Finger Painting and Hand prints are fun :)

This blog was orignally written sometime last year when I was nannying - just been going through my blogs and finally publishing some of those random drafts that I started many months ago.....

Today i was back with my second family again - it has only been a week since i have seen those three particular children but it is amazing how much i had missed them in one week.

Sophie (10 -nearly 11 month old) is feeling much better thank goodness and also Elise (2 year old) didnt have the measles - yay for that! Yet another "thanks God" moment there because of the measles outbreak going around NZ at the mo.

So today being back with the children was great even though the first part of the morning was windy and raining so we were stuck inside. With Cooper off at school now, it gives me more time to spend with Sophie and Elise so when Sophie went off for her morning sleep, it was Kathryn and Elise time!

Because i had not been able to do what i had planned for Friday (because of not working), it was time to act like a little child (which is not really much out of the ordinary), get out the paints, paint brushes, sponges, paper and have a blast.

IT WAS AMAZING FUN AND ALL HAD A FANTASTIC DAY! It is so interesting to see what you can learn from children through a fun activity such as finger painting :)

Don't be afraid to be the child you once were - be the child within you and never underestimate that child's abilities!

Pics of Mt Kau Kau

Saturday stroll in Khandallah turned Mountainous

Once upon a typical Saturday afternoon in Khandallah, Kathryn decided to go for a walk. Well it wasnt really a typical Saturday afternoon as normally i would probably have been out of the house early in the morning and not be back till late at night but since the budget is fairly tight at the moment (silly studylink), it was a quiet day at home in Khandallah.

Anyway, back

to the story.........................

So Kathryn decided to go for a walk - well yes! I knew a few places in Khandallah but wanted to go somewhere nice and quite but beautiful at the same time (if possible) and just be able to relax and read my bible.

For those of you that don't know, Khandallah is very hilly and there are quite a few steep roads scattered over the place (well more like every where you look!!!!).

I knew that Mt Kau Kau existed but i had no idea where to go to climb/walk up this mountain. I would have loved to have gone up but seriously had no full intention of doing so. I just walked and walked for nearly 20ish mins, taking turns in the road here and there and avoiding the streets that were practically vertical (im sure you can all picture me walking up those roads :D ). I then turned into Simla Cres and much to my amazement saw a sign which said something about Johnsonville Park and Khandallah Park. I then took a closer look at this sign and saw that there was a walk right up to the top of Mt Kau Kau! WOW, total "Thanks God" moment just then.

I started walking the track and although my legs were aching after only a short while, i kept going and within about 20-30mins, i had realised i had found my new favourite place in Khandallah - i was soooooooooooooooooo happy!!!!

The view was AMAZING and the best part was that it was a fantastic SUNNY DAY IN WELLINGTON! And i (Kathryn Allison Stewart), had just climbed/walked up a mountain!!!!!!!!

Two and a half hours after starting, i was nearly back home (legs feeling like jelly) but proud as heck of myself! The one thing that i had not thought about when trecking Mt Kau Kau, was that at the end of this incredible journey, i would then have to walk up hills and steep streets to get back home (Khandallah home of course) and my gosh what a challenge that was....

Got home, had a shower and felt so great (not so great that i could do all again right then though). It had been a great afternoon walk, i found my new favourite place in Khandallah, i pushed myself beyond my limits, i got my bible study done and i enjoyed being up a mountain!

Something must have been working over the last few weeks coz then at church on Sunday night, one of the girls in my life group (bible study group), said to me that it looked like i had lost weight - yay! Maybe if she had seen a couple of my pics of the day before then she would have had second thoughts but still i was stoaked!

I guess being on the internship over the summer and walking Cooks Cove, did teach me something afterall! Ohh and Cruz and Hayden - i didnt have fish and chips straight after this walk either :)

week 6 and 7

Heck, time just seems to be flying by in wellington! its good but not so good at the same time - im getting used to life in Wellington now (and yes that does include the weather - no further comment to be made!) and it everything just seems to be moving at a pace that i cant seem to keep up with.

I need to try and keep my blog up to date more often as i am starting to lose track of what weeks are what - that probably sounds quite bad actually but i guess my excuse is that i work with children... haha

The rest of week 5 was great - i loved how i was able to have the monday off work and then i had a short week! It seemed to make life so much easier (maybe because i was relaxed) and i could actually get a couple of good sleeps (night time sleeps i mean).

With my second family that i work for - The Davis-Wren's (Sam and Scott are the parents), i am now starting to get a whole lot more responsibility and taking over a lot more tasks which is good. The upside to this is that i am feeling more like i can achieve things and know how their household works where as the downside is that i cant spend as much time as i would like to with the children although they do still seem to love me so i guess i cant complain.

I cant remember what i had written in my last blog but there have been a couple of birthdays between the two families in the last few weeks. Cooper (Sam and Scott's son) is now five and is attending Khandallah Primary School which he seems to enjoy. I have been able to go and pick him up from school a couple of times now so im really liking that.

Also, Oliver (youngest in Clare and Brian's family) has just turned one and had such a fantastic birthday although he had a slight cold and flu but all seems to be well now.

Classes are going well (each and every tuesday) although most of my breaks are spent trying to sort things out with the bank or studylink but like people keep saying to me - GOOD THINGS TAKE TIME.

In class the last couple of weeks we have been learning about:
child play (ie collage, painting, water activities etc),
communication with children,
nutrition,
Attachment Behaviour (very very interesting - seriously)
Child Health ( talking about "The Immunisation Schedule", Emergency Services, all the factors that can affect the health of a child health - physical, mental, soical, economic)

Tomorrow should be good as we are all spending a couple of hours at an EC (Early Childhood) Centre (all over Wellington, Paraparaumu, Kapati) to explore and gain even more experience and insight into the EC Curriculum. Then we are back into town to the Abel Smith Street campus to then talk further Childs Play (with Paulene - one of our tutors) and then even more Communication with Children with Robynn (another of our tutors).

I have a whole heap more info to share and pics to post but will put them onto another blog entry!

for now "Thats all folks"

God Bless,

Kathryn

God is AMAZING!

Also, another thing that i forgot to say in one of my previous blogs (or maybe i did mention it - I'm not sure) but ARISE CONFERENCE was AMAZING!!!

The speakers were fantastic and the whole weekend (even though i only went on Fri/Sat night) was just super dooper powerful and really open up eyes and hearts.

One of the things that excited me the most about the conference was seeing 1,800 + people being under one roof and being able to worship Christ, pray together and give praise! On the Friday night i ended up being seated up in the balcony and just being able to see almost every single hand, reaching out to Jesus and seeking him - wanting more of him was just totally WOW... pretty much undescrible.

Conference really helped a lot of people to be able to see God more clearly, or see his vision for people and their lives. It was amazing how many people were healed and how many things were overcome. It was a shame that i wasnt able to be there on the 16th to be present at the "Return and Give Glory" service but im sure that that was just as powerful!

Conference offically ended on Sat night but then had church on Sunday morning and Sunday night also. Sunday morning service was great and the message really hit me hard, for a while i have been living i guess what you would call a "semi christian" life and not quite doing things as much as i should. After hearing Glen Berteau (i think i spelt his name right), speak that morning there was an Alter Call and i ended up making a re-commitment to the G-Man which was totally unexpected but great.

Sunday night, there was another Alter Call (which wasnt exactly an Alter Call coz people stayed in their seats but ohh well) and there was a whole lot of prayer for financial healing, healing, jobs and something else. I was prayed upon for financial healing and then the next day on msn, i was talking to mum back home and she said that a cheque had arrived for me in the mail from IRD for $300 +!!!! I was totally stoaked :)

So now life is slightly easier with a few more $$$$$$ in the bank account and things seem to be going well - really well infact! Yay for life

GOD IS GREAT PEOPLE!

GIVE HIM THE GLORY :)

God Bless,

xox

Week 4/5

Week four seemed to go ohh so fast, this was probably because of the fact that i was looking forward to heading home on the Friday afternoon.

Week was great - Cooper (oldest child in the 2nd family) turned 5! and had his first day at school yesterday (monday) but was very sad when he found out that i wasnt able to be at his birthday party coz i was heading home for the weekend!

I had long days with Clare's family this week and they were slightly different as Brian (father) was home sick all week and Clare worked slightly different hours. So when i was supposedly meant to have sole charge of the chns, it pretty much went to custard and everything that i did on Wednesday with the children, i got a "I want mummy to do it" or "I want daddy" or just screaming in my face! Also, this week oliver (almost 1 yr old) did not want to sleep much with his morning/afternoon naps so by the time it came around to four pm and i was bathing Josh and Hannah - Oliver was screaming and crying and ohh boy... it was not pleasent at all! The life of nannying i guess :)

Thursday was much better - i think because Hannah and i were able to leave the house and go down the road to the park and spend some time there. Also Thursdays are busy but then i get a bit of down time in the afternoon while Oliver is sleeping (IF HE SLEEPS) and Hannah is at Kindy and Josh at swimming lessons!

Had the day off work on Friday but went down to "Tumbling Tots" which is like gym for todlers and helped out Sam (mother of 2nd family) with Elise and Sophie since i was free. What a great time that was but very hard trying to teach Elise how to climb up and down a ladder safely... this is still a work in progress and i have certainly learnt that children have a mind of their own. Ohh mother, how i feel for you after all of these years....

Friday after tumbling tots, it was back home (home as in Khandallah) and then pack my stuff, wash sheets, hang out washing and then pretty much time to head off to the bus stop in town and catch the bus home (home as in Hawkes Bay!!!!!)

Had a great weekend up in the bay and loved just hanging out with the fam (when i had a chance to). Went and saw FAME put on by HBHS/HGHS and it was fantastic. I always love going and seeing the last night of productions/musicals - they i think are the best.

Sunday i caught up with people at "The Station Community Church" which was fantastic and i realised how much some of the little ones have grown up in four weeks - its really scary but great. Also on Sunday i celebrated mum's birthday with her (which was actually monday) and that way i could be a part of it. Sunday afternoon i caught the bus back to welly and got in around 7pm ish. Little did i realise that i had managed to arrive at the train station at a busy time when there were a whole lot Phoenix fans and the train station was chaos! I walked out of the train station and also realised that i was certainly back in Wellington - the weather was HORRIBLE - even by wellington standards!

Monday i had another day off work and managed to catch up on an assignment or two and also just spent the day exploring wellington and porirua - whoop whoop! Catching up with friends whom i havnt seen in a while was great and i got to feel like a little kid again (instead of being an adult looking after little kids)!

Well now its tuesday morning and i have to head off and catch my bus into town for course now but i hope this keeps you all going long enough until i post my next blog (which hopefully wont be too far away)

Week 3 - draft done in week three (published in week 5)

(just so you have an indication of how slack i am - this was drafted two weeks ago and i still havnt managed to publish it... whoops!)

Hey all,

well i thought that since i had a bit of free time for a change i had better type a bit on here to keep you all up to date with life in Welly!

All is going..... well its okay - put it that way! The last week has been very hectict but i am glad to say that having to families to work for and learn from is fantastic because if i feel like i need to "escape" one family, then i just wait till another day and then i can trade families for the day.

Yesterday i worked with my 2nd family - the Daivs-Wren's i think it is. It was a hard day because all three children (remembering that they are all under 5) were home sick for the day and so notToday (Tuesday) was our third class day and what a day it was. We (the students/nannies in training) knew that the course would be very intense becuase there is so much to learn in 6ish months but today we ended up getting 4 ASSESSMENTS/ASSIGNMENTS to take home. Thank goodness that one or two of them arent due for a couple of weeks but still it is a lot of work to do when we only have 6 hours at the college a week (2 hours for each class) and need to take in a whole heap of info. As my host fam said, at least it should keep me out of trouble for the next couple of weeks.

Photos and update since i have been so slack!

Well here is an update for you all since i have been so slack at this over the last week or so!

All is going well so far. The children in the family that i am living with are all under 5 - 3 kids under 5, boy have i got my work cut out for me (supposedly). Their names are Josh 4yr old (5 on Christmas Day!!!), Hannah 3yr old (turned 3 in April) and then Oliver who is 11 and a bit months (turns 1 on Aug 23rd!). So i guess you could say it is a pretty busy household at times but so far i am surviving! I thought that i would add some photos on here since some people are asking about them so yea....

The first photos are of the first family that i work with (who also happen to be the fam that i am living with). Hannah also does not like having her hair tied up so its a miricle to have a photo with her hair actually tied up. There is certainly a performance or two when we even suggest tying it up.

The next lot are of the 2nd fam that i work with. The children in that family are very similar ages to the first fam and there are two girls and one boy instead of the other way around. I have only managed to get a couple of pics from the 2nd fam so far but will hopefulyl be able to get some more this week. Also will try and get some of Nannies College and some of the other students :)

Anyway, dinner time here now so i must go but i promise that i shall update my blog with some news and pics in the next couple of days - or at least by next weekend :)

Take care and God Bless,

Love Kathryn xox