I'm no extremist.

I really am not and never intended to be a raw food extremist when I first signed up for this Raw Food Course. If anything, I simply clicked the purchase button to which my credit card is conveniently linked upon reading this deal. I'd say I'm curious and really just beginning my journey of learning more about health and nutrition. Upon further research this week, I came across some negative reviews in regards to eating raw. You see apparently cold/raw food is hard to digest as the body has to heat the food up to  37 degrees before proper digestion can occur. In the process of your digestive system trying to digest the raw food, it can essentially only end up being able to do half the job its supposed to and therefore not even be able to absorb all the nutrients that are found in "raw foods". This would of course defeat the purpose of eating raw in the first place.

So, where does this leave me? 

Well. I still am keen to trial a 28 day dietary change of some sort. I think having this course will help keep me on track. I do not however intend to go 100% raw. In fact, the course does suggest you can try to just start switching one-two meals to be raw daily. So I think this is the approach I will use. I will try to incorporate other dietary changes I have been researching in regards to; limited sugar, gluten, processed foods, vegan etc and not have it be strictly limited to raw.

See, I'm no extremist. I will probably stuff up and fail on many occasions throughout the 28 days. But I'm willing to try something. And you've gotta start somewhere I guess.

*I haven't even ordered the necessary ingredients to begin this new diet anyways...so it will be another week until I can begin. 

Raw Food Beginnings; 10 things I"m learning.

Here is what I'm learning so-far as I read through the program guide of the 28 Day Rawsome Transformation Program that I just recently signed up for. 

This is me taking 10 simple points on how I can best plan and prepare for me to follow the program.

1. Download and print all the files received from purchasing this program
2. Get familiar with the recipes and write out an achievable menu plan
3. Choose my official launch date. This will have to be Thursday or Friday of next week that is when I'll be able to get an order from the barge by.
4. In this week leading up, begin to cut down on 
   "dairy, meat, alcohol, soft drinks, sodas, artificial sweeteners, alcohol, refined sugar, frozen dinners, chocolate, coffee, nicotine, wheat ie. bread, baked goods, pasta, pizza. On launch day you will eliminate these foods all together".
5. "Follow the 80/20 rule, 80% vegetables on your plate and 20% protein or gluten free grains (such as amaranth, millet, or quinoa) on your plate is a good guide to go by".
6.  The program suggests to throw away all the foods you will no-longer be consuming. This however is impossible for me as we have to feed twelve teenage girls who would likely have my head if I started throwing away their nutella and ice cream. So, in this area I must simply exercise awesome self-control.
7. "Check my equipment" Well. here it suggests that I make sure my juicer and blender are in good working condition and to consider purchasing things like a vege spiraliser and dehydrator...but I'll wait to see what happens before I go all hard out like that.
8. Learn to deal with cravings and figure out what it is that my body is actually needing verses wanting. As well as assess the  emotions behind the cravings as well. This could be good.
9. I pretty much just wanted to copy paste the entire point on Stop Counting Calories. This interests me as I've just entered a weight loss challenge, so it will be very interesting to see if I can still loose as much weight as those who count calories. Heres what they say;   "A raw food diet is not about deprivation or calorie restriction. In fact the more you restrict calories, the more your body thinks its in a famine and will hold onto weight. When your body is receiving optimum fuel it will utilise it all for energy, and not get stored as fat because it recognises it as REAL food! You will find you can eat as much salad, sprouts, superfoods or have as many green juices or smoothies as you like and still lose weight. Fat is a toxin store so by consuming detoxifying foods your body will begin to release stored toxins and the fat will melt away. Your body will reach an equilibrium when it is at its optimal weight. Nuts are nutrient dense foods and loaded with good fats which are crucial for bodily functions, and an important part of the raw food diet, however use in moderation. Stick to the 80/20 rule her"
10. Use the journal provided every day of the 28 program. I will try as best as possible to do this here on the blog as I think a digital version will serve me better and something I can refer back to easily.

 *An important side note to remember in all this is I don't want this new diet (food I'm consuming) to become majorly expensive. So I will try to stick to the Dirty Dozen Clean Fifteen, Which is a list of foods which are ok to buy from the store as per usual and ones that you should really buy organically based on their pesticide residue. We also are in the process of planting our own garden so, this will not just appear overnight, so I"ll allow myself to be flexible where need be in this area. 

Term 2; campfires and hairy men.

Well Hello There.

Greetings from the Tiwi Islands. 

I don't know about you?, but this year is just flying! I can't believe we are about to begin week 5 of term 2.

It was really great to go back to Brisbane to visit family and friends for the holidays. We came back feeling very refreshed and supported. We were unsure what to expect from the girls coming into term 2. However, we have been pleasantly surprised at how well everyone settled back into routine. There is also a sense of closeness and relationship has obviously just come through time as we all learn to trust and enjoy each other. Of course, we've had some hard times thrown into the mix but as I sit here to write this it's the good and more pleasant times that I remember most and will share with you here.

Our house serving at Community Dinner in week 2

 As it is the dry season now, it means nights are a bit cooler. We have made a nice big area to have bonfires after homework and have also taken the girls out for drives. They like trying to hunt for possums, however I'm not sure who of our girls will actually run out of the car when they see one?. The girls and even some of the boys get quite scared at night time due to stories of the "hairy man" running around and grabbing people...But they never cease to surprise me, so we shall see when the time comes.

Nancy teaching us how to make damper

We have had pretty much a full house (12 girls) since the beginning of this term. We have two new girls who have joined us and are such a great addition here at FGH4. It's also been encouraging to have the girls from last term come back every week. This week the senior girls are away for work experience in Darwin. They were a little nervous, but we know they will do a great job and hopefully they will learn a few things from being away. 

Our two new girls (sisters) Jessie and Kathleen

Well thats us for now.

Thought it was about time for an update as before we know it the term will be over.

We'll be back soon, as you can see we have changed our blog around to be something that documents all different areas of our life. So feel free to subscribe via email or just check in whenever you think of us.

Your prayers and encouragement is greatly needed and is changing lives out here...

Love,
Mr & Mrs M

Football and other Fun Festivities...

It's the holidays!!!!!
I can't believe how fast this term has gone. Today we said goodbye to our girls and tomorrow we fly off the Island for a two week break over Easter. Before we go I thought I'd post a few pictures of whats been happening the last few weeks of this term.

On Sunday a couple of weeks ago the local footy grand final was played between the Tiwi teams. We drove about 30 minutes, then caught the barge over to the other Island to watch the game. We were able to check out some local art and as you can see passionately cheer on our teams (just kidding we left after the first quarter because it was sooo hot) But a fun outing none the less.

In week 8 our girls footy team made it to the grand final, in the women's competition. As you can see from the above photos our girls came away victorious and won the game. It was a great afternoon and so-wonderful to see our girls play so-well.  Very proud house-parent moment. Go the Baby Bombers!!!

As the end of the term was drawing near, and keeping in theme with Easter I had the girls decorate some Easter eggs to decorate our Easter Tree. We also made invitations to our Easter afternoon tea where the girls would be cooking all the different foods they learned to prepare throughout the term in life skills.

The girls did a great job in preparing the food and as you can see there was quite a nice spread.

Here are some photos of everyone enjoying the food. The girls invited some of the female members of staff to come along.

In the last week we had a house party, watched the movie Hop on the big screen and had an Easter egg hunt. I also did a wee bit of baking and packaged some little treats for them to take home.

 Well I think you're all caught up on the latest of whats been happening in Family Group Home 4.

We fly into Brisbane on Saturday morning and are looking forward to catching up with you!

A snapshot of our week.

Welcome to our wacky weeks...

It has been a little while since Dunstan and I posted in here and so we thought it would be good considering it is the end of WEEK 5! to give a little update. Seriously, time is flying out here and we are over half way through the term. This post is to share, as the heading suggests a snapshot into our weekly routine here at Family Group Home 4. Hopefully it will provide a bit more understanding into what we do out here.

This is a typical activity for our girls, watching movies (sometimes the same one over and over and over again)

Monday:
The girls arrive from their communities anywhere between 11-1 on Monday. We prepare a hot lunch for them to eat before heading off to school.
The girls have Growing Young Women AFL training at 4:00pm and then dinner at 6:30pm. After dinner is hygiene night, or "nits night" where we do lice treatment for all the girls (this can take quite a bit of time considering some weeks we have up to 12 girls). Good times.

Around the dinner table

 Tuesday:
Their day begins with breakfast and then showers before leaving for school at 8:20am. After school on Tuesdays and Thursdays is Life Skills, which is a time set aside for the Family Group home parents to teach the girls basic skills. On Tuesdays we have been teaching the girls different things to bake and in week 8 we will put on an afternoon tea for some female staff and the girls will use their new found baking skills to serve their guests.
After dinner the girls go to homework, which Dunstan or I accompany them to and help out where we can. Homework is run in their classrooms for half an hour. After homework the lights are switched on at the basketball court for the students enjoyment for the evening.

Edwina making my Mum's banana cake recipe

Wednesday:
The girls have AFL training and homework night.

Watching carefully

At homework one night this week, a YWAM team taught on social media

Thursday:
The girls have their football game, and whoever doesn't make it on the team has to take part in the life skill program. Thursdays is when we get the girls to do cleaning around the home, so you can imagine how much they love this afternoon (insert sarcastic tone). We then have community dinner at 6:30 where all the house parents bring a meal to share on the basketball court and all staff and students come along.

Phylly our pool shark

Friday:
Friday morning Dunstan and I cook the girls a nice hot breaky before sending them off to school.  School finishes at midday with an assembly and then they come home for a prepared hot lunch before they jump in the troopys to return to their communities. Dunstan I then wash all their bedding, and clean the house before putting our feet up and welcoming in the weekend... 

Dunstan and I serving dinner

*The past two weeks we have had a team from YWAM Townsville here at the college. We had four wonderful helpers assigned to our house. They truly were a blessing to us and the girls. Its exciting to have a YWAM connection out here considering YWAM was such a huge part of mine and Dunstan's life for so-long. The photos are courtesy of one of the girls who helped at our house.

Due to various community activities we only had seven girls, the white people are the wonderful YWAMers:)

Well there you have it. That is a fairly typical week at Family Group Home 4. We hope you have had a really good week, wherever you are and in whatever you are doing... Thank you for your continual love and support.

Love,
Mr & Mrs M
xo

Schools Back

Well today is back to school eve.

All our planning and praying and packing has been for this day.
On New Years Eve Dunstan and I were in a plane flying to Brisbane from the Philippines. We literally hit the ground running, as we then had three ish weeks to pack, clean and store our stuff before flying to Tiwi.

Our first week was filled with more cleaning, orientation, PD sessions about "Restorative Practice" and hanging out with staff. Its been tiring but rewarding at the same time. Savouring the last moments before the students arrive tomorrow.

Some of you have asked to see pictures of the inside of our house, and so the night before the kids come, I finally feel ready to share some photos.

Here goes. Welcome to our home.

Here is our front door. Welcome to Family Group Home 4 (yes still into bunting)

Who. What. When.  Can you tell I've been working at a school these past two years? I think not.

Our un-decorated lounge area

Dining area

Welcome Packs for the girlies

One of three bedrooms

Timetables and daily routines on the wall

You were meant for amazing things...encouragement in the bathrooms:)

Kitchen. The heart of the home...

Hope you enjoyed the little tour. Hopefully I will get to enjoy a cup of tea with some of you in person here....

Well i'll keep this one short. As always, we'd love to hear from you. We are thinking and praying of all our family and friends in the Brisbane/Logan area. whew. looks like we left at a good time hey?! You can always come up here... No cyclones forecast yet. ;)

xo
Mr&Mrs M

First week reflections

Well we have certainly had an eventful first week up here in the Tiwi Islands. Last night there was an earthquake measuring 7.3 magnitude, but was 170km deep therefore posing no Tsunami threat. We awoke around 2am to feel our house shaking, Dunstan initially thought he was in a boat as he was dreaming about fishing, but then realized it wasn't a dream, but an earthquake. I woke up to the movement, pronounced that this was my first earthquake and fell back asleep. No damage was done over here to our knowledge, we are all safe and well.  Here are some thoughts/reflections on the week gone by accompanied by some photos. You might want to have a cup of tea or coffee in hand, as this re-cap ended up being a little longer than I had anticipated.

The news headlines we woke up to our first morning in the Northern Territory, were something along the lines of "twelve year - old boy killed by Croc" this didn't really build much confidence in our new surroundings. We then made our way to the local airport for charter flights that  go to the Tiwi Islands and surrounding remote communities. At the small Aviation office for the company we were flying with the pilot asked us if we had been weighed yet, I began reaching for our bags only to learn that he was in fact talking about weighing us (thank goodness I'd been exercising a bit before this trip). As you can see in the photo above the planes are quite teeny tiny so they have to evenly distribute weight to ensure for a smooth journey. Our first glimpses of the Tiwi Islands were beautiful and within twenty minutes of taking off we began to make our descent. Red soil and dust met us, along with some of our friends and the Family group home co-ordinator, we then  jumped into a troopy and made our way to the school.

This the main office. 

Here is our house, it has two large veggie gardens either side (hopefully we can keep them alive). 

We were quite surprised by the schools modern infrastructure and tarred roads. The school the itself is only four years old and has 66 students give or take who attend on a weekly basis. From the hours of 8:30-3:15 the students attend school. All hours in between, they are essentially in the care of the Family Group Home Parents (us). There are six different Family Group Homes (FGH) hosting same sex students from middle school to senior. The houses are quite nice and have air conditioning in the bedrooms. The house above is the one we are going to be staying in next year. At this stage it looks like we will have middle school girls. Dunstan and I are excited to begin the journey of Family House Group Parents in the coming year.

The week gone by was the last week for the students and so it was filled with some exciting activities and celebrations which were really cool to be a part of. We stayed in FGH3 which has the middle school boys in it. The boys in this house were pretty well behaved, very loud and certainly kept us entertained. Talk about culture shock, having to adjust to their fast paced,  profanities   slang, heavily accented english was a bit hard at the beginning but Dunstan in true form managed to pick up some phrases, accents and words in their language. Matthew Hayden (Aussie cricketer) came to do some filming for a documentary he is making about his garden project he has at the school. Above is a picture of Dunstan playing guitar for the Fijian house parents as they sung for Matty and the kids. We have also started doing a nice 3.8k walk/run which if done early enough doesn't result in too-much heat exhaustion. Along this walk we've seen wild horses, dingo tracks, a snake, been swooped by over protective birds and almost landed on by a charter plane (slight exaggeration with the plane).

The kids are... well, they really just need a whole lot of love and encouragement (don't we all). They certainly come with their fair set of challenges. We are encouraged by reports they have made a lot of positive progress, particularly this year in regards to their behaviour, academic achievements, attitudes, general hygiene, relationally etc. The way the children are here at school is really a reflection of what their lives are like at home in their communities. There are certainly positive aspects to their culture and that is what we must focus on drawing out and emphasising rather than the negative. While Dunstan and I know we will face some challenges in the coming year in our new roles, we consider it an honour to work out here in an A grade remote area in a fully indigenous school. God is already at work in this community and we are excited to be a part of what He has in store for next year.

"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes". James 4:14

Our lives are but a mist, a fleeting moment in time, so here is to making our time here on this earth count.

Whew, that was a long re-cap considering it has only been a week, but hopefully it painted a bit more of a picture of what we signed up for. We are still learning and enjoying the journey ourselves.

On Thursday we leave the Tiwi to make our way to Darwin airport for our flight to Manila at 3am. Yew!

Much love,
Mr & Mrs M