thanksgiving

Summer officially begins today!! And thankfully it was a pleasant enough day. Glad that the sun was shining for the first day of summer. It shouldn't be any other way. Haha. No guarantee in my city though. Still, the change of seasons is nice. And it was a nice evening for a BBQ. We had a sort-of Thanksgiving at home group tonight. We had a bbq dinner (very Aussie) with delcious deserts and loads of chatter. I must admit I did quite a bit of laughing too--with Danielle especially. Some great conversations. Interesting ones. Some that made no sense to me....ha ha, you can do all the theorising, Connor, I'll just read the story when you're done. And I'm interested to see how to attatch pig hair needles to the thread. And we heard lots about The Twilight Saga's New Moon and it's actors. Ha ha ha. It was a good time. We did a little "thanksgiving" when we realised how late it was getting already.
I'm thankful that even though financially life has been tough this past year with not a lot of work, I've always had at least enough to survive. I'm also thankful for friends and family that I can call my own little community to be a part of. I'm thankful that I can be real and be myself and they love me all the same. I'm thankful that despite the hardships of this year there are still moments of joy and laughter and connectedness and hope. I am thankful that the seasons change! It's not always winter. (And it doesn't stay dreadfully hot forever either.) I'm thankful that even in my doubts and my depressed feelings God stays right beside me. And I'm thankful for the reminder that God is FOR me and wants me to succeed in life and so He WILL help me.

fog in a dark valley

This year has been insane in regards to my personal life. The darkest valley of my days thus far I would say. You know you're scraping the bottom when you despair. It's such a horrid emotion. Doubts about God have caused most of the fog in my life. He's always been the one I hang onto for dear life in hard times. So when I despair and doubt and wonder if God is real and if He really loves me and such its a nasty undercurrent that pulls me down and knocks me about. When hope is down it's darn hard to get up and fight on. I had such a night last night.

Today I was reading one of the books I'm working my way through. Jennifer Rothschild in Self Talk, Soul Talk says there are four essential areas of life we stand on: Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual. And she likens it to a table. When one leg is loose and out of whack, the whole table gets wobbly. I've been feeling many wobbles in all these areas this year. I've only begun to see some light in this darkness recently as I've begun to seek God again in this thick fog. It's hard when there are still many doubts and mistrusts. Last night the doubts were unwelcomely invading my mind. Fighting is exhausting. The chapter today talked about the spiritual "leg" being the weight bearing leg and how we need to hope in God. She said to choose hope. Choosing hope is a difficult choice but not choosing it is to choose despair by default. Tell your soul to look up...something broader, someone bigger, somewhere better.

I paused to ponder the appropriate timing of reading this chapter for my life. Seems to happen often. Then I suppose I decided to hope. To believe that God really is here with me and actively helping me. Leading me to read the right book at the right time. I also thought of a verse that has been giving me hope... Psalm 23:4 "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid for you are right beside me..." Through. Through the darkest valley. Implying that there's a coming out the other side. Where is God? Not miraculously making me appear on a mountain or even a platau. What would I gain from that? No, He longs for me to grow and be better and stronger and have more faith and hope. He wants me to make this journey. He allows me to go through this valley because in the long run it will benefit me. But He surely doesn't leave me to it. He's right beside me, walking with me, seeing me through.

summerish

The weather is brilliant here! Technically it's spring but it's feeling like summer this week. Gorgeous day yesterday and sunny and around 30ºC again today and predicated so for most of this week. Being spring the coolness will come again but I'm certainly enjoying the sunshine. Nannying is a great job in weather like this coz I get to have summery fun! Check out some pics from my morning...

Hot weather clothes and protection (sunscreen rubbed in)**Icypoles**And our brilliant sandcastle with a moat

This afternoon I'm off to my other nanny job. Think we'll play with the water table. That sounds like fun.

hard yakka*

Oh boy! I worked so hard yesterday!! Six whole hours of looking after two small children...

Ha ha ha. Though this WAS after making gross chocolate pudding, fighting pirates and spotting seamonsters...well...truthfully, I hung out and talked while the kids did that. You see, they could do it all on their own coz I gave them superjuice (usually known as water). It gave them superpowers. :) I DID deal with a scun knee (though that was more psychological pain than physical).

This was our ship on this gorgeous sunny day. Pirates defeated, seamonsters scared away...time for some fun jumping into the ocean. And the above photos was my suggestion of floating in the water for a while. Some days are just so tough. :P

*This term is Aussie slang for "hard work".

sharing a celebration

I was invited to my pastor's 50th birthday party which was tea at the Tokyo Grill House last Saturday night. I've never been there before but had heard about it. Customers sit around a hot grill while the awesome chefs do their work cooking up a feast. It's quite fascinating to watch them and it was certainly an entertaining evening. I began by ordering a tsunami. Just a little 250ml one but by the time I got it it had grown to 275ml. It was a Japanese sake cocktail with lychee and muscat. Quite nice and made me feel I was in the mood--having sake at a Japanese restaurant. Then began our three and a half hour feast. All of us who were squished around two grills had an almost seemingly endless banquet. And being non-seafood eater I was quite happy that there were only two out of ten courses I didn't eat--the seafood soup (I did taste this one....eww) and the garlic butter shrimp (wasn't gonna try it...gross). It was a little strange eating a course of chicken, followed by a course of beef, followed by a course of cabbage. Usually I eat this stuff all together. The fried rice was the most entertaining part. Our chef tapped some eggs and stood them on the grill and then handed a bowl to one of us. Then with a flick the egg was lobbed into the air with the intention of the customer catching it in the bowl. Mostly that happened except once down the other end it landed on the table but that was coz the chef didn't lob it far enough. Then he got the eggs frying and it was quite impressive to see them slice it up. It was fast and every so often a big aimed slice would send a bit of egg flying your way. You were suppose to catch it but they were a bit wild. Mostly that went everywhere. What a laugh! The last few bits were saved for the toss at which each customer was to catch their bit of egg in their mouth. I'm proud to say I caught mine! At 10pm I was thinking I should head home soon as I had to work at 6am the next day. But then they brought out the birthday cake. Can't leave before that! And it was a totally scrumptious black forest cake. Best I've had I reckon. The guy was serving out seconds before I'd finished my first piece so when he asked me I quickly scooped up my last mouthful and offered my plate. He he. And P.Steve insisted they take some cake for the staff (they did do a great job) and so he called for a plate and slopped a nice big chunk on it for the staff. I turned and saw that one waitress was standing there waiting eagerly at the kitchen door smiling with a fork in hand. Dessert for the workers tonight! Then came green tea icecream and cuppas. But the most impressive thing in my opinion was the guy who cut the cake came around and to the grill once all the cooking was done. He took the salt shaker and started pouring it on the grill. I hear this is to "season the grill" but the impressive part is that he wrote this message....upside down! (So it was the right way up for us to read.) I've never seen anyone write upside down in cursive with a flow of salt. Yes. Quite impressive.
It was a good night. Good place to eat. And I hope Pastor Steve had a great celebration! I certainly enjoyed sharing in it.

movies movies

I knew nothing about the Harry Potter stories until I went to the USA and I great friend I made there, who was really into them, got me watching the movies. I even saw HP5 over there in 3D. I really enjoyed them. So creative and imaginative and well thought out stories. I decided to read the books when I came home to Australia. I decided though to only read the ones I'd seen the movies. This way I enjoyed the movie and then when I read the book I got all these extra bits and other underlying storylines that couldn't be fitted in the movie. I've enjoyed doing it this way. Earlier this year I went and saw HP6. Unfortunately I'm here to report I was disappointed. For someone who hadn't read the book at that stage I found it lacking. It was like two separate stories in one movie. And neither was complete! I felt I had to read the book just to get the full story. The book was good. Though it ends at a bit of a climax so I'm left um-ing and ah-ing as whether to read HP7 before the movie (as well as I've heard that the movie will actually be done as two over two years!)...

Also watched G-Force 3D the other day with a visiting friend. First movie I've seen in full 3D and it was quite good. Our local cinema has recently started 3D viewings and it's really quite effective. And you don't have to wear the red/blue glasses either. The movie itself was rather entertaining too. Cute and funny and an interesting idea. A little nostalgic for me too as we had guinea pigs as pets for years when I was a kid. I didn't quite like the ending though. And like my friend said, the bad guy did give in pretty easily. But for the most part it was entertaining.

more newness

New cut! Springtime is a good time for freshness and I love the freshness of clean cut hair. Also good for a slightly different look. Just shorter for me really though it DID end up being one of those times I had to go home and look in the mirror and play around with it a little before I decided that I DID like it. (I think I had it cut a little shorter than I meant to and the hairdresser didn't straighten it like I was expecting; she curled it a little more.) But all's good. It's nice having some newness in your look. Now to tackle trimming the stomach...

(The cheek poke is ode to Sarah Son. Reminds me of the wacky and wonderful woman!)