A double long black and I'm back {for today}

Well hello there!

If you can see through the layers of dust covering my Little Golden Nook blog world, you could picture me lounging on my favourite summer spot (no, not our dreamy nook, its too hot for that) on our bed upstairs, my favourite cool retreat.  I’m typing(!) And I may just post whatever I find on the page once I'm done.

I haven’t blogged for over six months now. I don’t really feel like explaining why, I want to get straight to my reason for my current state of wordi-ness.

But I’ll briefly explain because its important and real afterall…

Back in May last year an amazing, seemingly wise-beyond-her-years friend in our Church small group tragically lost her darling one year old in a sudden home accident. Little Charlotte didn’t die straight away but clung to life for a few short hours in emergency before she went to be with Jesus.

As you can only imagine this accident utterly devastated my friend, her husband and their little Peter. It rocked our wonderful church family to the core and caused many other churches and families in Geelong to cry and pray and reach out towards the family.

Through all of their brokenness and questioning ‘why?’ this small family were strong and certain in their hope and faith in God and this encouraged hundreds of people whilst all they wanted was Charlotte back with them.

Their hope encouraged me too. But I think the shock and sadness of it all knocked me into an early winter depression (I struggle more with reactive depression in winter).  At the same time I was (extra) weary from being heavily involved in a new Church Plant and trying to hold on to enthusiasm for teaching RE as well as worry about our four year old who wasn’t yet thriving at kindergarten.

On top of that our computer spat it and refused to upload any of my gazillions of photos anymore so it seemed it was the end of blog-land for me.  I left it behind and got on with our busy year.

Between then and now I have had a couple of sweet encouraging comments that have tempted me to play on here again. My fabulously stylish, super-kind, teacher-of-the-decade, shoe-loving new friend Anna gave me a confidence boost with her too-high-praise, and I did hear that a friend of a friend might have been encouraged a little in her own journey with illness and creative wanderings.  Not to mention my sweet handful of bloggy friends who I’ve missed so much.

But my inspiration for today’s chat is far more superficial. Well it doesn’t stem from deep emotions coming from my ‘Kidney’(Hebrew word), but it IS related to my ‘inmost being’* (the definition of said Hebrew word) in a way…….

(Sorry, that may have been a disturbingly confusing sentence that only a couple of you may understand.)

I’ve mentioned before that I benefit from doing coffee enemas for liver cleansing and well general cleansing of the ‘inner parts’.

My daily enemas have become almost my favourite time of day. I enjoy ‘children’s bedtime hour’ just as much.

Well today I’m particularly sore and ‘hungover’ and thought I’d try two coffee enemas only an hour apart. Of course I use only the best fresh oganic coffee beans and follow these Gerson Therapy instructions closely.

  I’ve taken to inviting our new pet Twinkle to join me upstairs for the process. She keeps me company and isn’t tempted to sniff around my nether-regions like I soon found Scout our dog was when she was too small to leave alone downstairs.

So Twinkle the budgie patiently stands guard while I relax with my phone – I try to restrict myself to my bible and MARSHILL apps only during this time -  and let the freshly boiled brew do its thing.  The result of today’s first ever second enema is what you are now reading (though the effect is wearing off and I’m wishing I never started such a long and probably boring story). Too much caffeine in the blood stream plus a child-free afternoon and a tired, sore body equals an more-than-usual wired brain and a sudden urge to share!

Twinkle standing guard in our bathroom

It is truly great to be back though :)


*Psalm 139

Tea with me {a long overdue catchup}

Hi!

Hasn't it been ages since we've had tea together?

I've been so busy with life and extra little things that are important to us and I have been thinking of you and wanting to say hello but have just had to be patient and wait for time, energy and inspiration to come my way.

But come in, its beautiful and sunny inside as well as outside of our home today. I can seen all the colors of autumn from where I'm sitting at the dining table. Do mind the hydrangeas on your way in. Actually they are not in the way, I just want you to notice them as I adore them and am just a bit proud. You'll smell my vegetables and quinoa lunch cooking away on the stovetop (there is plenty if you'd like some). I'll turn it down and pop the kettle on instead for now and we'll have tea out on the deck in the sun.

I've been sipping peppermint, lemongrass and ginger or rose hip lately, no caffeine for me for reasons I may explain, if you can stomach it! But you have chai or green or black tea if you like, whatever you fancy.

So we've had an eighth birthday since we spoke last and on the same weekend we had church at our place with dinner afterwards as usual.  It was wonderful to open up our home to new and old friends and learn and pray and sing and share a meal together and have so many helping hands to serve and clean up afterwards.  It is a challenge for me and I hope to be continually challenged to have our home, our family space open to others in this way. I find large groups of people intimidating and extremely tiring. I would rather keep 'my space' private and calm and under my control.  But being willing and excited to join this church plant where living as missional communities is key to knowing Jesus and making him known means being stretched and nudged out of my comfort zone. Eeeek. So preparing for and recovering from that weekend was intense but absolutely worth it.

We set off camping again last Friday, this time with friends, two other families but I have to admit that we hired a cabin this time and I'm so glad we did. It was cold in the Otways National Park and having a real bed and a little heater made all the difference.  I hate to say it out loud or put it in writing but honestly, I MAY be nearing the end of my tenting escapades, many and varied as they've been!

I've been reading some lovely books lately. The Enchanted April and Madame Bovary most recently, the language and setting of both books was just dreamy I think, though don't read the latter if you don't like tragic and depressing tales. I'm now reading Anna Karenina again. I've been following along with 1 and 2 Peter podcasts from our established sister church in Melbourne, and in our small group on mondays we've started 1 Kings which is totally different to Peter, the former being a narative style and the latter personal instruction and encouragement but both have so much relevance to our lives. Its exciting to be able to see how two books from the bible that are so different and so far apart in history tell the same message of love and grace and hope.

I've given up sugar again. I've been pretty much sugarless for 2 - 3 years now. But then came Easter and adventures in Melbourne and eventually poor diet and doing too much caused a sharp decline a my health. Blah! My reliance on dark chocolate blew out a fair bit after Easter and the caffeine and sugar addiction began to mess with my sleep and blood sugar levels and I was just feeling wound up all the time.  Soooooo I gave it up three weeks ago and grudgingly took up the coffee enemas again. Yeeeeees, I take organic coffee beans, grind them up and boil them with filtered water in a saucepan. I then get to enjoy a fresh brew most mornings through the opposite end from where you'd normally enjoy a quality cuppa (if you were a coffee person). All I can say is it helps. You may research into it further if you'd like to. :)

I've still been crocheting and baking cakes (though less frequently). We've started lighting the fire again and gathering around it to read before bed - its the oldest and best place in the house to be in these colder months. We finally got Blake's old piano back from storage and he plays and the girls practice or pretend and I'm so glad we kept it for so long waiting for the day when we'd have room for it.

Have I gone on too long? Of course if you were here I'd have been asking you where you've been lately, what you've been reading or doing and what you are enjoying most right now.  Do you enjoy camping? have a piano? Feel free to tell me if you like. Or have 'tea with me' through Em's linkup. How gorgeous was her video post!?

An imperfect home and a full heart

This morning my friend Sarah popped in for a cup of tea and a peek at our 'new' home. We sipped black tea and munched on my 'rustic' looking almond meal choc-chip cookies while we chatted easily about our surroundings, and about our little ones.  We discussed birthday parties because her little boy's is coming up and my biggest little has been invited to her first sleep over party and lets just say there is only one person around here who is excited about it!*

Sarah, my amazingly talented thrifting friend brought with her the best house warming gift for me: A vintage Atlas for decorating, an Eloise Wilkin 'big' Little Golden Book, and some gorgeous vintage wallpaper which I'll be using to upcycle a chest of drawers. Excited!!

She peeked at my untidy work-in-progress wardrobe and I gabbled about the plans I have for each space to make up for the current disarray.  I noticed all the unfinished paintwork through her eyes and we could have tripped over numerous yet to be sorted 'miscellaneous' piles and boxes.  But there are a handful of corners in our home that are complete enough to make me glad to be here and glad to share it.

 There is enough order in the pantry and the laundry and the bedrooms for me to be content and get on with life.  We wholeheartedly agreed that an imperfect home that still has order to it is much more inviting than a perfect home.  But oh my, you should see the garage and the front lawn, and the study/crafty space.  Blake is finishing our en suite vanity as we speak and then I have a list of shelving for him to tackle.  Its hot hot hot this week in Geelong and the cooling system is not yet up and running and this time last year we were having regular swims at the beach before autumn really hits. I have rugs to make and walls to decorate.  We are keen to get a little more order happening so we can have church here for our new Sunday afternoon meetings.  Its a crazy season for this little family.  I'm glad I have friends like Sarah to help keep me sane.

*Blake and I have been dreading the sleepover parties starting. We feel like if we let her go it will be the start of hundreds of them (huge exaggeration but easily done when one is as mortified as I am), she will want one for her 8th birthday in April (which we will say 'no' to), we don't know the parents very well, and she will come home exhausted and will take out her sugar hangover on us!

xoxo

A week of beginnings

So its finally begun! City on a Hill Geelong has started with an excited small group made up of young families, singles, young marrieds and others meeting together to hear from the word, to sing and to pray together. We are a small bunch for now but for that I am thankful. It wont take long for us to grow into the 3 figure numbers and to need a building to meet in rather than our own homes, which for now are cosy and intimate. 

 Its taken over two years for the much talked about Acts 29 plant to kick off in Geelong and we have been excited from the start, with our good friends the Feavers nearby, equally as excited as us and just as eager for our Pastor family The Grills' to finish up at the Kapooka Army Base in NSW where Andrew was Chaplain, hurry on over to the US for training ad holiday time and finally get their butts down to Geelong to 'get this party started'.  

We are all aware that church planting is FAR from a big party.  So we are all glad that the beginning few months will involve mainly prayer, prayer, and more prayer. 

Our wonderful church for the past two years has been super supportive of us and we've made some lifelong friends who are also a major source of support as we move on to where we feel led.

.........

Almost as big a deal is that little Harper Grace started 4 yr old Kindy this week. My baby is getting ready for school! So when our Malya Hope headed off to her first day of grade 3 (the third beginning for the week) we celebrated the first day of the last year of being day-time buddies with a movie in bed followed by our first icecream date.

Genuine choc-mint flavoured happiness right there!

When big sis is away, with her iphone I will play...

I found time to work on the first rug for the 'new' abode.....

..... and be creative with their hair (and mine).

Our beautiful Miss 7 came home on Friday afternoon all aglow with happiness and confidence, telling us about her new friends and how she has the 'best classroom in the school' and how much fun grade 3 is......

And though I'm weary from the earlier mornings, new church meetings, and all the newness-of-everything angst on behalf of my littles, I can only feel glad and thankful for exciting new beginnings, knowing His hand is on it all.

xoxo

Oh BTW the reno peek IS coming, only they wouldn't let me in with my trusty iphone camera this week as the floors were drying! 

Thoughts for a New Year

source

Each year between Christmas and New Year I end up in a bit of a funk, a post-christmas haze.  Its more than being unwell as I recover from the the long intense lead up to the 25^th. It’s a definite lingering gloomy feeling, almost of dread.  I’m absolutely certain its not a prolonged hangover, …….I don’t drink.

Its worse this year as we are not off camping as usual and we are still living out of suitcases.  To top things off Blake is back at work already.  The school holidays seem to loom ahead of us like the second half of a long winter.  My energy levels are at an all time low and I wonder how we’ll get through.

...one lonely crochet ball...

Thankfully, although it seems endless, the funk doesn’t last . I do eventually feel better  with sleep and rest and consequently my mood lifts in time for the start of a new year.  Physical and mental health are so closely linked.  It takes a huge amount of courage to keep going when you are faced with either one letting you down, though I wonder if poor mental health isn’t harder to bear in the end? 

 For us the 2013 is full of HOPE, as every year is.  We will have one little one in grade 3 and one at Kindy, my last year with her at my side. I’ll teach RE for one more year and Blake has some big building contracts lined up (once our own abode is habitable!).  I’ll probably mention wanting another child for a few days each month and Blake will shake his head and remind me how sick pregnancy makes me and it’ll get easier each time to forget about and instead be grateful for our beautiful girls, as I am daily. 

We’ll open our home up again to the kids who walk past with our 7 year old before and after school or the ones who live nearby. There’ll be more room to play inside and our girls will be even more ‘free-range’ than last year as they grow in confidence and I loosen the already fairly lax constraints.  

Apart from having a ‘new home’ to finish and move into this coming year we’ll also be heading off on an adventure with a new church plant.  A small number of us have been waiting for this for at least two years. Its finally beginning. Its exciting and scary. And totally in God’s hands.

AND

Blake and I will celebrate 10 years of marriage in May, and we plan to celebrate in style! I’ll be sure to share details.

...his and mine...

There’ll be a new bunch of kids born at the farm, we’ll go camping and possibly fly to Cairns for our annual visit.  I’ll consider finishing my School Chaplaincy study and probably leave it until the littlest is at school, we will make new friends and spend time with old ones.

And another year will fly by.

If I can stop often enough and for long enough to reflect and plan and mostly just ‘be’ I know it will go a teeny bit slower :)

Happy New Year my friends!

xoxo