Mini Reviewers take on…..Thunderbirds Are Go

Thunderbirds are Go!

When disaster strikes, International Rescue answers the call! From a hidden island base in the South Pacific, the five Tracy brothers pilot remarkable, cutting-edge Thunderbird vehicles from the depths of the oceans to the highest reaches of space, all for one purpose: to help those in need

Thunderbirds are Go Crosscut

High radiation levels have been detected over southern Africa – and are rising dangerously fast. Can International Rescue find a way to stop the radiation leak and not get trapped in the treacherous mine? Find out in CROSSCUT, the first thrilling THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO adventure – with free removable pop-up Thunderbird 1

Thunderbirds are Go Sticker Activity book

Are you ready to test your knowledge in this THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO sticker activity book? From Sudoku and logic puzzles to a giant wordsearch and poster spread, this activity book is perfect for any International Rescue recruit. Intelligence and reasoning are at the centre of every rescue and this book will test yours with these brain-bending activities. So, if you think you have the skills to join the Tracy brothers then get your pens ready!Includes more than 50 stickers.

Thunderbirds are Go Official Guide

This official guide to THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO has all the information a new recruit needs. Learn all about the history, vehicles and daring rescues in this definitive guide to International Rescue.

My Mini Reviewers:

Our little panel of reviewers comprises the following:
Mr 7: an avid reader with an enormous imagination.

Miss 5: a beginner reader with a taste for the dramatic.

Mr 4: loves being read to – the sillier, the better.

In the interests of full disclosure, I feel it is necessary to advise that our panel of mini-reviewers are being paid for their time in chocolate. (To be fair, their mama works for less)

The result:

(marks on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the worst book we’ve ever read, 10 being the best)

Mr 4: Our littlest man is an engineer in the making. If he can take it apart and figure out how it all works, he’s a happy little dude. He LOVED the crosscut book – being able to cart around Thunderbird 1 was like a dream come true for him. He gave his book 10/10

Miss 5: Miss Priss is the girliest girl you could imagine – the pinker, the sparklier, the better. In saying that, she’s getting a good grounding in superheroes and spaceships between her two brothers and father, so she has an appreciation for what Thunderbirds stands for. Plus…stickers! She LOVES stickers. The activities in this book were a bit beyond her and probably suited to slightly older children, but she had fun looking through it all. She gave the sticker activity book 7/10

Mr 7: He LOVED the Official Guide! This child loves information, so soaking up the profiles of the Tracey brothers was right up his alley. And when Mr 4 and Miss 5 put their books down, he was right in there scooping them up. He gave the Official Guide 10/10

Mama’s opinion: We watched the new series of Thunderbirds Are Go when it screened on TV recently with the children and they were mesmerised by it. When the opportunity came up to review the books, I jumped on it! There’s something quite lovely about having my children watch a series  that I remember watching as a child, and it makes such a nice change from Spiderman and the Hulk. The books were great – probably more suited to Mr 7 than the other two, but they enjoyed them too. I wish I could have stashed them away until Christmas because they were a big hit in our house!

xo

(Book supplied by Hachette NZ)

Things being a Military Wife Has Taught Me.

Things being a Military Wife Has Taught Me.

I’ve been married to the military for 8 years now, and dating it for 5 years before that. It’s been a hell of a ride, and I think it can be a great life, and I’ve learnt so much from it. Here’s a few of my learnings.

– To be diplomatic.
I’ve learnt to answer very silly questions very patiently.
(We won’t even talk here about the women who say “I could never have your life. I love my husband too much” Trust me, I don’t love my husband any less because of his job. Or the ones who say “Oh, I know EXACTLY what it’s like. My husband goes away for work too” Mmmhmmm, but a night here or there isn’t really the same thing. I appreciate you trying to empathise, but it’s a bit like saying “I know JUST how you felt when your arm was amputated. I got a paper cut the other day.”)
“Do we even have an air force any more?” Yes, yes we do, and it’s very active and those involved take great pride in what they do. We should be proud of our country’s defence force.
“Oh, is your husband a pilot?” No, he’s not. He’s a part of the myriad of other trades necessary to our Air Force.
“Aren’t you scared about what will happen if he goes to Afghanistan/Syria/Iraq (wherever the current hotbed happens to be at the time)?” Am I scared? Well, no – I choose not to concern myself with ‘what ifs’. If he gets sent to these places, I’m sure I’ll worry about him while he’s gone. There’s a risk in his job, and I’ve accepted that. There’s also a risk in driving to work….I try not to worry about that either 😉
“Don’t you miss him while he’s away?” Well of course I miss him. As do our children, but it’s a part of our lives and we are used to it. I love my quiet evenings while he’s away and I love snuggling in front of the TV when he’s home…which brings me to my second learning….

– To be independent.
My husband left for ‘our’ first deployment the afternoon of my mother’s funeral. He came home for a month and then left for another 4 months after that. I would often get home from work to find out that he had been deployed. When my daughter was 6 weeks old (and our son was almost 1.5), he left for his first tour of Afghanistan. We had 1 week notice of that trip, and we lived in Blenheim with no family around. I was diagnosed with pneumonia days after he left and my son was hospitalised with a mystery illness and the doctors testing him for some particularly nasty things. You cope.

Now, with three children and 2 businesses, life can be hectic while he’s away, but life is getting easier and easier. I’m perfectly happy on my own while he’s away (although I do prefer it when he’s home), and I can hold everything down at home. It makes life easier for him while he’s away having absolute confidence that I’m fine back here. I take pride in that – it’s my part in keeping him safe as he can keep his mind 100% on his job, rather than stressing about home.

– Have a sense of humour
You know that old adage – if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. That applies. Absolutely.

– Be flexible

It’s a bit of a joke, but there’s a saying that if you are a military wife you shouldn’t ever write on your calendar in pen. Things come up, leave gets cancelled, plans change. You learn to roll with it.
My career has to be secondary to my husband’s. His career dictates where we live, how long we live there, and to an extent, how we live. I’ve been extraordinarily lucky in that my businesses (dorothy nada and Qwerky Home) mean that I can work around these demands.

– Make friends, and know how to say goodbye to them.
Moving regularly can be a big part of being a defence force wife. You learn to be pretty ok with rocking up to people and just saying hi. And, conversely, you learn to say goodbye to your friends (either when they leave, or when you do). You also learn that goodbyes are rarely forever – there’s a big likelihood that you’ll all end up back together anyway, and the great thing about military friendships is that you are all pretty adept at picking right back up where you left off.
Our Defence Force does an amazing job. They are frequently over-worked, chronically underpaid and shockingly underappreciated. The families – even less so. The next time you’re watching the news where TV cameras are in the faces of the next round of deployed personnel saying goodbye to their partners and children, do me a favour. Look away. It’s horribly intrusive in an extremely private moment. Both the personnel leaving and their families deserve respect.

Are you a military spouse? What have you learnt?

On feminism

On feminism….

I’ve had this rant ruminating in my little head for a while now about feminism, and recently I’ve been inundated with examples of exactly WHY I need to write it.

So, first things first…Yes, absolutely, 100% I am a feminist. I fail to see why any sane woman wouldn’t be. I’m not in the ranks of Germaine Greer or Naomi Wolf, but the older I get, the more passionate I feel about the cause. My children are being raised by a stay-at-home mum and a working dad, not as an example of staid traditional principals, but because feminism has worked to give women the choice of working outside the home or within the home without judgement

I’m raising my children to be feminists – and yes, this definitely does include my 2 sons. I think it’s more important than ever to instil in children the belief that there needs to be equality between the sexes. I don’t want my sons to grow up and think that it is okay to dissemble a woman into a scrap heap of body parts, there for their aesthetic pleasure, fine in doing so because that’s ‘just what guys do’, or because they are ‘with the bros’. I don’t want my children to grow up mindlessly listening to some of the misogynistic music on the radio without at least considering the meaning of the lyrics.

My daughter is told every day that she is beautiful….and also that she is clever and brave and kind and strong. My sons have been raised playing with dolls, wearing tutus and being praised for being kind and gentle boys alongside their games of wrestling, truck racing and super hero role plays.

We’ve campaigned for the right to vote, we’ve burnt the bras and fought to have equal pay (still a work in progress to be fair, but moving slowly in the right direction), we’ve demanded acknowledgement and understanding and respect. I feel we’ve swung so far the other way now – a women who declares herself a feminist has the image of a hairy-armpitted, butch angry woman to contend with, and young women in our society seem to feel that their power lies in being as overtly sexual as their male counterparts (just watch the various “shore” reality shows for examples of them). I argue that a strong, powerful women in our society is one who can calmly and firmly state her beliefs and her opinions and who clearly understands her boundaries and has an expectation of how she should be treated. I’m raising my daughter to be this woman, and my sons to be the men who respect her for it.

xx

  (images via pinterest)

Ranty ranty rant rant rant…

WHAT NEXT???

I recently read an article (in fact, I’m still sitting here reading this article and it’s got me so riled up that I needed to write this all out to vent) which is all about what a terrible parent you are if you yell at your children. Ok, ok, it doesn’t ACTUALLY say that, but that’s the undertone. Now prepare for the rant….

For years now parents (specifically mothers) have been bombarded with articles, advice, and tips telling them all about how poorly they are parenting and exactly what it is they are doing wrong.

Here’s my advice to you: If your child is fed, warm, happy and as healthy as you can facilitate….you are doing a great job. You don’t have to be supermum. In fact, my new motto is “good enough is good enough”. Your child doesn’t have to be the best, the smartest, the prettiest, the most well-behaved, know the most languages…they just have to be loved.

It starts when you’re pregnant. Actually, strike that…it starts when you are trying to conceive…take the right supplements, stop drinking caffeine…focus on making your womb the most hospitable environment possible if you want to be a good mother. Then (with a bit of luck) you get pregnant and suddenly everything that goes into your mouth has to be checked against a list of what you should and shouldn’t eat while you are pregnant. And you start the reading…oh god the reading. How to get your baby to sleep (should you go the attachment parenting route, or leave them to cry it out?), the feeding (if you want to be a good mum with a healthy, clever baby and a good strong bond then OBVIOUSLY you’ll breastfeed. Everyone can don’t you know), how many layers should they wear? Cloth or disposables? How will you discipline your child when the time comes? What are your beliefs on daycare (or Montessori, home-based childcare, never letting your child out of sight until they turn 24). Actually GIVING BIRTH…again, if you want to bond with your baby, you’ll birth naturally. Of course.

I’m calling bullshit.

My children arrived in their own fashion – and none naturally. Breast feeding seemed something sent from the devil, so they were bottle-fed. I yell when I’m really angry. To be fair, I probably yell more than I should (but where does that ‘should’ come from?). The bottom line for me is this: my children are beautiful. They are smart. They are quirky and imaginative and healthy. They are loved utterly and completely and know this absolutely. They are smothered with hugs and kisses and return that smothering in large doses.

I am the best mum I know how to be – flaws and all. I’m drawing my line in the sand. No more parenting articles. No more advice from experts. I AM the expert on my children. I don’t need anyone to tell me what I’m doing wrong – I look into the sunny faces of my children (with all their idiosyncrasies) and know that I’m doing exactly what’s right.

A new art corner

Art corner…
I had a fabulous weekend planned….gift fair…sleeping all night long, uninterrupted in a hotel…baths…catching up with a few lovely friends…well, part of being a mum is learning that things don’t always go to plan and that other’s needs often come before your own. So when my husband was sent home sick from work on some pretty strong antibiotics, it was obvious that my weekend away was cancelled. Disappointing, but it gave me a good chance to work on a little project I’d had in mind for awhile

.

My children have a playroom. Up until this point, it’s mainly been a room stuffed with toys and is usually a huge mess. My children are a bit older now and at the stage where they don’t need tonnes of toys to keep them occupied – it’s more about ‘doing things’ than ‘playing with things’. With this in mind, I decided to make them an art corner in their playroom.

The first stop was Resene. The ladies at Resene in Feilding are AMAZING!! I’ve been popping in and out fairly regularly lately with wallpapering our daughter’s room, painting the wall in our living room and helping a friend with the design of her new hair salon. They are always friendly and always super helpful. One of my favourite things about our Resene is that there is a play corner so I can take my children in there and still get to concentrate on what I’m doing – and the lovely ladies will often hand my children lollipops on the way out, so they love going there too.

I came out with my blackboard paint and a test pot of vibrant orange (called Trinidad) and went home to get to work. I can tell you it is immensely satisfying slapping black paint on a pristine white wall! After painting, the rest of the look took no time at all. A few storage shelves laid sideways, glass jars filled with art supplies, and we were done. (dorothy nada has some great jars that would work perfectly here)

Needless to say, the children love it. So do I – they’ve played in there non-stop since I finished it, and the addition of a rubbish bin means that they are able to tidy up as they go (in theory, but nobody’s perfect). I’m really pleased with how it turned out, and that I was able to make good use of a bust weekend. I have a few more plans up my sleeves – a ‘performance’ corner, a reading corner and a lego table are all on the cards. One thing at a time though!