Kia ora Upper North caregivers,

We welcome winter this month, and as much as I love the crisp air, warm porridge, and winter sports,  I admit I do not look forward to the sore throats, runny noses, and earaches.  Is it just me or does anyone else think ‘covid’ every time a child coughs or is sick?  Many years ago, when I was a caregiver, one of the things I would make during autumn was lemon honey. I would start serving it on toast, crumpets, and porridge.  Pretty much any way I could get it into the kids I would, and I am not joking when I say we had very few kids home from school during the winter.  I have included a recipe for lemon honey from the Food in a Minute website, if anyone wants to try it (chuckle). Lemon Honey | Food in a Minute.  I’d love to hear how you build your child’s immune system for winter, drop me an email with your ideas – nyvonnek@caringfamilies.org.nz

Training

Our new training calendar is hot off the press!  We  have some great online training available for the Upper North region in June.

We have our one-hour Ako Ngātahi (Learning Together) series offering topics such as Parenting in a Healing Way and Reactive Children-Understanding the Volcano, both based on therapeutic models that we know work for children who have been through trauma. As well as our redesigned What’s Behind the Behaviour workshop – now delivered over two hours, over two days, breaking it into the ‘Why’ and the ‘How’.   The Why looks behind the behaviour and The How gets us thinking about how we can form a different, more therapeutic response knowing the why.

Events

For the Kings Birthday weekend, the grandchildren and I are getting dressed up in our royal robes (that have an uncanny resemblance to our dressing gowns), and we will be partaking in high tea (tastes more like milo), and cucumber sandwiches (look more like homemade pikelets with jam and cream).  We will sing happy birthday to the King and then probably end up in the garden digging something.  What are your plans for the weekend?  Take a picture and send it to me (nyvonnek@caringfamilies.org.nz) and I can feature it here next time.

As Matariki rises this month, I am aware that around our beautiful country, there are different stories and practices relative to different Iwi.  In the far north, we celebrate Puanga.  However, it is not as well-known as Matariki.  I would like to share with you a wonderful resource I found.  Matariki Explained was produced by Scottie Productions Ltd and features Māori Astrologer and holder of ancestral knowledge, Rereata Makiha and Ngāti Rangi leader, Che Wilson. They share their knowledge of Matariki and Puanga. This is a beginner’s guide to Matariki and an incredibly good watch. The clip is 24:00 long, but definitely worth it! Perhaps sit down and give it a watch over a cuppa. 

Support

I don’t need to remind you all how difficult things are at the moment.  I understand that we try to ‘just get on with it’, but sometimes it is nice to have someone to talk to.  If you would like to be a part of a support group / coffee group / sisterhood / brotherhood, we would love to help connect you with other caregivers.  Please get in touch with me (nyvonnek@caringfamilies.org.nz) or our National Office (0800 693 323) and we can awhi (support) you to make it happen.

Noho ora mai, take care, keep well

Nyvonne