Dear Richard
So Caleb’s first week went amazingly well!
After the bit of tears on the first morning he hasn’t cried once since! Every
morning he’s walked into his class, puts his bag in his locker, gives me a kiss
and then goes to the carpet to join the other kids. So amazing! I couldn’t be a
happier mom J And all of the teachers just love him,
but that’s his sparkly personality for you! One of the only sad things is that
we’re really losing our baby now. Even his hands and feet aren’t as soft as
they were L But it’s all part of growing up, and at
least we got to really enjoy him as a baby!
Joshua’s teacher has identified very early
on what we’ve also noticed about him, that he’s a perfectionist. So now we have
to work on helping him to realise that he doesn’t have to have everything
perfect. He’s at school to learn because he doesn’t know everything, and he’s
allowed to make mistakes. Kind of like how life works J
At work I’ve finished pretty much
everything I need to before the semester starts next week. But I’ve also
started doing things to get going on my Masters, which I’m wanting to do now. I’ve
started reading up about how to actually do a Masters, and then also a bit of
reading about the research area I’ll be looking at, of Integrated Reporting. So
far so good, although I’m still not feeling wildly excited about it… But as I
get more into it, I’ll hopefully have more excitement. Right now it’s more
about the fact that I really have to do my Masters. But I’ve also been doing an
online speed reading course to try and help me read faster with all of the
reading I’m going to have to do!
On Friday we had the family over that we’ve
been trying to introduce to the gospel. We had a great time swimming,
particularly helping their son to gain confidence – sometimes peer pressure can
be a good thing, when it comes to things like helping kids perform their best J But we had a really nice time visiting
with them and getting to know them better. Her mom is also struggling with
mental illness, so that was also something bond over.
On Saturday we all went to Jesse’s first
birthday party, and then I took Hannah to a birthday party for one of her
school friends. It was the first party for her class where most of the class
was there. So I took the opportunity to try and speak to a whole bunch of
parents and get to know them a bit. I’m really not great at socialising and
small talk, but I’m trying to get better at it, and it went quite well J And it’s great to see Hannah growing in
confidence a bit, although, like Josh, she also takes a while to get comfortable
when we first get to a new place like that. But I’d rather have kids that are
cautious, hopefully they’re less likely to do things like going off with
strangers!
On Saturday we went over the road a bit
and Andrew was the only one home. But seeing him with the kids I realised that
he really does have a gift with kids. He was helping the kids fix something on
their bikes, and he was just saying and doing just the right things, and he has
a great imagination J But he says he
doesn’t want to have his own kids – he’d rather just be an uncle. We’ll still
see what the future brings ;)
My first Sunday School lesson went really
well yesterday J
There is a great YSA class right now, and we seemed to have a good chemistry.
So there are still a few class members who didn’t say anything, but I’ll try
and work on that with time. The lesson was on Noah, and one of the class
members made an interesting observation. Most of the time we think that
Heavenly Father was quite harsh destroying the whole world. But in fact he was
being very merciful to those spirits that were waiting to come to earth. If
they had been born into wicked families their chances of breaking out of that
cycle are almost non-existent. But by starting over they would have a chance to
be born to righteous families. And that
emphasises what an awesome responsibility it is to have children, and to raise
them righteously, so that they have their best chance of making good choices
themselves! We were certainly blessed to grow up in a home like that! And we’re
trying with our kids, but not getting it perfect of course… But I read
somewhere recently one of the apostles who said that our efforts in parenting
are only a failure if we give up. As long as we keep on trying our efforts are
acceptable. So I’m holding onto that ;)
We had our last visit with Shawn
yesterday. It’s been really nice having him here. And the kids have gotten on
really well. They’ll be sorry to not have Saffie around anymore. We probably won’t
see them again for at least 4 years, when my kids will be 9, 7 and 5! Just
crazy! And Cindy might even have kids by then :O Crazy!
So that’s about it… One more week until
the craziness really starts! So I’m just enjoying the slightly relaxed pace
still, although we’re busy planning Caleb’s party for Saturday now… It never
stops!
Love you lots J
Shelly
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