Showing posts with label Motherhood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Motherhood. Show all posts

Sunday, May 11, 2014

What we love about Grandma... for Mothers Day

For mothers day, we wanted to express our appreciation for Grandma Sharon. So here goes.

From Sylvia

I love grandma Sharon so much because you are the best grandma ever.
Grandma Sharon is lovely because she bakes cookies.
I remember playing with grandma Sharon when I was a baby
Grandma Sharon is the best grandma in my life
I love her so much and she has a nice hairstyle
I like talking to grandma Sharon on the iPad.

From Angela
As a very young child I lived with my mum Sharon, dad Gordon and my sister Deborah. My mother Sharon did a lot for me. She walked me to nursery, to speech therapy and church on Sundays. Sometimes on the way he we would stop at a bakery and get egg custards. Mum read to us all the time from ladybird books. She taught my sister and I to read. She did family home evenings and taught us basic gospel principles. At times my sister Deborah and I tried to surprise my mum. On one occasion we cut up red paper and put it all over the floor, we then hid behind the sofa and shouted, the lounge is on fire, when mum came in the room I shouted surprise, we are trying to trick you. We did the same with white paper pretending it was snow. I never realised that to my mum we were just making a huge mess. Deborah and I were excited when it was my mums birthday. We got some cocoa powder and margarine and put in into mums plastic bowl. We turned on the cooker and placed the bowl on the ring. Thinking mum would be excited  as we were making a cake, we ended up getting shouted at and sent to bed. The bowl and it's contents had melted all over the cooker. I felt so sad for upsetting mum and making her cry. Now as a grown up I can only imagine how I would have felt if my child Sylvia tried to cook a cake on her own. Not only would I have been upset about the mess, I would have been concerned about my child getting burnt. My mum used to take us to the park. We went on trips up the hill to fly kites and walks to the cemetery to look at family gravestones.

My mum sacrificed for me her whole life. She always looked after us and out meals on the table, she fought for me at school when I was bullied and stood up for me when children on the street for mean to me. My mother us always been an example of someone who loves the Saviour and has always taught us to keep the commandments and choose the right. As a teenager I wasn't always good and sometimes made my mum cry. I remember and regret this. She only ever cared and wanted what was best for me. My mum has always stayed active in the church and been a good example to me. She has set the example and taught me how to be a good mother. Mum was with me when I went through the temple for the first time. She helped to look after my daughter Sylvia when I became a mother and has always down everything she can to help me.

My mum is more than a mother to me, she is my one of my bests friends. I can talk to her about anything, my good times, my bad times, my happy times and my sad times. We do live far away form one another but with modern technology we can still communicate every few weeks and the best thing is that I know I am sealed to my mum. This means I can be with my mum and the rest of my family in the eternities and what more could I want than to be with my best friends (my family members forever).

THANKYOU mum for being you. I love you and happy Mother's Day.
Love your daughter Angela Key-Milnes

From Lily... 
Well she had nothing to say, but every time Grandma skypes her she has a big smile. She will love seeing Grandma later this month.

From Ella-Rose
What I love about Grandma
Her cuddles
I love her reading stories to me.
When she does puzzles with me.
I love playing with her.
Dancing with Grandma.

From Annamaria
I like Grandma because plays game with me. I liked baking a cake with her for aunty Ruth's birthday.

From Joseph
What I like about Grandma is that she takes me to the movies and we go to the park together. She comes and visits me in New Zealand.

From Joshua
I liked going to the Maritime museum with Grandma. I like playing skip-bo and going to the park with Grandma.


From Deborah
I love my mum. She is the person who has had the greatest influence on my life. From the moment she first held me in her loving arms I have felt her warm influence over me. I have very fond memories of growing up in our small house at Pinder Oaks Cottages. I remember she would have little classes in the evenings where she would teach us how to cook and how to sew. One time when it was her birthday and she was upset becase she did not have a birthday cake, Angela and I decided to make one for her. We placed a plastic bowl on the stove-top and turned the ring on, we added flour and sugar, and to make it chocolatey we added Nutella. Needless to say, the cake and bowl began to melt on the stove-top. I remember you were upset about what we did, but I remember you lovingly sat us down and explained that we needed to follow a recipe and measure out our ingredients.

When Angela and I would quarrel and get sent to bed we would sometimes write letters of apology and then sneak downstairs and try and post them under the lounge-room door. I remember how my mum would always take the time to talk to us, if we had been naughty or disobedient to explain why we should not behave in that way She would also spend a lot of time with us at bedtime. It was funny that even though we had all afternoon to spend with her, we would usually mostly want to talk with her at bedtime and tell her all about our day. I think sometimes we just wanted to stay with you that little bit longer son we would think of all the extra things we could talk about.

My mum was very patient. She was a great example to me for doing family history. I printed out a 7 generation pedigree chart last week and found that every person was present on both my mum and dad's side and I know a lot of that work is thanks to the diligent efforts of my mum. She is an inspiration to me and because of her ongoing interest in family history as well as the recent talk in general conference by Elder Quinten L. Cook, we have decided to make our home a 'Family History Centre' every Sunday afternoon.

My mum always took us to church. We used to walk through the graveyard to get to church and walking to church was a nice way for us to bond together as a family.

As I grew older she  supported me to play the flute and come to my concerts. You always helped me with my homework, ideas for my projects, and writing. But most importantly she taught me the gospel. She taught me how to pray and read scripture stories to us when we were little and helped us learn to read so that we could eventually read the scriptures for ourselves. She was an example of diligent service in the church, and was always active in callings in the primary, young womens or relief society as I was growing up. She always took us to church, no matter what, and the gospel just became a part of us. She taught us the gospel standards. She was a living example of her testimony of Jesus Christ. Always patient, kind and firm in the faith. These are the virtues that best describe my mum and that I try to cultivate so I can be more like her.

Although we were not rich in material things growing up, we were always richly encompassed by love, fun, and the gospel. I love you mum. You are an inspiration to me to be a good mum. Thank you for being equal to the task of being a great mother in Zion. xxxxxxxxxx


From Tane
Sharon has the kindest heart I have ever met. She is always thinking of others especially her children and now her grandchildren.
Thank you for being the best mother, grandma and mother-in-law. :) xxxxxx

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Mothers Day

A favourite poem for Mothers Day

 William Ross Wallace (1819-1881)
THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE IS
    THE HAND THAT RULES THE WORLD.
      BLESSINGS on the hand of women!
        Angels guard its strength and grace.
      In the palace, cottage, hovel,
          Oh, no matter where the place;
      Would that never storms assailed it,
          Rainbows ever gently curled,
      For the hand that rocks the cradle
          Is the hand that rules the world.

      Infancy's the tender fountain,
          Power may with beauty flow,
      Mothers first to guide the streamlets,
          From them souls unresting grow—
      Grow on for the good or evil,
          Sunshine streamed or evil hurled,
      For the hand that rocks the cradle
          Is the hand that rules the world.

      Woman, how divine your mission,
          Here upon our natal sod;
      Keep—oh, keep the young heart open
          Always to the breath of God!
      All true trophies of the ages
          Are from mother-love impearled,
      For the hand that rocks the cradle
          Is the hand that rules the world.
      Blessings on the hand of women! 

          Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,
      And the sacred song is mingled
          With the worship in the sky—
      Mingles where no tempest darkens,
          Rainbows evermore are hurled;
      For the hand that rocks the cradle
          Is the hand that rules the world.



I love being a mother. There is nothing more satisfying than stroking my baby's hair while she sleeps, or listening to my son talk to me about the battle of midway, or singing the children to sleep, or reading them stories at bedtime. Yes it is hard, tiring and exhausting at times, but isn't anything that is really worth doing well?

Monday, July 11, 2011

Hats off to Daddies!


Daddies who love their kids.

Dad and Anna-Maria skyping the boys






Tane has been away for the weekend. It really made me appreciate life with a participating father. It wasn't the getting the kids ready for church that was difficult, it was more the fact that he takes care of Ella-Rose while I spend 2 hours teaching the 3-11 year old children at our church. She is very particular about her parents at the moment and screamed hysterically anytime any one of the very willing mothers tried to prize her out of my arms so I could get on with teaching. She couldn't even be bribed with a mandarin... even though she was happy to munch on it while I held her.

So the lesson was a little crazy to say the least... teaching forgiveness to 12 rowdy CTRs and sunbeams, followed by a sharing time of 'forever families' and temples to the whole primary - with Ella-Rose in my arms. Needless to say I was glad to get my heels off after that!

Joseph really made my day when he came out from the bedroom long after the other kids were asleep. He retold me the story I had told them in primary... almost word for word. He told me he learned how to be kind (because the boy had been kind to another boy who had been mean to him). It made me realise not everything I say falls on deaf ears.

Tane usually cooks pancakes for Sunday breakfast. Josh has been learning with him. As he wasn't going to be there I made them for Saturday lunch. There was some pancake mixture left over so while I was talking to Anna-Maria on Skype (she was lucky enough to go to see Grandma and Grandpa with her daddy), Joshua decided to make pikelets... from the leftover mixture.
They did not look too appetising, but he and Joseph enjoyed them. It is neat to see how they are learning little things from their daddy. Tane jokes with them about how they have to cook pancakes for their mission companisons and their own families one day.
We managed the Sunday roast and the chocolate brownie without Tane, but somehow a roast for 3 seems to be almost as much work as a roast for 7 (we usually also have the missionaries every sunday). I realised why it felt like so much work though... as Tane usually does the clean up afterwards... which I really appreciate!! :)
It was pretty funny, because he cooked the same sunday roast for my parents- right down to the corn on the cob and peas. We got all the details on Skype from Anna-Maria. She spent a lot of the afternoon watching and talking to the boys and in some ways it felt like they were in the same room.

More pics the kids took while skyping their sister.





So thanks Tane for spending time with your kids, cooking great meals... and fresh bread, and helping keep the place clean and loving your wife. I love you.  Keep up the great work.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Practice makes perfect or at least very close to it

"Practice makes perfect."
"The more you practice the better you get."
I think I sound like a broken record.

This week did not start out pleasant. Mondays are pretty busy usually, but this Monday was very difficult. Most particularly as I had a hard time motivating a certain son to practice the piano. He is really quite capable, he really enjoys it... but there is something about trying to motivate him to play his piano pieces 3 times over when he has already sat for most of the day at school. It just doesn't work. I should have realised that but I just kept pushing him... in the end I was incredibly angry, shouted at him...and I did not feel good.

I sat down with Tane and we made a plan. It was really hard to motivate any of the kids to do anything after school. They usually have a bit of spelling, maths and reading homework. Reading is not a problem with any of them, but the other stuff can take ages... and there wasn't enough time to even enjoy being with the kids...

The plan went like this. We all get up at 6am, have scriptures then breakfast, then Josh does his piano practice, while the other two get ready for school, and then Joseph does his homework while Josh gets ready for school. Somewhere in the mix there they also pack most of their own school lunch and get their bags ready.

SO far SO good.... The mornings turned out to be a lot more organised. I usually had done a load of washing and had the dishwasher on by the time we went to school. Not sure if we can keep it up during the winter months... but it did wonders for Joshua's piano practice. He whipped through his pieces in probably a third of the time it would take him after school, and he then would carry on practicing favourite pieces he had learnt in previous lessons. AMAZING!!

It has meant in the evenings we can relax more... the kids can read more AND they go to sleep earlier! which was another motivating factor to make the change.

By Saturday night I was sitting in the theatre watching a ballet (The tales of Beatrix Potter) with the 3 older kids. They were entranced. It was a local production with children ranging from about 4 to adults. The kids had friends in the show which made it even more exciting. As I sat there with the kids I felt extremely happy. Seeing their excited faces, watching them bounce up and down on their chairs to the music was a lot of fun.

When we arrived an elderly lady was sitting next to Joseph, he was jumping up and down on his seat and asked her "Are you excited?" She replied "Yes". It was evident that he was though as he started reading the programme over her shoulder. She didn't mind and explained all the scenes and acts to him.

It was such an awesome way to end what had started out to be a difficult week. I guess the kids are not the only ones who need to practice... I mean being a mother is pretty hard, I'm the first to admit it, but with 4 of them I certainly am getting a LOT of practice!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Inspired by My Mum

Today at church we had a brilliant speaker who spoke on Elder Quentin L. Cooks talk LDS women are incredible

As I listened to this talk I immediately thought about my own mum. She is one of my best friends. She means the world to me. She is one of the most dedicated, patient, Christ-like women I know. Becoming a mother myself makes me love my mum even more as I think about the sacrifices she has made for our family over the past almost 30 years.

She is one of the most self-less people I know - although I know she does not see it that way. You see I have a brother who we all love dearly, but he can be quite difficult to look after at times. He has an intellectual disability. She has had to do the majority of care for him for about 17 years... and it is a thankless task most of the time. No paycheck or recognition comes with this job which is harder than most, yet she does it day in, day out, because he is her son, because she loves him.

She was always at home when we were growing up which was great. She was always there to help with assignments, she encouraged us to do our very best in all that we did. Despite our very modest circumstances, she made sure we made the most of the opportunities we had, which for me was playing the flute and participating in the orchestra. She didn't drive, so would take us on the bus across town to get there.

She cooked, cleaned, cooked, cleaned, cooked and cleaned... I now know what that is like, it can be completely defeating to look through the once tidy house and see it completely upside down. I must admit it is very satisfying having a clean house... I just wish it would stay that way.

I remember driving my mum crazy when we were little. I kept coming up with these crazy ideas that I wanted to trick my mum. First I thought I'd trick her into thinking that it was snowing in the house, so Angela and I ripped up white paper into tiny pieces and spread it all through the lounge. We then hid behind the couch to hide till she came in. The Angela would jump out and say 'we ripped up paper to make it look like snow'. I always got cross with her because I thought if it wasn't for Angela telling her we would have had her fooled.

The other brilliant idea was to 'trick' her into thinking the house was on fire, so we cut up lots of yellow paper to look like flames. Again we hid behind the couch and again Angela 'ruined' the surprise by telling mum what we had done.

The other thing that really did drive her crazy was when we would take balls of wool and tie it like a spiders web round our entire room. We would tie it to everything. I think once she couldn't even open the door because it was tied closed to every other peice of furniture in the house. She was pretty mad about that... but our excuse was that we didn't want our teddies to get hurt if they fell out of bed so we made a safety net. I don't think she bought it.

Most importantly, my mum instilled in me a love of the Saviour Jesus Christ and nurtured the beginnings of a testimony of the restored gospel. We had scriptures and family home evening and family prayers, not perfectly, not daily or religiously, but just as regularly as an incredible LDS mother could manage. I did not realise it until I was an adult, but by small and simple means she made sure the spirit of the Lord was in our home.

When we were younger and stayed with family members, they would sometimes take us with them to the pub or club. We would play with other children in the playground, but I never felt comfortable. Looking back now, I realise that what I was missing was the spirit that was ever present in our home. As a child I often wondered why I did not feel the spirit, and church did not feel that much different from home. Now as I look back it was because the spirit was ever-present at home and at church and it was only when I was away from these environments that I felt the absence of the spirit.  What a blessing it was to be brought up in such an enviroment. I only hope that my children will feel the same spirit in my own home.

My mum is a righteous and strong women, she has endured much. Today I was described by the sister giving her talk as being "steadfast". I am steadfast because I have had a mother who has been steadfast all my life in the face of all the difficulties she has had, she has always moved forward with faith. I also know that she is who she is because she also had a mother who likewise continues to move forward with faith - my Grandma Rae. My aunty Ruth and sister Angela are also women who are incredible LDS women. It is such a blessing and privilege to be surrounded by such women.

It is because of my mum that I am the person I am today. I agree with Abraham Lincoln who said "All that I am I owe to my angel mother."



Wednesday, May 25, 2011

If I earned a dollar...

... everytime someone asked if I want more kids, I would be seriously rich. I think we would have a really nice house or at least a flat screen TV, or at least an iPhone or iPod. It happened again tonight when I went to work. I bearly had a chance to sit down before someone asked "hows the baby?" quickly followed by "do you want anymore?"

What is it that fascinates everyone so much that they want to know the ins and outs of how many children I have. Neither is there an end to comments on whether I should or not. When I told people I was pregnant with Ella-Rose the first response was (from a doctor colleague) "after that you have to have a tubal ligation" (sterilization for non-medical types). Another doctor comment went like this "don't you think there are enough people in the world?" To which my response was "Not in the South Island there aren't".

When I said we would probably have more children... they just shuddered and said I don't know how you do it, but the truth is... I love my kids, my husband is great and one day my kids will be grown up and gone and that will be all too soon. When I see newborn babies now I realise how much Ella-Rose has grown and think, I don't want her to be the last newborn in my arms. I see Anna-Maria give me a kiss at school and don't want Ella-Rose to be the last child to kiss me goodbye. So just to make everyone around me think I am completely CRAZY... yes I hope there will be more children to come... just not yet.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

The privilege of motherhood

I was just about to settle down to sleep. had just hoped into a nice cosy bed, when the air was getting pretty chilly in the house... and then I heard it. The gentle waaah....waaah... of Ella-Rose. Sometimes that makes me feel so tired, if I've been woken, but tonight I just didn't want to get out of the nice warm cozy bed. But I thought back to the clip I watched recently (see below) about a mother who volunteered in an orphanage in Romania. She spoke about these many young babies and children with no-one to hold them and cuddle them at night when they cry... and it made me think I am so blessed to be able to get out of my warm bed to feed my baby. I am so blessed to have a warm bed, and warm beds for my children. That we have a roof over our heads and delicious food in our tummies. The daily rituals of being a mother may sometimes feel tedious, but when our work is building testimony and character, the leaders of tomorrow and an eternal family... when I see it how God sees it, then I am reminded of what a privilege motherhood really is.

Now I am back to bed so 2nd time lucky!

Motherhood is a blessing