Turn! Turn! Turn!

To Everything
There is a season
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

Been listening to good ol' folk tunes recently, and something about "Turn! Turn! Turn!" made me stop for awhile. Other than, of course, the way Benji heartily joined in at the chorus. Any song that pleases my boy pleases me, unless it gets played on loop till the wee hours of the morning!!!

It's no wonder that the song's meaningful, some of its lyrics were taken directly from the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes, and people obviously raved about it, because it quickly became The Byrds' second US #1 single.

Well, I'll let your ears do the judging ;)

The Byrds, with "Turn! Turn! Turn!", written by folk legend Pete Seeger.



Speaking of seasons, here's a beautiful tune, no less meaningful, from my Mellygal's favourite musical - treat those ears to the cast of RENT with "Seasons of Love".




525,600 minutes - how do you measure,
measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?
How about love? Measure in love. Seasons of love.

'Twas the Chinese New Year recently, a time for the obligatory visitations, but also a great chance to spend a few days basking in the immediate presence of your loving family - and boy am I glad for the wonderful (albeit sometimes a little kooky) little mites that fill my home with chatter and love.

Hip hip hooray (a little belatedly) to new beginnings!

Hey, there are no rules to celebrations! It's a party at our place every day!

So grab your virtual celebratory martini, let's clink our glasses, sit back, and enjoy the ride!

C'est la vie!
Yol

You would have been thirteen today, but you'll always be in my heart

Come stop your crying
It will be all right
Just take my hand Hold it tight

For one so small,
you seem so strong
My arms will hold you,
keep you safe and warm
This bond between us
Can't be broken
I will be here
Don't you cry

You'll be in my heart
No matter what they say
You'll be here in my heart, always

When destiny calls you
You must be strong
I may not be with you
But you've got to hold on
They'll see in time
I know
We'll show them together

For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'.

John Greenleaf Whittier

I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel.

Just a lil' good ol' romanticism for ya this Valentine's ;)

Photo of the iconic Luna Park ferris wheel by Milly from their holiday.

Loveydovey-ly
Yol

Hey Mimi, you're so fine! You're so fine you blow my mind!

I love watching my kids grow older and just more and more beautiful and talented.

Mimi's just turned 17, and we're all so proud of her stellar showing at the O levels!

Here's the Mimi of Yesteryear, aged 6,
always drawing stares for that beautiful head of silky jet-black hair (if I weren't her mother, I'd be sooo envious!) and porcelain-doll look. Not to mention her penchant for adorning her hair with all sorts of hair accessories. I remember a day when she went to school with probably ten or so different hair clips, and another day when she insisted she wanted "Allegra's Hair" - this puppet girl on an evening TV show who had hair in ponytails ALL OVER HER HEAD. I sighed, obliged, and survived the fits of giggles that ensued.

Here's the Mimi of Today, newly-minted SEVENTEEN
No prizes for guessin' what her birthday wish was this year! ;)

To the World's Most-Pampered Middle Child,
Happy Seventeenth, make good use of the opportunities Life brings!

I love you, Mimi!

Your mom, best pal and occasional confidante
Yol

Kids, Skype me soonest!

So much to talk about, so little time!

Also, so much to explore!!!

XOXO
Yol

P.S. Keep your noses clean, and always do your laundry... Nick. ;)'

A journey of a thousand miles...

A journey of a thousand miles ... ends when Mimi shouts "LET'S TURN BACK!"

And so began the amusing story, as told by very animated Kim, Nick and Mel, relaying their annoyance at Mimi's initial huff.

"She insisted we should turn back once she laid EYES on the path!"
"She's so ANNOYING, mom!" (I think only moms can identify when the word 'annoying' is used in the same sentence as your name a billion times, and none referring to you.)

I laughed at the very typical Mimi behaviour. She had, in her defence, insisted that it wouldn't be safe to walk the path of an UNFENCED cliff without any of the bushwalking emergency flares from the police post (which they happened to have the fortune to be living right next to).

But then I recalled my own heart thumping furiously when, upon completing their cliff walk, Mel telephoned in glee, announcing that they were at the peak of a cliff, before passing the phone to everyone else in their happy little group. PEAK OF A CLIFF, you say?! I was baffled. I hadn't expected this, and felt every bit the irresponsible mother. Which mom lets her kids, 4000 miles away from home, scale an UNFENCED cliff, while she sips tea at her mother's house. (Yes, this was what I was doing, today being Christmas and all.)


I did think they were having me on for awhile, but they sent this photo as proof, together with a video of them dramatically completing the last few steps of the walk in slow-motion, whilst singing 'Kumbaya'.

Champions of the world!

"DON'T FENCE ME IN!"

UNFENCED?! So much for "safety first", kiddos! Hahahahaha!

Some of the lookout points had to be fenced, like this one. Good. Can't imagine what stunts might ensue if not!

They had to cross a stream on this little bridge - I'm surprised Kimmy didn't protest! Well, they were probably halfway through it all by then! No one gets left behind, after all!

Nick, upon his successful "loss of a good number of kilos", promptly stripped and streaked. (Yes, he ran about naked in public while his sisters attempted to get him clothed enough for the cold cold walk home.) The silly boy even got his whole t-shirt wet in preparation for aforementioned "cold walk". Brr. Good thing they'd borrowed rain jackets, because the weather in Katoomba wasn't the most pleasant, and it was a misty, cold Christmas!

The gang, back in the civilised part of this sleepy lil' countrytown!

Heard the weather was so cold, Mel's camera screen frosted up! Wowza.

Kids, if you're reading this before bedtime, I do hope you're warm and toasty!

Hugs and kisses and Christmas dreams galore,
Your Momma Yol

Christmas Eve, and kindness abounds!

The three graceful sisters on a clear day. Katoomba, Australia (as pictured by MY own three gals). What a sight to behold! Legend has it that three sisters were turned into stone by a sorcerer who intended to protect them from being harmed in war (it's a very complicated story not unlike Romeo and Juliet, you see, just thrice over!) So there were three sisters whose father refused to let them marry three (brave and I imagine, handsome to boot, as stories mostly go) men from their rival clan. Their father kept the three sisters in hiding, and the men came to demand their hand in marriage when they stopped hearing from the sisters. War broke out!

A sorcerer turned the girls into stone to protect them. Alas, he was killed in the crossfire, and noone else could turn the girls back into their human form. So they stand till this day!

There's another version, where it was their DAD who turned them into stone, but that's another story ;)'

Awed by our beautiful world,
Yol

P.S. Guess what! The kids emailed to say that a kind man at the Opal store gave Mel a boulder opal! How's that for some ol' time Christmas spirit? :) It's kind strangers like these who will really make their holiday a trip to remember. To experience the kindness of strangers is like no other experience.

For somehow, not only at Christmas, but all the long year through, The joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you.

Who could ask for more!

Half the little critters have taken flight and left the safety of this Nest for the Great Outside World! It's a wild world, as they say, and boy do I have the jitters!

They made sure I was duly hooked up to the Great Internet, and I'm fully equipped with the Essentials, as they put it: Gmail account, MSN account, Facebook, Skype account, the works, so they aren't that far away from home - just a click away!!!

Now all I need is someone to do the clicking and navigating for me, and I'll be on a rampage ;) watch out, Internet, I'm gonna "pwn" your teenytiny WWW. Haha! (Rather, "LOL", or ... as I've gathered from Facebook, "ROFLMAO" is the norm now. Go figure. Damn, this worldwideweb is growing fast!)

Anyway, the shiniest new badge I've been invested with on my Internet Journey would be this very Blog! Came with instructions in an email this morning, fresh from Sydney, where the kiddos have settled in (and very nicely, too, I might add!)

I've reproduced their (very tongue-in-cheek) email instructions below, for your amusement (and for my memory's sake!!!)!

This is the sight that surprised me in my inbox this morning:

Instructions (to be followed exactly, no questions asked, momma!)
If you've managed to retrieve this email, give yourself a pat on the back! Really! You've progressed to Internet Explorer Level 2 (haha pun on explorer!) You will be duly rewarded with an Anniversary Surprise! (If you've managed to retrieve this email BEFORE 23 December - your Anniversary, we applaud you. But no, that's not possible since we've only just sent it today. We are 3 hours ahead of you, though. Do the math, Momsie!)

1. Go to this address: www.blogspot.com
2. Type your Gmail email address in the Username column, with the password we all know too well.
3. Click 'log in'.
4. Wait for page to load.
5. Click on "A Pretty A Day", and Create New Post.

We've run out of steam for creating instructions, and it's pretty foolproof from there, so we'll meet you on Skype to complete an online Crash Course on Blogging just for you.
The layout and design is all complete, we've even taken the liberty to create links to our own wonderful blogspaces, and all you have to do is click a button to POST POST POST! So talk about us lots, Mom! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Love,
Your Lil Kiddos
(Shoutouts to BJ and Dad at home!!)

Always the entertainers, kids, always the funny ones ;)'

Love ya kids! I will enjoy my blog! Thank you so much for creating this little space in the web for me ;)

Simple post this time, but I'll catch up!

Dazzled,
Momma Yol