At the Beach

On Valentine's Day, we went and spent some time with some lovely friends of ours who live about an hour and a half away from us.  After lunch, we all headed down to the 'beach' which was actually on the bay, so technically not the beach but had waves and sand so it was close enough to be called 'the beach'.  ;P  It was a great time and it was a bit amusing to see Rose and Annie experience big water for the first time.    A big thank you to +Joanne Jackson  for permission to use the photos of her beautiful family.  =D

I tried some shadow photography, which I kinda like, but I don't know if it a normal thing to do... :/

One of my favourite photos of the whole day!  :)

Mrs. Jackson took Rose for a 'swim' which impressed Rose muchly.  XD

James and Ellie played grip ball in the water which was pretty cool - they were good too!

Mr. Jackson spent a lot of time helping Rose gain confidence in the water, while making sure she wasn't too confident!

Annie was convinced she saw a whale under the sand, so I gave her a shell and told her it was a whale.  LOL!  She examined the' whale' for quite some time.  XD

A Love Letter...

On Sunday, I will be leading my small group at kids church for the first time.  My group is grades 3-6 girls, and the theme this week is God made you, God knows everything about you and He loves you.  I thought I would share what I'm doing with them, because we all need to be reminded every now and again of how much God loves us.   I have the photos of the craft first and then the text underneath, so as you can read it.  :)  So, here it is, and Happy Valentines Day from God to His bride.  :)

You may not know me, but I know everything about you. (Psalm 139:1)  I know when you sit down and when you rise up. (Psalm 139:2)  I am familiar with all your ways. (Psalm 139:3)  Even the very hairs on your head are numbered. (Matthew 10:29-31)  For you were made in my image. (Genesis 1:27)  In me you live and move and have your being. (Acts 17:28)  For you are my offspring. (Acts 17:28)  I knew you even before you were conceived. (Jeremiah 1:4-5)  I chose you when I planned creation. (Ephesians 1:11-12)  You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book. (Psalm 139:15-16)  I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live (Acts 17:26) You are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)  I knit you together in your mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)  And brought you forth on the day you were born. (Psalm 71:6)  I have been misrepresented by those who do not know me. (John 8:41-42)  I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love. (1 John 4:16)  And it is my desire to lavish my love on you. (1 John 3:1)  Simply because you are my child and I am Your Father. (1 John 3:1)  I offer you more than your earthly father ever could. (Matthew 7:11)  For I am the perfect father. (Matthew 5:48)  Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand. (James 1:17)  For I am your provider and I meet all your needs. (Matthew 6:31-33)  My plan for your future has always been filled with hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)  Because I love you with an everlasting love. (Jeremiah 31:3)  My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore. (Psalm 139:17-18)  And I rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)  I will never stop doing good to you. (Jeremiah 32:40)  For you are my treasured possession. (Exodus 19:5)  I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul. (Jeremiah 32:41)  And I want to show you great and marvellous things (Jeremiah 33:3) If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me. (Deuteronomy 4:29)  Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)  For it is I who gave you those desires. (Philippians 2:13)  I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine. (Ephesians 3:20)  For I am your greatest encourager. (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17)  I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)  When you are broken-hearted, I am close to you. (Psalm 34:18)  As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart. (Isaiah 40:11)  One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes. (Revelation 21:3-4)  And I’ll take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth. (Revelation 21:3-4)  I am your father and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus. (John 17:23)  For in Jesus my love for you is revealed. (John 17:26)  He is the exact representation of my being. (Hebrews 1:3) He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you. (Romans 8:31)  And to tell you that I am not counting your sins. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)  Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)  His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you. (1 John 4:10)  I gave up everything I loved that I might gain your love. (Romans 8:31-32)  If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, you receive me. (1 John 2:23)  And nothing will ever separate you from my love again. (Romans 8:38-39)  Come home and I’ll throw the biggest party heaven as ever seen. (Luke 15:7)  I have always been Father and will always be Father. (Ephesians 3:14-15)  My question is: will you be my child? (John 1:12-13)  I am waiting for you. (Luke 15:11-32)
With Love from God.

Plans

Don't you love having a whole lot of 'things' to do to fill out time?  I love being at home but I am also a social butterfly (or so my Mum tells me).  I am rather excited about the upcoming months - we have an 18th party to plan and host and a 70th to help with and attend - but outside of parties, there is still so much going on.

The one I am really looking forward to is the Tahlee kid's camp.  My family aren't fans of sending kids of camping on their own and there is no way we would do it except this time it's played out at the other end.  Jess and I are leaders at this camp which means we'll be looking after the kids, eating with them, sleeping with them, playing with them, keeping them in check.  Being a Christian camp, we will also have a unique opportunity to minister to them  and input into their lives.  Grace and Joy are also going along to help out adopted grandparents in the kitchen to cook for everyone.  It should be a fantastic week.

The other thing I am really - and I mean REALLY! - excited about is our church's Christmas production.  Because she is the 'unofficial music director' (it's a long story... ;) )  Mum is in charge (under out pastor) to write and direct the show.  True to form, my sisters and I have a lot of ideas, some more ambitious than others, and we are having so much fun in the lead up to Christmas practices.  I won't give away anything here, but it is going to be awesome - we have some really talented people in our church who are really going to add a lot to the show.

For Christmas itself, the plan is to go up to our Grandparents in Toowoomba.  They are really excited about it and we are looking forward to seeing them and Dad's sister as well.

More Books

A bit over a week ago, I wrote a post on a list of books I intend to read.  That intention has not changed, merely grown.  :)

Yesterday, I went to the library.  I know - prep the doom music.  :P  Sometimes, I have dismal days at the library, because I can't find anything that looks worth reading.  Yesterday was not one of those days.  Here is part two of my book list that I will hopefully finish before my allotted six week loan is up.  :P

• Utopian Man by Lisa Lang
• North and South by John Jakes
• Twelve Years A Slave by Solomon Northup
• Sunset Ridge by Nicole Alexander

So that is my extended list - don't be surprised if it happens again.  ;)   I also plan to read the How to Train Your Dragon books because we are struggling to find good books for James (9) that interest him.  They look pretty good, so I'm going to pre-read them, and if they are alright, we will get them for his birthday.  I have read the back of the covers and am actually really looking forward to reading them as they look like a funny, light read.

I hope you are having a splendid weekend.  We have a few jobs to do over the next few days.  Dad and a couple of the others will be painting the lounge room, which we are rather excited about.  Mum, Ally and I (and whoever else isn't painting :P) will be sorting out the games/activity cupboard.  Because the cupboard sits in a nooky little niche (descriptive, ain't I???)  and is adjacent to us girl's bed room, we are hoping to be able to convert the cupboard into a built-in/walk-in wardrobe.  But it has to be sorted and cleaned first, which will be a job and a half in itself.  

Have a fantastic, blessed weekend, and if you live in Australia, have a wonderful blessed long weekend!  :D

New Strategy and a Whole List of Books I Plan to Read. :D

My blog has been pretty slow lately, hasn't it?  How have you all been?  My family has had a bout of change-of-season colds.  My glands always blowup like balloons whenever I get a touch of anything, and this round has left me pretty tired and listless.  (Not that it drives me to bed any earlier.  LOL!)  I shall just have to keep at my apple cider vinegar and  Sambucol.  :D

Anyway, the subject of this post is books.  I have a terrible habit of not being able to decide what to do and not being able to motivate myself to do anything about it.  (I owe it all to being phlegmatic!  :P)  Recently I was thinking about all those wonderful books out there that I have been planning to read for years, some of them, and that are screaming at me to read them.  I have recently devised a system for myself that allows me to get things done in a school context and I hope it will help me here as well.  I have never worked well on a schedule.  Which is a pity since the curriculum my family uses is set up so that you read so many chapters of this book on this day and however so many pages of this book on that day, so on and so on.  It never really worked for me - I would always fall behind because I would get overwhelmed by the schedule (it was pretty heavy going anyway) and I would procrastinate (I bet none of you can imagine me a procrastinator - what a thought!  ;P )  Anyhow, my new way of doing things is that I have the topics I need to get through in a day - advanced math, biology, chemistry, worldview studies, history, and literature - and I spend half an hour of solid work on each subject.  Voila!  It works!  Not only has the quality of my work increased, so has the quantity.  As Mum says, if I have half and hour to do something, I can do it in that time.  But if I have all day to do something, it will take me all day.

I have decided to apply the same principle to my reading habits.  Since officially finishing school, my reading has significantly decreased and I am sorry to have let it slip.  I plan to spend 1-2 half-hour sessions each day devoted to what I want to read and being me, I will probably keep going after the buzzer goes because I am enjoying myself and can't be bothered doing anything else.  :)  Here is my current list of want-to-reads.  The ones marked with an asterisks indicate what I am in the middle of, or what I have already read, but am dying to read again.  :)

• Ivanhoe by Walter Scott
• *Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
• *One, Two, Buckle my Shoe by Agatha Christie (I suppose this represents all my Agatha Christie books - I bought 25 of them last year and have only read three or four so far.)
• *Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy  (I didn't mark this one, even though I started it, because I read through the first paragraph, and I don't think that counts.  ;)  )
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini
• *The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• * Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
• Boy by Roald Dahl (I have read some f this before, but I don't remember heaps and didn't get far with it.)
• Through Gates of Splendour by Elisabeth Elliot
• Angles in the Camp by Jan Markell
• Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard
• Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
• Hidden Art by Edith Schaeffer
• *Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan
• *Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Deibler Rose  (One of the most increadible war stories and brobably one of the best biographies I have ever read - I HIGHLY recommend it.)
• The Boxcar Children  by Gertrude Chandler Warner.  (And yes, I am absolutely NOT serious about that one.  *shudders*  :P)

Do you reckon that's enough to start me off???  ;)  We will be going on a three week holiday in July, so I will hopefully get heaps of reading done then (around birthdays and weddings, of course  :P)  When I finish this list, I'll select another bunch and make another list!  The race is on!  :D

Upcoming Joys

Can you believe it is the middle of April already?  It is rather astonishing.  I am amazed at how twelve months have flown past - this time last year, we were in Victoria in a tiny cabin that was so squishy we ran into each other nearly step we took... Thinking back, while it wasn't fun for the younger kids to be sick in bed, it freed up a lot of room for everyone else!  :P

Joy turns fourteen tomorrow... :)

Tomorrow will be a full year since we went to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat.  If you have the opportunity to visit Sovereign Hill at any stage, do it!  Set in the 1850's, it is a gold mining town complete with general stores, candy stores, farriers, soap makers, the lot!

How do I remember that it is a year tomorrow?  It was the special thing we did for my sister Joy's birthday.  Yep, my little sister turns 14 tomorrow, and I'm not quite sure how that happened!  We have planned and schemed a little bit and come up with gifts and a cake we are pretty sure she will love.  :)  I will try and do a post in the next couple of days about it.  (You will probably notice that she s wearing an 'S' necklace in the photo... that is because I use my sibling's middle names as identity protection for them!  :D )

Thursday is a rather exciting day for us too as we are going to visit some dear friends over the Easter weekend.  This will be the fourth year that they have so graciously hosted us all.  We always come away from their home feeling so refreshed and uplifted because their hospitality is humbling and their fellowship is so sweet.  We are so much looking forward to spending five days with them.

New Year, New Views

Hi ya'll!  Yes - I still exist!  :D  I hope you all had a wonderful new year and great times with friends and family.   We currently have my paternal grandparents staying with us, but I think they are going home in the next day or two.

The new year always makes me want to fight my phlegmatic leanings and plan out my entire year.  (It never happens, in case you were wondering. ;) )  This year, I think, it is a bit easier as I have some very definite goals to work towards.

For one thing, I really want to finish my diploma this year.  It will be a lot of work so (shock and horror!) I am going to do some through the holidays.  After that I am planning on moving into naturopathy and doula training, which I am immensely looking forward to. Unfortunately, I don't have money for those courses :) so this year will include work for me as well.  (Not sure what exactly yet - we are still praying about that one.)

I have lesser goals too, such as doing up my 18th birthday party scrapbook before my 19th birthday (I'm running out of time for that!), learning the entire Pathetique sonata by Beethoven, leaning more sewing, and sew on... (excuse the pun - I couldn't resist! ;) )

We have stuff happening this year.  This Monday, I am going to the dentist as I have been told that I need all four of my wisdom teeth out.  As you can imagine, I am overjoyed to get all four of my wisdom teeth out.  NOT!  Actually, I am terrified as I did not have a good experience when I had to get molars removed.  I can only assume that wisdom teeth are worse... Ahhhhh!  This Monday is just the consultation however so that the dentist can determine when and how the deed should be done.

On January 13, I am starting an online open uni course on midwifery.  It only goes four four weeks, but it is free and I am really looking forward to it.  (The site had quite a number of free online courses.  If anyone is interested, the website is https://www.open2study.com/courses )

There are other things happening too.  We have ten birthdays (but that's normal!) my uncle will be getting married at some point (I am super excited about that!) and on top of that, we have another whole year to build our relationships with family, friends and with God.  How blessed we are!

In the New Living translation, they look at the dates that the Bible gives and put it into perspective of our calendar.  One of the first times it indicates New Year is the erection of the tabernacle. (Exodus 40:2)  I believe this is significant.  God wants our hearts all the time, but New Year is an especially marked time for renewing our love for Christ and for rededicating ourselves to do His will, whatever the year brings.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

¹² Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

(Psalm 51)

 
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

November and the Christmas Season

Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments to them,...  (Deuteronomy 1:3)


Can you believe that it is November already?  The year has whizzed by so quickly, I feel as though I have hardly been able to catch my breath.  The shops have had Christmas stock out for two months now, and it is actually time to start thinking about gifts and Christmas dinner, etc.

One thing I love about the first day of November is that now the shops can pack up all their hideous Halloween stock.  Ugh!  :P

Just remember as we enter some of the most busy months of the year to keep in mind Him Who this season is about.  Mary and Joseph had to use a stable because there was no room at the inn.  Lets leave room for Christ this Christmas season, because without Him, it is all just a loud noise and expensive, useless propaganda.  Also remember that, wonderful as the birth of Christ was and is, we have hope today because of His death and resurrection.  Jesus didn't stay a baby - He came as one to grow up to save us and to give us eternal life.

Praise the Lord!!!

Hello Again! :D

Hi everyone!  We are back from our holiday and what a week it was.  I had intended to give a diary account of our bay side holiday so that you could share the experience, but unfortunately, I fell sick on the first day and others quickly followed suit.  So instead I will post photos of the good times we had and tell you about those.  We our concert skits were filmed too, but I have got them yet - Mr. Camera-man is still trying to get them through to me.  When I do get them, however, I will put them on.  Until then, I won't post the photos so that you can have a full and interesting post to look at.  :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful week and that the Lord reveals a new depth of His love to you in a way you never thought possible.

Emily

Holiday!

Ariel shot of our camping spot - nice, huh???

Well, it is the long weekend in Australia.  I'm not quite sure what this one is for, but I'm happy to take it anyway!  :)  Sorry if this post comes across a bit vague and disjointed, but it is only ten minutes past six on Saturday morning.  I have been up for a while with a stuffy nose and baby Annie who decided to start yell at about quarter to six.  So, being the wonderful daughter that I am, ( :D) I thought I would let Mum sleep in.  Unfortunately, Annie woke Rose up, so now Mum is up and I have Rose on my knee asking me what I am doing and why I typing and so forth.  (Honestly, the child will make a perfect 21st century female Socrates one day! :)  )  Now she is asking me if I am nearly finished.  Ahhhhh.....

We are going for a bit of a getaway next week.  Next weekend  is our church's family camp so we are going early and spending the week.  We love our camping spot as we aren't really big on roughing it - we still need a bathroom, bedrooms, a bed for each person, and fro heaven sakes - give us a kitchen so we can make pancakes for breakfast and lasagne for dinner!  We are also known for taking our coffee machine and milk-frother to camp.  :)   (Now Rose is singing,  "If you're happy and you know it, stick out your tongue...  If you're happy and you know it, do it like this. *collapses faint against my shoulder* )  So anyway, we are very much looking forward to our holiday.  On the Saturday night of camp, our church has a talent concert.  We kids are doing two skits - Grace, Joy, Elise and James are doing one about Charles II sentencing a man who stole and destroyed the crown jewels, and Jess and I are doing a skit in which Mozart and Beethoven are arguing over who was the greatest composer that ever lived.  They are both really funny.  I'll see if I can arrange for them to be videoed so you can see them!  :)

So that's that.  I may get another post in before we go away, but when I don't make any noise for about a week, you'll know where I am!  :)

Have a great weekend and a terrific week next week.  :)

Love in Christ,

Emily