Easter Happenings

We have had a very exciting Easter this year.  Among other things my parents came to stay for the weekend and Tim got baptized, by Simon, on Easter Sunday, whilst they were here.

 Tim giving his testimony

 Simon and Tim in the Baptistry

After our Church Morning Tea, and a quick lunch we decided the weather would allow us to make use of Sydney's 'Family Fun Day' tickets and so we visited Circular Quay, the Sydney Opera House and took a ride on a ferry to Watson's Bay.  We discovered that while the ferry going to Watsons Bay was practically empty, the return trip was very, very crowded.  Apparently you are not meant to remain on the ferry and do a round trip.  You are meant to get off at Watsons Bay, join the end of the queue and see if you can get back on.  We didn't know this and the ferry crew were a bit grumpy with us.  Fortunately, they let us stay on, and the Ferry was not quite full, so we would have made it back on, but we may not have had the seats we had, right at the front.

Kids with Grandad and Grandma at the Opera House

Grandma, myself, the kids, Simon

A lovely day was topped off with icecream sundae's at Hungry Jacks.

Crocheting

On Christmas Day my dear sister-in-law tried to teach me how to crochet.  Fortunately for me she is a talented and patient teacher and I managed to learn enough about reading patterns to be able to pick it up.  She also introduced me to a delightful blog, Attic24, where I discovered the pattern for these little flowers.  If you like to look at crochet, or learn about it, that's a good place to start.  Lucy's work is much better than mine and I love her many beautiful creations.

My intention is to make many of these flowers and use them to decorate a plain net curtain for Abby's bedroom.  The first flower I made, top left, is made of something cheap from K-mart (I lost the label and I don't remember what it was).  The other two, bottom left, (shown with the original) are made from a bamboo/cotton blend.  I like the feel of this, and the fact that it is not so 'fluffy' looking as the first one, although it splits easily when trying to crochet with it.  I'm a little annoyed that I ended up with almost the same colours from two different shopping trips.  I must plan better next time, but I guess this is indicative of what colours I like.   When I have enough money, I intend to buy some different colours, to add variety and brighten it all up a bit.

A look at homonym's

Last week at FaithWriters (a site for Christian Writers) we had a 'mini-challenge' involving writing a story and using five sets of homonym's within the story.  When I looked up the link we were given listing many homonyms a ridiculous little story popped into my head and I wrote it down for fun.  Here it is.

Faye's Strange Day 

Faye lived in a cosy house in a small town by the beach. One morning, as she ate an egg and wurst sandwich for breakfast, she felt the strangest sensation on the heel of her bare left foot. Looking down she was surprised to see a fay, one of the little folk, sticking a large pin into the heel.

Faye angrily kicked at the little lady, who promptly disappeared into a small knot hole in the floorboards, leaving Faye puzzled about the whole experience.

As Faye stood up to begin clearing away her breakfast dishes, she noticed her heel was numb. As the morning progressed, the heel began to swell and by evening Faye could barely walk and when her husband arrived home, they took a drive to the local hospital to get it checked.

After one look at Faye’s pale face, the nurse on duty ushered her into a cubicle and hurried off to find the nearest Doctor. Faye was concerned when she overheard the nurse speaking to the Doctor. “There’s a woman just arrived and I took one look at her and, seeing how fey she looked, I thought I’d better get her checked quickly.”

A Doctor entered the cubicle shortly after and seemed puzzled by Faye’s injured heel. “I know of only one way to heal an injury like this. Because it was inflicted by the little folk, we’ll need to use their own remedies to cure it. I must ask what you were doing when this occurred.”

Faye told the story of her morning and the Doctor nodded and “Hmm, hmm’d” until she mentioned the wurst she had been eating.

“Ah, huh! That is the cause of this problem. There is only one cure for you. You must stand up, wave your arms above your head and repeat three times “I waive the right to eat wurst for breakfast”.”

Faye was most puzzled by this cure, but after her peculiar day, she decided to try it. As she finished her third recital, she felt a tingle in her left heel and looked down to see it had been completely healed.

“Now,” said the Doctor, “You must never eat wurst for breakfast again or the worst thing imaginable will happen. This heel would swell again and we would never be able to heal it afterwards.”

Proud of my kids.

It's been a couple of months now since the kids started at their new school.  This photo was taken on their first day.  Ben refused to co-operate and so he gets a goofy photo of himself.  So far the kids have all coped really well with our move.  They have settled into school and are making us proud of them in many ways.

Abby has made some good friends and her teacher tells us that she is one of the top readers in her class.  Abby has earnt the respect of her class mates by the impressive stories she writes and takes to school to share with them.  She had her tenth birthday on the 9th of March.  We had a cake for her on her birthday with all the neighbourhood kids and had a 'Mystery Dinner' birthday party with a few school friends on Friday 12th.  It's hard to believe that my little baby has grown up so quickly. 

Tim has also settled into school very well.  In the first week of school, his class mates voted for him to be 'Class Captain' for the first half of the year.  He is on the T-ball team, in the choir and in the chess club. He has also made some good friends, both at school and at home.  His teacher informs us that he is in the highest reading group and recently scored the highest score (48/50) in his class for a practice test they were doing in preparation for the NAPLAN testing next term.  He is also eagerly sharing his faith with friends at school and has recently asked to be baptised, which will happen on Easter Sunday when my parents will be staying with us.

Ben is continuing the tradition Tim started for our family.  Breaking his right arm at the age of six.  On Friday 26th February, as Simon was walking out the door to leave for the Katoomba Men's convention, Ben fell off his stationary bike and began to whimper about it hurting.  After a hospital visit it was discovered that he had a fracture.  I thank God for the community I live in because my neighbours fed my other children and put them to bed whilst I sat at the hospital with Ben.  At parent/teacher interviews today, Ben's teacher greeted us with, "You have a very clever little boy."  During the interview she showed us a test she had done with him, explaining they don't normally even try this test until late year 2 or 3.  Ben had breezed through the first page and continued reasonably easily on the next page.  She then mentioned that she would like to get him tested to see if he is 'gifted'.  We have noticed lately that as we try to help Abby with maths homework, he often answers before she does.  Ben also joined the chess club today.

Ezra is doing extremely well at pre-school.  He begged to go for the three weeks before he started and on his first day told me quite firmly that I could go now and he'd stay without me.  This is remarkable considering how clingy and shy he seemed to be last year.  Our move seems to have turned him into a regular little socialite.  When he is at home he loves to rush out to the playground and chat to anyone who will stop and listen.  He has planty of companions close to home as there are 8 boys around his age living in our community, and he seems to be quite popular at pre-school also.

Black Saturday... looking back.

As I sit here, gazing out my window at a gray, rainy day I am reminded of what this Saturday was like a year ago.  Admittedly I was in a different city then, but I awoke to a scorcher of a day.  As the morning progressed my children and I watched the sky change from blue to a strange yellowy brown colour, a colour I hope to never see in the sky again.  

To step outside was like walking into an oven, with something burning in there.  The smell of smoke in the air gradually become stronger as the day wore on.  Finally, in an effort to calm myself and to ease the children's concern, I took them for a drive to prove that the fire was no where near us, but a long way to the north, as the news was telling us.  Unfortunately, the further I drove, the greater my concern became.  This fire was close.  It looked as though Yarra Glen was burning, and that was a mere ten minutes from our house.  As we saw the plume of smoke rising, we discovered a blockaded highway, and we turned back towards home.  My heart was heavy  all afternoon, as I prayed for safety and protection for those in the line of the fire.  A further concern was the news that the Hume Highway had been closed and Simon may not be able to return from his weekend at Puckapunyal.  

By the next day the news was worse than anyone could have ever imagined.  So many people dead or missing, so many towns decimated.  Beautiful Marysville was completely burnt to the ground.  Our own relatives had made it out alive as the fire came over the hill, but all they owned was gone. 

Simon managed to get home, only to be called out again immediately to assist with property searches, and so he left for a week of searching burnt out houses for bodies.  So we remained at home alone, as fires still raged and smoke still saturated the air. At night I could see the glow of the fire on the hills across our valley, and daily we heard of people who had not survived or who had lost everything they owned except the clothes they were wearing.  

It's strange the way we can be affected at a time like this.  Most of the names and faces of the dead didn't bother me.  I didn't know them.  They had no impact on my life.  Then one day I saw the list of dead in Marysville and I discovered the name of the chainsaw carver we had spoken to a few months earlier.  I didn't "know" him really, but I had met him and had intended to return to his property and see how his carving of a bear and wolves had turned out.  Now he was dead, along with his wife, and all his beautiful carvings were destroyed.  The bear, the wolves, the beautifully detailed frog I had wished I could buy.  All of it was gone, and it began to dawn on me that a very small part of my life had been destroyed also.  How much worse it must have been for those who were directly affected by the loss of family members, homes and livelihoods.

Today is cool and rainy.  Black Saturday feels like a lifetime ago to me, but I suspect for many people it will always be too close.  I pray they find joy and blessing beyond their pain and loss.

Sydney in 2010

Here I sit in my beautiful new home, wondering why I wasted any time last year worrying about how my family would cope with a move to Sydney.

Our house is wonderful (now that it is clean and the ants and cockroaches seem to have been dealt with), the neighbours are everything we could desire in neighbours, the children seem to love their new school and Ezra is begging to start pre-school.  Next week we will learn more about the actual point of our move as Simon begins study with 'O' week, which includes an overnight retreat at a beachside camp.  Tough life, huh?

Lately I have been feeling challenged about how I live my life.  I have spent the last six weeks attempting to read through Ephesians, but I have really struggled with chapters 4:17-5:21.  it contains so many challenges to how we live our lives and then the Pastor of our new church here in Sydney has followed up this challenge with his preaching over the last few weeks. It's good but... challenging!

In a nutshell, what I'm learning and processing at the moment are these points:

          

          -Love the person in front of you.  If that is a whining child, love them. If it is two fighting children, love them.  If it is a child who is interrupting 'my time', love them.  If it is a crabby checkout chick, love them.  If it is an unwanted visitor or phone call, love them.  Don't "deal with them".  Don't "ignore them".  Don't "shoo them away".  Love them.  Consider not "how can I benefit?" or "how can I get out of this situation?", but rather "what can I do for them?", "how can I help and encourage them?"

          

          -Do the job in front of you wholeheartedly and to the best of your ability, as though doing it for the Lord.  If that job is washing dishes, cooking tea, making beds, scrubbing dirty jocks, doing grocery shopping, sorting out a complicated argument between children, greeting a neighbour, being polite to an 'unattractive/undesirable person'... don't complain, do it wholeheartedly and do it well.

         

          -Be self-controlled.  Control your tongue, temper and responses. Continue to practice self control, so that you can be controlled with your diet, excercise routine, and the rest of life in general.

          

          -Remember: It's not about me, it's about Him (God that is)! When I get my focus right in life, everything else follows.  If I remember it's not about me, it's easier to love the person in front of me as God would love them.  If I keep my eyes on God, it's easier to do a job 'for Him' and not complain about the interruption to my life.  If I keep my focus on Him, it's easier to control myself, because I do it to please Him, not me.

Anyway, that's enough sermonizing for one night.  I'm off to do some relaxing.

I have a house!

I have a house to live in next year!  We are going to live in a three bedroom, double storey town house.  It has a seperate kitchen, a living/dining room and a family room as well as the three bedrooms and a study/storeroom.  Compared to where we are living now, it sounds like a mansion.

I'm very excited because it has TWO toilets.  No more children banging on the door and crying because they are near bursting point when I am trying to have a quiet moment to do my business.  You may think it strange to be so excited about something like this, but until you live in a teeny, tiny house with six other people (with at least one still learning bladder control) and have one toilet (which is IN the bathroom) you probably can't understand.

The children are excited because it's a 'stair' house.  Abby said recently, "If we can't have a pet, can we at least have a stair house."  Well, the pet is still not possible, but I feel like God is providing small blessings by giving us the stair house instead.  I imagine by the end of the first day of moving in, I may not be so sure it is a blessing, but at the moment I'm excited about it.

My biggest concern at the moment is the fact that we have a likely two week gap between moving out of our current home and moving in to our new home.  I'm somewhat puzzled by what we are going to do with the entire contents of our house in this gap.  Should we try to fit it in the back of the car and take it camping?  I'm sure God will have it figured out.  He's pretty good with that kind of stuff normally.