CHRISTMAS GRINCH IS VISITING LILA AT LITTLE WOLFF

Today I am over visiting Lila on her lovely blog Little Wolff. I am the Christmas Grinch, bah humbug, pop over and have a read and say hello to Lila.

As much as I want to be all sunshine and lollypops about Christmas, it just gets me down. I am sure I am not the only one that this time of the year stresses them. 

If only I could stay this stress free at Christmas

EDUCATING WOMEN: THE GIRL EFFECT

The thing I have learnt most in having my two children is that no two are alike, from pregnancy, to birth, through to the child. I was blessed to be born in a country that even when I was a single mother struggling financial I was wealthier and better off than many other women in this world.

I now know that knowledge is power, and the more knowledge I have as a woman, the more powerful I am. Studies have shown that half of the reduction in child deaths in the last 20 years is the result of increases in mothers' general level of education. 4 million children are alive today because their mothers got an education.

Give a girl, a woman, a mother the correct information and sanction her to use it, and she can work miracles in the most difficult of situations.

Technology is on our side, and on the side of all uneducated girls and women. Where schools and governments and often families have failed to educate girls and women, the mobile phone, the Internet, the radio and the television can step in. As a blogger I think most take this technology for granted, not realising how lucky we are. What I wanted to do with my series on Education was to get people to stop and take a moment to think about education.

Hop over to http://www.girleffect.org/ and have a read. Show your support by liking their Facebook page and signing the petition. 

Today the Girl Effect is driven by hundreds of thousands of supporters who believe in the potential of 250 million adolescent girls living in poverty. Girleffect.org exists to help this community continue to make a powerful case for supporting girls, by equipping them to do the best work with and for girls.

WHY GIRLS?

One study has shown that an educated girl will invest 10-20 times more income back into her family and community than a man would. Girls who receive an education marry at an older age, have fewer children, and are more likely to seek healthcare for themselves and their children. Even so, nearly 250 million adolescent girls live in poverty. Today, fewer than two cents of every international development dollar goes to girls – the very people who have the capacity to make an impact on ending poverty. As long as girls remain invisible, the world misses out on a tremendous opportunity for change.

Better lives for girls mean better lives for everyone in their communities - their brothers, fathers, future husbands and sons. When you improve a girl’s life through education, health, safety and opportunity, these changes have a positive ripple effect. As an educated mother, an active, productive citizen and a prepared employee, she is the most influential force in her community to break the cycle of poverty.

Please note: Images are not mine they have been taken off The Girl Effect Website. 

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I often think Jarvis is just a mini Justin, but yesterday when I saw the backs of these two heads I realised where Jarvis gets his fuzzy hair from. I definitely know he gets his OCD from Dad as well! Lets just hope Jarvis does not get the family nose!

Jodi over at Che and Fidel has inspired me to pick up my camera and turn the focus inward. Since I already take 100s of photos of my children each week, so I thought I would twist the idea a little. What I never seem to get is group shots, images of the family together, whether it is my two children, Tamika and Jarvis, or me with the kids, or shots of Justin and I. So I am going to challenge myself to get one image of "my family" per week.

WE HAVE EXPANDED OUR FAMILY BY THREE!

Dad knows Jarvis does not need any more 'stuff', so what does a good Granddad get his youngest Grandchild for their birthday? Chickens!

Jarvis spent most of the afternoon talking to the "Ducks".

We got the coop earlier in the week, and today we went for a drive out to a farm to pick up chickens. Jarvis had so much fun, he was literally shaking with excitement shouting "Duck! Duck!' every couple of seconds. According to Jarvis all birds are ducks. There were ducks but we choose three chickens.

Chicken one is a year old, she is a white Leghorn. Chicken two is a ranga she is a Rhode Island Red about three months old. Chicken three (we think, Dad and I forgot to ask) is a Australorp, she is also about three months old.

We get home and put the chickens inside their coop and the first thing Jarvis does is go inside and sit with them. Dad is currently building an extension for them, plus we will let them out to play when we are home, I am just nervous about leaving them out alone because the back is not fully fenced and because of Tira.

Okay so now I need as much advice as possible on how to care for these three girls. Also any suggestions on names?

Miss Leghorn was shy and would not let me get her photo out of the coop, will go up and try again later.  

TWO YEAR OLD!! 24 MONTHS

 Watching the garbage trucks is a highlight of your week.

Growth & Appearance:

Your limbs are so lean and so brown, all traces of your baby fat have gone, it is like you spend all of your days outside exercising.

I gave you another hair cut, but have still left it longish in the back. But I think you miss your length as after I gave you a trim you kept tipping your head back so your hair still touched your shoulders.

Eating:

You are your father's son, you eat everything and anything. The few things you do not like you are quick to let us know. You will not take food off other people, your Grandmother kept trying to feed you last week and you got very annoyed at her. You think you are a big boy and do not want help for anyone, you rarely want help and then it will only be from myself, Justin or Tamika and no one else.

 No we did not let you eat your whole birthday cake, this was our way of letting you cut the cake

Talking: 

Still not talking, I know you understand everything, but you just choose not to talk. I will show you alphabet flash cards and nine times out of ten you get every single card correct. You know your alphabet and you understand me, so I am not concerned about your lack of talking.

 You love your alphabet cards.

Sleeping: 

You really reverted this month. No longer napping in your 'big boy' bed and no longer sleeping through the night. You wake during the night and will only go back to sleep in either the 'neck-scarf' position or cling on koala position. This started when I returned to part-time work, so I am hopeful you will settle back down and return to sleeping through the night.

Development:

You are a child of routine, you love things done a set way, yet you are an adventurous child, you level of fear of danger is almost non-existent. Climbing up and diving of the headboard of the bed. Getting your Dad to flip you over in the air. The older you get the more you want danger in your games. This scares me.
You and your Dad have started up your swimming lessons again and you love it. New swim school with new terms, but now after three lesson you already get the new words, you just have to remind your Dad.

As with the routine, you are more than a little OCD like me, things out of place upset you, you will get up your Dad for leaving his things laying around. When your Grandparents stayed last week, they stressed you out completely by leaving their shoes at the door. I had to pull them out of the bin a couple of times.

Look at Justin's Mo for Movember!

Favourites: 

Your love of cars is just getting stronger. You even will pick books at the library about cars. You even know some car models. Tamika drives a Jeep and you will point at the same model in the street and say your version of Tamika.

If it is not cars it is the garden, you think my veggie patch is just a giant mud play ground. You will play outside for hours running around getting sweaty and dirty. Your energy and love of the outdoors is amazing.

 The OCD in you is strong, look at those cars neatly lined up.

How I am thinking/Feeling

Two, wow, I knew that time would slip by fast. Being a mother to Tamika has taught me how precious every moment with a child is. This was the reason I did not want to go back to work, I just do not want to miss out on time with you. I have never been a mother who wants time out from my children, I never got Tamika babysat (bar for work) and I am the same with you. I am lucky Justin agrees. Someone offered the other day to look after you and Justin replies, "why? we like to be with Jarvis', this made my heart swell as this is exactly how I feel. Time goes past so quickly why would I want to be apart from my children?

With every stage of your development, I remember how much I love that stage in a child's life. You are a crazy, stubborn, loving child who brings me so much happiness. Happy Birthday Jarvis, thank you for letting me be your Mumma.

THIS WAS ME TWO YEARS AGO TODAY

By this time two years ago, I had been in labor for about 18 hours or more. Still have about another 20 or more to go. The pain came and went, but the urge to hold my baby was getting so strong. 

EDUCATION GUEST POST KRYSTA FROM: A Fairytale Comes Alive.

This week’s guest post on Education comes from Krystallina, Krysta, from Fairytale Comes Alive. Kyrsa is from Greece and is raising her gorgeous son Nereus as ethically and as healthily as possible. I love hearing what other women from different parts of the world have to say in regards to education. Make sure you pop over to Kyrsta's blog and Facebook page and give her lots of love.

First of all I want to thank Julie for giving me the opportunity to express my opinion about such an important matter.

I would like to begin with my story. As a child I hated school. I had average grades (mostly because teachers liked me for some reason –maybe because I was quiet).  I had no interest for most classes and teachers, so I was never paying attention in the classroom. Therefore, homework was a huge mountain to climb. And I had no intention to. I was not uninterested for my family’s judgement though, and so I was getting very anxious to be good at something that really didn’t interested me at all. Right before my teenage years, I began having terrible migraines. After a couple of years I suspected that stress might be the problem, so I decided to never care about grades (and other things too but that’s another story) again. Guess what? I rarely have migraines now!

Arts, psychology, English and writing were the classes that I really enjoyed (although there were so little of it and most of the times the teachers seemed to be so bored and ‘teaching’ basic stuff was all they were doing). With the high grades of my favourite classes, I was managing to pass the others, until 16. Then in the middle of the school year I decided to stop attending classes. And something totally unexpected happened. A teacher of mine, called me on my cellphone (I still have no idea where he found it) and told me “You should finish school. Not because it has something to teach you. Everything you have to know, you have already learned it from somewhere else. You just have to finish it so you’ll have the paper. If you don’t many doors will close to you. Krysta there are only two talented kids in this classroom and you’re one of them. Don’t go away from this road.” I was shocked. It was the first time someone has seen things from another point of view. Not exactly my point of view, but he motivated me anyway. I was ready to go back to school. But then, I couldn’t. I had so many things to see so many things to do. And school was keeping me back.

That very night, I took a backpack with a few stuff and left my house.  The years that followed were the most wild and furious years of my life. I travelled (inside my own country) a lot, met so many beautiful people, read so many amazing books, had lots of drugs, did a few different jobs (but most of the time I was not working), gave away all of my super expensive shoes and clothes and kept only the ones I really needed in an effort to get rid of my emotional attachment to materials and did a bunch of other experiments too that made me the person I am today.

All the things I have learnt from this full life I’ve been living, are my education. All these other experiences like yoga, theatre, juggling, kids games, face painting, dancing, cooking, sewing define me too. The biggest thing, the one that changed me the most…the best thing I’ve ever done is of course becoming a mother!  But guess what? None of them I learnt in school!

Now, and even though, I have “no proper” education and just like my teacher said many doors have closed to me, I have an amazing job that fills me with joy and happiness. And even at that hard times it pays relatively well. I’m very satisfied with the conditions in my life. I keep trying new things, making mistakes, listening to my inner voice (and other people voices too) and this is how I learn. People keep asking me if I’m planning to go back to school. “No” I say. “I don’t have time for school…there are so many things I have to learn!”

Now, we all know, that the educational system needs changes. It’s very sad but I can’t find even one reason that our kids should be going to school. And I can’t stop worrying about the fact that my little one should go to school too one day. Do you think I’m over reacting? Please, I would really like to read your thoughts!        

Please Note: Images and words are Kyrsta's unless otherwise indicated