Feeling ragged, raw
Breaking to million pieces
Wind, don’t blow my way
never stop exploring your SELF
Feeling ragged, raw
Breaking to million pieces
Wind, don’t blow my way
During Warrah School‘s end of school year Presentation Day, Migo astounded me and Grandma.
There I was, half an hour late because I had to attend a dental appointment. I joined the other parents/carers, expecting the usual performances. Make no mistake, I love every single event at Warrah. This Rudolph Steiner special needs school is big in performing arts. Being a small school of approximately 20 kids (I did not count), virtually each kid gets to perform on stage, either as part of a group or solo.
When Migo took to the stage, my hand, which was holding my iPhone camera was shaking so bad, it’s a wonder I managed to take a decent video. Miguel’s performance was passionate and confident. He was probably the only kid who did not require prompting from his teacher. Without much ado, here is Migo reciting Langston Hughes’ “As I Grew Older“. Do note the soft start to the poem. Migo has difficulty speaking in a small voice, you see. So the fact that he remembered which lines to speak softly in, is testament to the teaching abilities of Ludwig, his classroom teacher.
As I Grew Older [Read more…]
Plus über-eating and über-drinking!
There is a propensity to over-buy this season. Silly me. Or more correctly, woe me! Because I get sucked into the hoopla big time. If you aren’t like me, then lucky you. Tell me how you do it!
I was grocery shopping last Wednesday, as I always do. It is very hard not to notice the overflowing supply of…food at Woolworths. Here, there’s a whole section cleared and stocked with ham of all shapes and sizes. Here, there’s a freezer section devoted to turkey. Aussie groceries do not normally stock turkey. I wonder if they are imported. Ha. I am going to prepare turkey on Christmas Day. Something I have never ever done before. I believe this is not typical of an Aussie household. We tend to prepare fresh seafood as our Christmases are so freaking HOT! (Aside: Let’s create a new buzzword ~ “oven fever” ~ as opposed to North America’s current “cabin fever”. Down under temperatures today soared to 40degC.)
Here, they’ve overstocked first-class chocolates at 50% off. The Lindt’s and the Ferrerro Rocher’s of the chocolate world are ripe for our picking. So, I get a few cartons of those wicked treats. I am thinking that we will have time to gorge on them because there’s plenty of home time. It’s also summer school holidays down under, 6 weeks of oven-like temperatures at home! I rationalise that there are more chances to eat… What? What chances am I talking about? Time remains the same, no more no less. There is no such thing as more time. Only more space in time.
Here, here are some divine looking biscuits from…Denmark, Holland and Belgium. Wow. I must have those too in my trolley. Because I come by them quite rarely. Really Cha? I don’t think so. These biscuits have always been in the shelves but not displayed so in-the-face like now.
Let’s take stock of what’s in my trolley. I’ve got 12 mini cans of softdrinks. Ariel and I share (that’s about half a swig each) a mini on weekends only. The boys and grandma have one each on weekends only. Always just the weekend, it’s a treat. It’s never a daily thing. There’s too much chocolates in my trolley. I’ve overstocked on plain flour as pan de sal and homemade pizza dough are in the offing. It’s also time to use my breadmaker which I used quite extensively last year and suddenly stopped this year. Why is that? I went low carb, that’s why. The family subsisted on rice and pasta instead. I’ll bring back homemade bread and pizza next year. If I get a chance, that is!
Aussie shops will close down on the 25th and 26th of December, so people tend to stock up unnecessarily, as I do. My pantry is actually full, brimming to the brim, yet here I am adding a few more items. Oh, my favorite tuna brand, Sirena, is selling 4 for $7 (small tins). Ha. I have 8 of those. Mura eh. Ariel and I have tuna when we run out of leftover meat and add it to our lunchbox of mixed greens~spinach and rocket. I never buy anything else. Just spinach and rocket, prewashed, so it’s good to go. Lately, Woolies started adding baby kale to the mixture. What’s not to love about a salad with kale, eh?
These should be enough. Enough na! Tama na. Put a stop to my overspending. I’ve not bought too many gifts this Christmas. Opting only to gift Migo’s teachers and our closest of friends. Gab does not give to his High School teachers anymore. Shy na. We used to give to primary school teachers. Or more correctly, I did!
Are you like me? Are we on the same boat? Let’s get off this commercial liner while we still can, shall we?
PS: This is my 29th post of 52 weeks. I stopped shipping for 3 weeks. I do have a few unshipped blogs before we enter 2014. I hope you come back for more of 2014’s myGloryBox.com. I do believe it is time for a new theme, watch for it!
From my bottomless heart,
THANK YOU for reading me in 2013.
TRAVEL SAFE and LET’s ARRIVE SAFELY in 2014.
LET’s GET BUSY LIVING (lifted from Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King)
Snow flakes, heart aches
Falling gently, endlessly
Killing me softly
The past few weeks have been riddled with angst and arguments with my Gabo. It made me very unhappy. I just wanted to sweep the issues under the rug. The basic problem is…Tumitigas ang ulo ng anak ko. As simple and as profound as that.
I initially blamed this malaise to his online friends/gaming. I talked about pulling the plug on these friendships with Ariel but we decided that doing so would really be counter productive. It will just trigger more resentment from Gabo. So I had to dig deep. I have to find the answer to “why is this happening”?
Low maintenance…NOT YET!
Oh I know why. I just gotta be honest with myself. I left him to his own devices this year, 2013. I thought that Gabo needed little attention, little “motherly maintenance”. After all, he is in his 2nd year high achool and he is 14 years old. I must admit, I also immersed myself with other things, things that took me away from him so to speak. Schoolwork-wise, his grades are more or less the same. It’s his sense of entitlement that went south.
Being “free range” is not for him. I have written before that I raise my boys with a barn-laid style parenting. Neither caged nor free-range; but somewhere in between. That is still the way to go, I now realise for certain.
We needed to go back to the 2012 rules; rules that were in place from the time he went to Kindergarten. Rules that I needed to re-impose because without my policing, my son becomes askewed!
My lesson in this.
Gabo needs order and routine. Boundaries. He needs to move within the confines of our agreed boundaries (read=timetable). Later, a friend intimated a truth from a book that she has read that I obviously have not. Boys need boundaries to feel secure, stable and loved. The book is called Raising Boys.
Of course in due time, Gabo will be able to self-manage himself. But for now it would seem that I need to keep the order for him.
So ok. I made the adjustments. Last weekend was beautiful. He kept online gaming to 2 hours in the morning. He vacuumed, he dusted, played the guitar during spare times, played with Kuya Migo, chatted with me, made kulit with me, learned to iron his school shirt with Papa, helped around the kitchen…He did all the things I asked of him with a happy heart. Simply because we followed some guidelines.
Writing these all down is giving me such clarity and AHA! moments.
I still did my own things. I ran, I blogged/wrote, I read my books, etc. I still did all the things I have been doing the past 11 months but with one difference. I kept tab of Gabo all day and weekend long. Touched base with him all.the.time.
And that worked like magic…
Disclaimer: Not all kids are the same. My parenting style may not work with your kids…I find that you have to really know what makes them tick to pull the right strings. I know I know. We all wish there was a flowchart somewhere specific to our own kids. Alas, you will have to go your own way here…I can only share what worked for me. Big Love, Cha.