be used for amazing things.

My friend Naomi, from Seven Cherubs is an amazing woman. I knew that pretty much the first day I read her blog, maybe a year or so ago. She is kind and gentle, loving and compassionate, wise and determined. And she has a friend, in desperate need of our help.

Her friend's name is Lisa. Lisa King.  Lisa and her husband Aaron have 4 children - 4 little boys.  Their second child Noah was born with a condition of the brain called Hydranencephaly. His prognosis was terrible, it causes severe mental and physical disability in cases as severe as Noah's. Sadly, in October, he passed away just after turning 10.

As a mother, I can only imagine what that feels like. Alexander is almost 9 and the thought of him being gone is breathtakingly painful. The thought of somehow carrying on...unthinkable.

But not as unthinkable as this. On Australia day, very suddenly, Lisa's fit, 39 year old husband Aaron died (this link is the post written by Aaron's best friend, Lisa's brother. He was there when it happened and his grief is palpable). It seems he had a heart attack. Now 3 little boys are left, still reeling from the loss of their brother, now trying to come to terms with the fact that Daddy isn't coming home either. And Lisa. Lisa has to get up every day and cope with losing two of the most important people in her life.  Two people she lost within less than 4 months of each other!

I don't know what their situation re Insurance is. I hope that they will be fine. But these things take time. They've yet to pay for a headstone for Noah's grave, and now they have to pay for a second funeral. They have bills to pay, mouths to feed, the normal minutiae now made more impossible by the loss of their sole income.

So, after a couple of inquiries, Naomi has set up a donation page for anyone who feels that they can help Lisa and the boys out. Any small amount helps, it all adds up. In only 24 hours, the goal of $10000 has nearly been reached.

It would be wonderful if any of you could help them get there, or even further. The page is here (in less than an hour since I was able to donate, we've gone over the $10 000 mark. The new goal is $15000. Remember, they're paying not just for a funeral, but the every day living expenses they will have until insurance money finally trickles its way down.

All photos taken from http://lisajking.blogspot.com/

Something to Talk About 4 - First week of school

This week's blog promt is "Your first day of school".  Our little ones are all headed back to school (either last week or this week, I'm assuming for most) and it's an exciting, if not stressful time.

Can you remember your first day at school? What was your teacher's name? Were you sad on your first day? Do you remember who your Year 1 best friend was? Do you have any photos of you on your first day?

I'll come back and do mine tomorrow. In the meantime, some photos of Alexander on his first day. I'm thrilled to say that despite my fears, this school is (so far) quite wonderful. He has an amazing teacher, the unit teachers and aides are divine (He has really attached to Russell, the male teacher's aide for Unit Kids in Year 4).  The unit here is about the size of the unit at his old school (which had 500 children, this school has 1100). But the number of children attached to it is less than half. So it's going to be wonderful to see him finally NOT fall through the cracks.

Some flash flooding here in Brisbane, and the Australia day public holiday messed his first week around a bit (And Sammy's first week at his kindy/Pre School. Can you believe he will start Prep next year????  He coped amazingly well, far better than anyone expected! It was good news all around for my darling boys). So hopefully we'll get some routine going from this week.

So...tell us about your memories of your first day of school.  How different was it to how yours are starting?






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Lisa's Thursday Three - What I love about my country

Linking up with Lisa from Life as we know it for the first time for Thursday Three (Ok. So I'm a day and a bit late. Don't pretend you're surprised). 

1. I imagine that this is probably what most Australian's would start with, but it can't be helped. I love the beauty of this country. Or more than that, the diversity of beauty. The ochre of the centre that seemed to cover everything when I lived there for my teenage years. The turquoise of our reef, one of the world's great wonders. The verdant, deep mossy green of some of it's forests. The crimson of the Sturt Desert Pea against the yellow of the Golden Wattle; the purple Jacaranda so precious to me, and as I gaze up at them, I spy the explosion of colour - my favourite bird, the Rainbow Lorikeet.

   

            

2. Relaxed, easy paced lifestyle.

I love that we can have a laugh here. I love the sense of mateship, the Sunday afternoon barbecues, beach and backyard cricket being a right of passage for every Aussie kid,  our ridiculous love of sports and the water, our ability to poke fun at ourselves.

    

What Australians's SHOULD think about when they hear "Wallabies"   

  What Australians's REALLY think about when they hear "Wallabies"        

     

 

                   

        

(All image sources can be found via my Pinterest).

       

   

3. I genuinely love that Australia is a melting pot of cultures. That with the exception of the Indigenous people, we're all from somewhere else. I can honestly say, I have no real desire to 'stop the boats'. I know we have to think about long term infrastructure, but I'd like to see us be more welcoming to immigrants, not less. I think communities are more beautiful for their diversity, not less.

    

What do you love about the country you live in? 

What would I do - Something to Talk About

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back on my own "Something to Talk About" post. Busy, stressful week last week, trying to get both boys ready for School (Alexander - Year 4) and Pre School (Sammy).
More on that for my next post.

Last week's topic:

“List things you are curious about. What do you want to learn? If you could go back and study anything you want (can be more than one thing), what would you choose? Are there any skills you wish you had that you don't? Dream big. Tell me all of the things you wish you could do, all of the things you wish you could learn about. ”

                                                                             Source: Uploaded by user via Tamara on Pinterest

I think one of the reasons I didn't get on to this one is that there are so many things I wish I could do. So many things I would change about the past 20 years, things I wish I'd pursued, chased, committed to.  I wouldn't change marrying Joel, having the boys, or looking after Mum.

But I do wish I liked myself more. I wish I had more 'accomplishments', I wish I was more accomplished.  I wish I'd let my inner nerd out 20 years ago when I had all of the time in the world (and worked harder to get the money to finance it, rather than squandering it all).

On to the things I wish I'd devoted time to learning.

1. I wish I had gone to university and studied. If time and responsibility were no issue there are several things I would want to study. English Literature. Creative Writing. Political Science. International Affairs. History. Medicine. Art History. Music History. Those ones are just for fun. I also wish I'd pursued my interest in the law, though mostly my interest would focus on political/government law.

 

I'm incredibly interested in linguistics (and may choose to pick up a couple of languages myself, if I can over the next couple of years).  I'd like to learn several languages though. I've had this conversation with Joel so many times and struggle to narrow it down. Some are purely nerd factor, others....I don't know. I just wish I could speak (and write and read) them.

1. French (My first choice. I love the sound of it; except when spoken by non-French men. Mostly then it kind of grosses me out, the stereotypical sleezy french accent. But...(ultimate nerd factor. I've never read Proust. And I'm told it doesn't count if you don't read it in it's original. French).
2. Italian
3. Latin (I did say nerd factor; it's just that so much that we know and say now stems from Latin..)
4. Arabic
5. Spanish
6. Russian
7. Hebrew (more nerd factor. And no. I don't fancy myself the person to solve the Israel-Palestinian conflict {because we're forever going to be stuck on a)right of return and b) who gets Jerusalem. Sorry. A whole other rant})

                                                                    Source: Uploaded by user via Lindsey on Pinterest

I want to read Pablo Neruda as he was meant to be read. 

The following plaque at La Chascona contains a section of the Neruda poem “I Request Silence.”

It is a question of how much I have lived

that I want to live that much more.

I have never felt so resonant,

I have never received so many kisses.

Now, as always, it’s early.

The light flies with its bees.

Leave me alone with the day.

I request permission to be born.

And while we're putting it out there, I wish I'd been rich smart enough to go to an American Ivy League, or gone to Cambridge. Just to stand in a building (like Trinity College) that has been there for hundreds and hundreds of years!

2. I wish I had learned two instruments. I took piano for a short time at school, but we didn't own one. And there was one piano at the school and several of us trying to learn. And only one of us ever got near it (because she was a cow and she simply wouldn't give it up).  And now, later in life, I've developed such a deep appreciation for violins and cellos.

   

I wish so much I was a good gardener. I would love to have a vegetable garden that kept us in fruit and veg all year around.  I'd love not to kill even mint and cactii (I'm not kidding). And there's nothing I would love more than a beautiful English cottage styled garden.

Ok. So clearly I'm going to need to make a crap load of money to afford a home big enough to have a huge cottage garden at the front, with all of the flowers and colours I want; a large kitchen garden by the side and still have somewhere for they boys to play out the back.  I don't ask much, do I?

Sadly my thumb has thus far proven to be the blackest of black.  I really do wish this was something I could learn how to do.

(Because it's already Wednesday, I'm going to postpone the next prompt until Monday.  I already know what it is, so it should go up early).