Sunday 18 November 2012

Teaching Thankfulness



“Hannah. What are you thankful for? Apples?” I prompted, as she held a piece of the juicy fruit to her mouth.

“Yes!” She exclaimed. And then went on to explain why in her assorted mix of French and Croatian. Okay, to be honest, she’s only 23 months old, and it’s not any foreign language, but her version of English… ;)

“Caleb, what are you thankful for?” Danica asked Caleb.

“A lovely week…” He started out slowly. “Lots of tanks..” “You mean irrigation pipes?” Danica wondered. (As Daddy Bear (Nathan) had been setting up the irrigation system in the garden earlier in the day.) “Yes!” He replied. 

Then went on. “I’m also thankful for lots of sunshine.” He finished. You see, here in Victoria, Aus, it is cloudy a lot of the time. And this week, praise God, we had quite a bit of sunshine! That Friday particularly. I had to admit that I was quite thankful for the sunshine too. After all, I come from Queensland!

I may as well give some background to this random questioning. You see, ever since I was little, my family had a tradition of saying our “Thank-you’s” – what we were thankful to God for from things that happened in the week, on Friday night. And the rules were, that we would start from the youngest family member, and work our way up. Well, when my sister, Danica, got married, she kept on with the tradition in her home. It is a great habit to form. And it really is touching to see children, still toddlers, thanking God for the things that make up their week.

Thursday 1 November 2012

Paparazzi. Run!


Yesterday, I was going for a (late) morning walk. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I was headed to my favourite spot down the road. The spot with the best views of course. :D

I had just exited the property and started heading up the road, when I happened to look back down the driveway. To my surprise, I saw a pretty little princess in pink following me! 

Suddenly I wished I had a camera in my hands…. “Hmm…” I thought, “that’s easy enough to remedy!” With that, I took off - back down the driveway.

A little while later, I had the camera safely in my hands, and a little Miss perched on my hip too! As I wanted to get the picture that I’d envisioned when I saw Hannah standing on the driveway watching me, I put her down so I could run to the spot where I’d been before, when she instantly turned on her heel and headed home!

I had planned on taking just one photo, and then continuing on my walk – alone. But, despite that fact that it was minutes to her naptime, I just couldn’t resist that pretty little face and sprinted after her retreating little figure.

After a peaceful walk, hand in hand, Hannah and I arrived at the spot with the good view. And here are some of the pictures I took!