Hello dear friends!

Oh dear what a break between posts!  Where have I been?  Well firstly my trip to Melbourne and Wodonga was great.  Was so nice to catch up even though briefly with some dear ones.  As for Monand Rob's wedding - well, it was awesome.  I was so blessed to be able to spend the couple of days before hand with Monica and her beautiful family.  I felt so embraced by these lovely people.  It was truly a magic couple (if not busy as well) days. 

Then home again, home again, jiggity jig, just in time to go to church to hear my friend Kellie preach.  She gave us some amazing insight on suffering and how to handle the cup of suffering that we all will partake of at some point.  I can't wait till her next sermon!

Then last weekend (which seems soooo far away now) I went off with other Life House ladies to "Sheer Beauty". It was that in more ways than one.  The campsite (if you can call it a campsite) was nestled in nicely on a hill near Somerset Dam.  Picturesque views and breath taking scenery was just the beggining.  Combine that with being surrounded by beautiful and lovely friends and great meals you don't have to cook and no cleaning, well just all these alone make for a great weekend.  However what made it sooo incredible was how God showed up!!!  Leigh Barkalow from Noble Heart brang us the Sheer Beauty message, (along with the lovely Misty) and the things that touched our hearts from this message were straight from God Himself.  THIS is what took my breath away - literally.  God is so awesome, and to have an encounter that makes you dredge up past hurts and pain and come away knowing you are on the road to healing is purely just God. 

It has taken me almost a whole week to process what went on last weekend and I think I will be processing it all for a time to come!

All I know for now is that I am doing less of this...

 but more of this...

Also, I am handing in this...

 for this!!!



A timely reminder...

About 5 years ago I did this painting.

Its a picture I had always had in my head, it's me dancing with God.

.....

A few weeks ago I heard this song by a band called "Jesus Culture" for the first time, it's called

"Dance With Me" : here are the lyrics.

Behold You have come over the hills upon the mountain

To me, You will run. My Beloved, You've captured my heart

Won't You dance with me,

Oh, Lover of my soul,

to the song of all songs?

Romance me,
Oh, Lover of my soul,

to the song of all songs?

With You, I will go You are my Love You are my Fair One

The winter has passed and the springtime has come

Needless to say, the first time I relised what the lyrics said, I cried.

Lovely Saturday...

As the sun was setting we had a late (well, ok, very late) lunch at the beach. Whilst I finished off my crunchy noodle salad the boys threw rocks in the water. We had a lovely family day today. Thanks God for a really lovely day...

Where it's at...

I know, I know, once again you all have been left high and dry with hardly a word from me here in the past few weeks. You deserve an update at the very least, but really not much has happened... on the outer anyway.

Since Asher's birthday (see previous post), I have seen my parents in law come and go, a trip to Alma Park Zoo, a church retreat (fantastic it was!), a sick hubby, tears from my boy at kindy and an almost fully erected pool fence. Ok, so that is what has happened around here, but as I said not much on the outer...

On the inside, the past few weeks have seen me questioning God about: the difficult time I had when Asher was born, the two miscarriages from last year and my calling in life. Actually written down that doesn't seem much, but trust me when I say all of that is HUGE! The transformations and the freedom that has come for me in the past few weeks is amazing.

Our church retreat at the beautiful Camp Somerset, saw us hearing from an awesome speaker, Gary Barkalow. He spoke to us about our "Calling" in life. It has been a long time since I have sat and listened to a speaker and literally hung on almost every word. (No offense Dave, if you read this!) I wasn't going to go on this retreat due to finances and having to find a babysitter for two nights. However, the closer it got to the day the more something in my heart had me yearning to seriously know what my calling was and what is was that God would have me do with my life. I knew then that I really wanted to go and after enlisting my absolutely wonderful and amazing sister and brother in law to look after Ash for the weekend and Brad and I deciding that God would work out the finance side of things for us, I signed up to go.

To try and write all that went on that weekend both on the retreat and in my heart, just wouldn't make any sense to you, it's still only just making sense to me. From the many things that Gary talked about on the weekend I came away with two huge things. One was a quote from George Elliot, "It's never too late to be what you could have been." Even now that stirs something deep in me. The second was a story he told about a GPS and the times when you go off course and there is no condemning voice yelling at you or belittling you for going the wrong way, there is just a lovely calm voice telling you that it is "recalculating". I soooo love the thought that when we go astray or off course that our course can always be recalculated by God to get us to where we are supposed to go.

So where am I at? Hmmmm.... recalculating.

Good Friday ( a day late sorry)

I was away from the computer so this didn't get posted yesterday.

I know it seems like a contradiction when we think about "Good" Friday, but upon reflection you will notice that the fact that Christ took our sins upon himself so that we could have a relationship with our Creator is a good thing! He took all our sins both past and present and future! That is amazing love!

"For God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

"Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive by the Spirit" 1 Peter 3:18

Thank you for dying for my sins Lord!

010: woo hoo made it to double figures

Ok, so as I got rid of a heap yesterday today I have gotten 2 major things out of my house BUT they are only on loan so technically they are gone from my house though! These are my baby bassinet (my sis is due with number 2 in a few short weeks) and also Asher has passed on his baby jumper/play centre to his good friend Ben who loves it!

I have been a bit slack in the creative things for Asher to do today - so this afternoon it was outside to play in his sand pit which yesterday got a good top up from excess from Elara & India's new sandpit! He let his pal Ben play in it too!

I am grateful for the love of my God and that I can rest in the fact that He is faithful and keeps his promises!

A Not So Up Time

As I was sitting waiting for my computer to load up this morning I glanced to books nearby. One of which was the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I have been meaning to read this book so I too can become effective - but when I looked at it this morning my cynical self said "Ha, I am sure that guy who wrote that book has never been a stay at home mum!" Not to say that there is anything wrong with the guy or the book - I have heard great stuff and really do intend to read it, or to say that stay at home mum's can't be effective. I know they can and are! I just sometimes feel like I am not one of those mum's.

In life there are ups and downs and, well at the moment as you might have guessed this is not an 'up' time. I just feel, at times, a bit like life has moved on without me and can't help wondering if I will ever catch up. Maybe I am just stuck in a bit of a rut! Doing the same thing day in and out and never having a moment to stop and look at which direction I am going in. See even on here I seem to be going in circles and making no sense at all! Yes I am a butterfly with one wing flying in circles and spiraling to a crash landing.

Having said all that though - I know that I have a soft place to land - in the hand of my Maker and when God seems invisable, He sends my friends. This week He has done just that. My situation hasn't changed but due to a couple of precious words from friends (and I'm sure prayers) my outlook has changed, albeit slightly but definately for the better. (Plus the little "I wuv ew"from Asher is nice too.

Missing the point

Ok, so today, I have been missing friends who are far away. Most who are in Melbourne and one in Sydney and one in Czech Republic. I miss being able to just call them up and go for a coffee or go to the markets or just be silly with them. Why is it that the dearest friends seem to end up so far away? Ok, now I know that my friends who live close are reading this saying -"What about me?" And rest assured I totally love and appreciate you very much. I think that with each of my friends I have a different and special relationship and am so greatful for the uniqueness of each one. They are the greatest treasures I have, my relationships.

So, as I ponder the relationships I have with my beautiful friends, I look heavenward to my God and say, "Thank you". Also knowing that the best relationship I have with any of my friends is my best friend who knows me better than any - God.

Talk & Patience

Over the last few weeks there has been talk in our household. Yes talk - Brad and I can't understand it much but Asher has been talking! A couple of weeks ago Brad couldn't understand what Asher was trying to tell him so he sent him to me. I rolled my eyes at Brad (as if to say - "Yeah right - I'm going to know what he is saying") and then looked down at my sweet cherub of a son and he looked up at me and said "I want to go outside mummy, please." Well ok, what he actually said was "Oh ow ide" but I heard and understood what he wanted! I was so excited that it didn't matter that he should be having a sleep or having lunch - I just took him outside like he asked!
Since then he has been speaking in sentences that sound like nothing but total babble but every now and again I hear what I think is a word he is trying to master. Milk, drink and water are a few I am picking up. It's not easy waiting for him to finally get it right and I know it won't happen straight away, but God is showing me how to be patient and how he is so patient with me and has been my whole life.
Although God is always patient with us, it makes me wonder - How patient are we with God?