Breakfast for Cambodian orphans fundraiser

Hello again my lovely audience, today I want to discuss with you an amazing woman and her quest to bring breakfast to orphans in Cambodia.

I was contacted recently by a lovely Deakin University student called Catherine. In January of this year she travelled to Cambodia with the Deakin Abroad program to help do refurbishments and repairs at the Kolap Boun Children's Home.

While they were there they repaired the existing play equipment and added new equipment, created gardens, refurbished the boys dorm and made safe areas for the children to play in. 

For anyone who is unfamiliar with Cambodia, it is a beautiful country rich with history and culture, but torn apart by war. They have been ravaged by harsh dictatorships, invasions from neighbouring and far reaching countries, and famine. While they are a democratic country now, it has been a long and bloody road to get to this point, and poverty is still commonplace.

The Kolap Boun Children's Home is a government run children's home which houses 50 young people between the ages of 5 and 18. When Catherin and the Deakin Abroad group arrived to help out in January they discovered that the children's home had just had their funding cut, and now they cannot afford to provide breakfast to any of their residents.

The Deakin Abroad group has now started a crowdfunding program to raise at least $18,000 to bring a permanent breakfast program to the children of Kolap Boun, and help give them the healthy start they need to their day. The breakfast program costs $1 per child per day, an amount which should be easily afforded, unfortunately in a country where poverty is still the norm this simply isn't the case.

This is where you lovely people come in. If any of you are feeling generous, and have a few dollars to spare, click on the link below to go to their crowd funding page and donate it for the kids of Cambodia.

https://chuffed.org/project/breakfast-for-the-kids-at-kolap-4-orphanage-cambodia

For further information on the program you can also visit their Facebook page.

All funds donated to the breakfast program go directly to the children, so there is no need to worry that you are simply paying for their administrative fees, you can feel safe knowing that your money will be helping the children.

Well that's all from me for today, don't forget to check out the links above, and I will be back again soon for more fun.

*All photographs used in this blog are photographed by and published with the permission of the Deakin Abroad group. Searching for Sanity is in no way affiliated with either the Deakin Abroad Group or with Kolap Boun Children's Home. I have not been reimbursed in any way for this article.*

April Fly on the Wall The Facts of Life Edition

It's that time of the month again people, time for another instalment of Fly on the Wall. For anyone who is unfamiliar with this series, today 13 bloggers are inviting you into their house to be a fly on the wall. Here you get to see all the crazy we see every day at home.


Below is the list of all of the bloggers involved in today's link up. Be sure to visit them all and enjoy the madness that ensues.

Baking In A Tornado    http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2016/04/fly-on-wall-can-you-count-to-one.html

Juicebox Confession     http://www.juiceboxconfession.com                           

Menopausal Mother      http://www.menopausalmom.com/                         

Someone Else’s Genius http://www.someoneelsesgenius.com                           

Spatulas on Parade        http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/2016/04/walnut-energy-bites-and-fotw-april-2016.html                                          

Never Ever Give Up Hope             http://batteredhope.blogspot.com                        

Dinosaur Superhero Mommy         http://dinoheromommy.com/                           

Southern Belle Charm                   http://www.southernbellecharm.com                       

My Brain on Kids                          http://mybrainonkids.net

Go Mama O                                http://www.gomamao.com        

The Angrivated Mom                http://www.angrivatedmom.wordpress.com/   

Miss K: Mum, you and dad made me.

Me: (Feeling horrified because I thought I had years before I had to have this talk) Yes we did. Now how do you think we did that?

Miss K: I don't know

Me: Thank God. I'm sure we'll figure it out one day.

Miss K: Yeah, (wanders off)

Miss K had been discussing how babies live in their mum's tummies with Sam one day.

Sam: So if the baby is in it's mum's tummy, how does it get out?

Miss K: Like this, BOOM (complete with hand actions of her arm shooting away from her stomach like a rocket)

Me: I wish it was that easy. 

I've started a diploma of management in my "spare time" just to keep my skills up to date while I'm not working. One part of my assessment was to get a performance review done by a client or employee. I decided to get my big sister to answer the questions for me one day while she and her kids were visiting. Prior to this I'd been discussing with my niece the "joys" of being a single parent.

Me: Now can you think of any training I can do that will improve my skills?

Eliza: How to use a condom?

Mum: Yeah or you could...wait, what? ELIZA!!! 

Now that the 12 year old has finally inherited my filthy sense of humor I can retire knowing that the torch has been passed on. 

A few days later Sam decided to have all the kids over to her house for a playdate. This meant she had all five of our children in her tiny house, plus two dogs. The next day we were discussing how she coped with all the kids.

Sam: I was exhausted at the end of the day. So was Eliza. I think she's having her legs sewn together now so she can't have kids. (Eliza was with us at the time and she agreed with this comment)

Me: Or you could come with me to my classes on how to use a condom

I then had to duck while she threw anything she could lay her hands on at me.

This conversation happened while I was signing up for my diploma. Part of the deal I took was career coaching help to try and get me straight into work once I've finished my degree. 

Career coach: If you send me your resume, I can get it freshened up for you and looking more professional. We won't touch any of the content, we'll just make it look nicer.

Me: Aww, I was just about to ask if you guys could put on there that I was an astronaut. 

Earlier this week I had to spend a day helping out at Miss K's kindergarten. I walked over to a group of kids who were pulling apart an old park bench and the teacher who was supervising them.

Teacher: The kids just told me I was like the Hulk because I could remove the nails from the wood. I don't know whether to be flattered or insulted.

Me: Well, out of the mouths of babes... I think the Hulk is pretty cool, so I'd take it as a compliment. 

Miss K and I got a dog this month, with thanks to my brother's Husky jumping the fence to catch up with her boyfriend the German Shepherd who lives next door. While it adds a million jobs to my already full days, she's such a beautiful and smart dog I love having her around. Except for one gross habit she has which I can't stand, she loves to eat snails. It's gotten so bad I've started calling her nightly toilet trips snail snack time. Gross.

Well that's all the crazy from around here right now, be sure to keep buzzing around and check the rest of the blogs joining in today.