I love this practical definition of a spiritual concept:

An atmosphere of faith… an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, humanness is understood‚ communication is open, and preferences are flexible… an atmosphere of tolerance and understanding, where the frailties of the individual are overlooked while seeing the potential and the possibilities and coaxing those out. That’s faith, real faith, great faith, patient faith.

(ML #3642:146; Choose Unity)

Evie is now sitting, playing with toys, and eating (with her two bottom teeth).

Ella turned six today.

Both her brothers were so sweet to her today. Evan even laid off his new habit of big-brother teasing & spent the day randomly saying sweet things like ”I love you, Ella.” Emmer suprised me with his kindness and generosity: his second-cousin, Richard, had given him two bags of little cars last night and this morning, all of his own doing, Emmer went and picked out his favorite car and gave it to Ella for her birthday. Then when he saw how happy she was with his gift (Ella said, “Thank you Emmer! I DO LOVE cars!”) he went and picked out his second favorite car and gave that one to her also. Later Evan gave Ella one of his cars that had been his “for a very long time”.

Ella showed her gratefulness to her brothers by telling them “I love the blue and yellow cars that Emmer gave me because they go really fast. And I love the orange car that Evan gave me because I can clean my fingernails with this part of it here, –just like this!” :-) 

It was a simple day, kind of busy for us parents, but happy for Ella because she had a holiday from school. Timna set her up with some art projects and she got to play with Evie and Katelyn as much as she liked.

Later in the afternoon Grammy saved the day with a “party” by inviting Ella and the kids over for ice-cream and a beautiful present for Ella. And around dinner time auntie Mishy perfected everything with a birthday carrot cake and the birthday song with Ella’s friends, & Mishy gave Ella $10 as a gift to go in Ella’s new wallet. Thank you auntie Mishy!

Ella has grown up so much this last year & I’ve grown to love her and understand her more as I see so much of myself in her.

Do mom’s get birthday wishes too? I wish that I will go slow enough to soak up and enjoy every smile and laugh and moment this year that I am privileged to spend with Ella. You’ll probably never read this, but happy birthday my darling girl! I love you!

I heard one or two people say that they read my blog and thought it looked like I have a perfect life. I do have a keeper of a husband who also happens to far beyond an average dad, great with the budget, to whom I am a priority, and a looker of whom someone once said “Claire, he’s so good looking it’s like you’re married to a movie star!” I do have an even two boys and two girls, who between them have four colors of hair (red, blonde, brown, bald & unknown) and dazzling green or blue eyes. They are the sweetest things ever. They are smart and full of life. I do have a close and loyal family, extended family, and many friends who are just as wonderful. I have so many of my physical needs met.  But no, my life isn’t perfect.  

I used to have a bad habit of turning to my blog when hard times came, when there were troubles or I had a heartache. I’d post these quotes or poems that hinted at sorrow and troubles and breakings. But sometime just a little over a year ago I had a change and turned a new page. I think it was something that I read that changed me. And I determined that I’d only shine the spotlight of my blog on the blessings in my life. I’d post the bright spots. And if I felt sad or hurt or angry or sick or troubled –I would make an extra happy post at those times. Hopefully my blog has been more of a joy to visit since then. I know it’s certainly been more of a joy for me to post.   And for today’s post I’ll get to what I really wanted to say. Which was this: I am the mother of four beautiful children who are eight, and almost six, and three and a half, and six months old. THESE ARE THE BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE!!

I finally met a croc I like!! (On the day I wore the wrong pair of shoes while trekking around Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo.)

It was lovely to visit with Darren’s older brother Ben, and Mel, his wife. They have a lovely home, and two beautiful, affectionate and well-behaved pugs named Elvis and Lola. (It was nice for the kids to be able to have a good experience with friendly pups.)

Mel is a great cook and treated us to a delicious barbeque of lamb, steak, and sausages. We also enjoyed their fabulous red wine picks and fun chats that went late into the evening. Ben and Mel, it was fantastic visiting and getting to know you. We can wait until next time!

We chose this beach to go to on the Sunshine Coast because it was listed as a great beach for kids. It is.

We found this quaint cafe where I immensly enjoyed this mocha latte (sooooo much better than the Starbucks variety), and we sampled their meat pies. Darren wanted me to try meat-pies because he says they are one of the few items of a true-Oz cusine. These two were tomato-onion-meat, and steak-mushroom-cheese varieties. Delicious.

The other pics below show the kids enjoying the beach (it was a bit overcast but we made due), and Evie enjoying her nap.