Steps Forward

Liam's starting to take some first steps!

He almost hit his head on the hot fireplace! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Mount Doom, Emerald Lake, and the Enchanted Stream

Just finished a phenomenal 19.4 km tramp (Kiwi for "hike") through the Tongariro National Park with a really amazing couple from our church, Lonny and Sara. Jason was very kind to watch the boys with our friend Claire. This is the same hike that Jason did a few months ago and his pictures were great so we will post them soon. Here are a few from my iPhone.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Easter Eggs and Mount Doom

We really enjoyed the Easter season this year.  Growing up, I really loved Easter because we had great family get-togethers and I liked dressing in pretty Easter outfits complete with a hat and white globes.  I also liked Easter Egg hunts.  That being said, I remember on Easter Eve, when I was 5-year old, earnestly praying for an Easter Egg basket that contained a beach Barbie.  I remember praying some like, "Oh God, if you are real, please, please, please give me a beach Barbie."  Low and behold, I didn't get the Barbie and I remember the deep sting of disappointment.   As I grew in my faith as a young adult, I found myself less inclined to really observe the Easter/Lenten season.  Although I missed the weighty and reverent Good Friday services contrasted by the hope and joy of Sunday Easter morning, I thought it was just a "religious motion" that shouldn't be contained by one weekend or for a few weeks each year.  Easter, or Resurrection Day, should be celebrated every day, I thought.

I think things have really changed as I see Charlie grow in his spiritual curiosity.  Gran and Grandad gave Charlie these Resurrection Eggs last year, and he just loves to do them.  The kit comes with 12 plastic eggs, and in each egg is an object depicting a moment in the Resurrection story of Jesus.  We've done them year-round, but it was really special to spend more time this Easter really reflecting on the Passion story.   He is SO into it and it can really be challenging as he asks BIG questions about Jesus death and resurrection.  That being said, when we were in Queenstown on Easter morning, a gentlemen asked Charlie if he woke up to a big Easter egg from the Easter bunny.  Charlie look at him puzzled and said, Jesus is Alive! 

We did have 2 really fun Easter egg hunts the week before Easter.  Below are a few pics from the events (one with the Embassy, the other with our church).  You can see that Charlie found the prized Golden Egg at the Embassy hunt (he was greatly helped by Uncle Rob who works in the Defense Attache Office).

Lastly, we are heading out to Mount Doom this morning.  We are hoping to hike Mt Togariro and have some really great quality time with friends from church.  Today is ANZAC day and we woke up to booming Navy gun salute thing at 5am and parades and speeches...  We were in bed for everything, and next year I want to attend the events.

Katia's Facebook Confessional

I am moments away from cancelling my Facebook account...  I've wanted to do it for months, maybe years.  I hoped that this blog would help me to wean off Facebook, and I can't believe it's still going.  When I originally began this blog last May, I was facing 3 months away from hubby before an incredible move to the other side of the world with a newborn and toddler.  I was scared... actually, really scared.  God has been SO faithful and SO good over the past 12 months - wow...  Fun to think back.  That being said, I was hoping this blog would help me to be more reflective and intentional with my communication.  Almost all of these posts are done after the kids are asleep, and I am half asleep, but want to update it with something... anything...  As you can probably see, I do most of it from my iPhone, and I don't spellcheck and barely review it before posting.  I'm hoping over the next few weeks and months to include more "thoughtful" posts to fully realize the "intentional" and "reflective" goal.  I think this will be much easier by severing my ties to Facebook.

Here's My "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" with Facebook:

 The Good:

- Great(?) way to stay in touch with family and friends, especially as we are living so far away
- Amazing to reconnect with old friends from so many different chapters of my life - wow!
- I love drawing lines between people ("my sister's friend in MN is friends with my best friend from college in Boston because they worked together at a summer camp in Montana" type of connections) - Great tools to organize events with people
- Good(?) way to stay up to date on the lives of friends and family (a blog really feels one-way)  

The Bad:

I find that I am continually struggling to "keep up" with communication with friends and family (in NZ and back in the US).  I didn't even text before moving to New Zealand and now I have "my precious" iPhone with access to skype, FaceTime, texts, iMessages, 3 e-mail accounts, and Facebook.  Often I feel like I am drowning in messages and communication and I just can't stay on my feet.  Facebook is just another mode of communication that I can't sustain...     

The Ugly:

- Addictive Personality.  I think I have an addictive personality.  We don't have a TV, because I just don't think I'm one of those people that can have it, without watching it TOO much.  It's much easier, just to not have one.  I think Facebook became addicting while I was nursing Charlie.  It's the perfect "mindless" activity during the many, many hours of nursing.  It's pretty sad though how often I'm brainlessly scanning my newsfeed to see ever iota of activity in all of my "friends'" lives, instead of really being present with my kiddos, hubby and God.    

 - Stalker Spy.  I pride myself on my information gathering abilities.  It's embarrassing really.   I was looking up friends from my study abroad in Russia (NOTE: I was so excited to find one of my friends from BU and Moscow last night - maybe we can just e-mail???).  I wasn't looking to "friend" them, I just wanted to see what they became when they "grew up."  It was actually SUPER interesting, but that's beside the point.  Or maybe that's exactly the point...  Anyway, I found that my peers are smart with their privacy settings, but you could find a picture where mom commented.  If you clicked on mom, she's much more lax with her privacy settings, and voila - you get all sorts of information.  That's really embarrassing to confess, but I'm sure I'm not the only one out there...  I just hate how PASSIVE I am with my Facebook communication.  Yuck!  A letter, an e-mail, a phone call - ANYTHING is better than my current activity on FB!    There are elements of shallowness, cattiness, and juicy gossip that I gobble up - but I want to feed my soul with more lasting, encouraging, and uplifting things...

- My Profile.  I'm a little uncomfortable with my whole profile.  I feel like I need to massively edit my profile to really reflect what who I am and what I value.  I question why I post the things that I post.   What "face" am I putting forward on Facebook?  What about things my "friends" are posting?    Should I untag the pics where I'm not as photogenic - and upload lots of "smoking hot" pics...  That's weird...

Okay - I'm going to do it... I think there is a few week waiting period, so we'll see if I make it!   I'd love thoughts on this one!

Culture and the Arts

Katie and I are hopelessly lacking in any artistic output (well...maybe not completely...I used to enjoy sketching Nike shoes in grade school and Katie puts on a pretty good song and dance to Musicals for us boys in the comfort of our living room).  Yet, we have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of people's lives in our church family who do contribute to art and culture in this city.  Katie will be joining some ladies from Paekakariki (an artsy community just north of Welly) for some tea and beach walk next week, hosted by a Dutch artist from church (http://cloggyart.com/).  A young woman in our Thursday small group at our house just made the front page of The Dominion Post national newspaper, and will take part in Wellington Fashion Week this week (she was also in NZ's Next Top Model).(http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/6760872/Putting-on-the-style) And tonight, Charlie and I took a little jog over to the trendy Southern Cross (http://www.thecross.co.nz/) to enjoy a beer (and juice) while listening to Bradford Shelves (http://www.myspace.com/bradfordshelves ) where some of the members are also friends in our small group and lead our worship time on Sundays. 

I personally think these humble and unassuming folks, in their respective spheres, bring themes of love and redemption to unexpected places in the community, where inspired creativity points to Hope amidst despair and desperation...

My Niece

Congratulations Matt and Emily on your BEAUTIFUL baby girl!!!

Louisa Bergquist was born last night in Minnesota at the Bergquist home.   She was over 9 lbs and Emily was a CHAMPION baby birther with labor that lasted UNDER 2 hrs (Thanks to the home birth - there was no threat of a baby being born in the car on the way to the hospital)!   I was able to "be there" via FaceTime - thank you Mama Joyce!

I can't wait to hold and smell my little NIECE!  August can't come quick enough!  :)

Rowdy

At swimming lessons today, I had a really nice conversation with another mummy.  She has a 3.5 year old son and  newborn daughter.   She said that ever since her son turned 3.5, her typically mild and chill son had become MUCH more rowdy and physical.  She said that many other mums she'd spoken with have also observed this.  I guess you can say, we've noticed the same thing in Charlie.  Unfortunately you can see who is getting the brunt of it...  I want Charlie to protect and defend his brother, not clobber him.  We are trying to figure out what to do....  In the "throwing rocks" example - it's pretty clear cut, but sometimes it's just a real playful wrestling that Liam actually likes...  The rowdy boy thing is a little unfamiliar - I don't really remember wrestling with my sisters (I remember throwing scrambled eggs and orange juice - but not wrestling).

Swimming Lessons

Charlie had his first swimming lessons today and LOVED it! He was a little unsure at first but then decided he wanted to jump in and have fun. I got a little choked up watching him!















- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Charades! (Have I Mentioned Lately How Much I Love Our Church?)

Happy birthday Claire!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Queenstown random photos

Okay - Jason has truly SPECTACULAR photos from our trip, but I am going to post a few that we bought on our trip.