eventful

My, my. It's been an eventful day and it's only just past noon!! I've already had a bit of a cry and a few chuckles. I'm sure thankful for fast, automatic reflexes. At work this morning the 4yo was playing with a little slinky and being silly he flicked it at me. Unfortunately for me he was close and it struck me hard in the eye. I grabbed my eye saying that it really hurt. I got up to go check it in the bathroom mirror and the 2yo followed me suggesting a tissue on the way. My eye was ok, appart from the pain and sting of the thud, thanks to those reflexes. Boy, it hurt! Thus the cry. Sort of. My eyes watered though I kept from actually crying. It was sweet to look down and see the serious concern and compassion on the 2yo's face. I smiled at her and told her I would be ok when she asked. I went and found the 4yo. He'd hid. I didn't yell at him coz he obviously realised the seriousness and that he'd really hurt me. I suggested he not flick it at anyone again.
The 4yo later supplied me with a chuckle though. I gave the 2yo a tissue to blow her nose which she did. "No," said the 4yo, "you gotta do a big blow like this." He then did a big blow himself. Only, he didn't have a tissue so he just sent the snot stringing down to the ground. "Eww," I laughed, "I'll get you a tissue too." Ha ha ha.
And call me crazy, but I chuckled when I was almost home too and noticed that the police in the middle of the street were doing random breath tests. They waved a few people through and then stopped me. He he. So I did a breath test...with no worries. Then I drove along two more houses and pulled in. Funny.
So with the weather warmer and waiting for a friend to arrive for our hotdog lunch, today is turning into a pretty fine day. ^^

livin' up the holidays

Oh yeah! This is the life. Ah, I sat down yesterday just after lunch with a book, some bikkies and a chai latte with the Christmas tree sheltering all the presents I'd just finished wrapping. Lovely. I read all afternoon. I only stopped to get ready for work. After about one and a half hours of work, once the kids were in bed sleeping, I read some more. It was a blissful day.
Hope you have some days like this. Ones you can relax and soak up. Ü

Preoccupied

I haven't been hanging out online as much lately, thus the elongated gaps between posts on my blogs. Christmas is almost here and in between the bit of work I have I've been busily working on presents and preparations. Did some more today in fact. That and getting sucked in to the Twilight saga. I finished book one yesterday and couldn't resist starting "New Moon" today. He he.

I wrote myself a to-do list the other week coz I was starting to stress over so many things on my mind that I wanted to do with the shrinking pre-Christmas time. Ahh. I had to remind myself that I certainly did have time to do these things so I wrote a list to help me prioritise and not forget something. It's been a successful help. I've finished and posted parcels and cards, finished some presents and done some baking today. And last Tuesday night was our breakup for home group for the year. We had a Christmas celebration by eating dessert. Delicious. Funny that we ended up with two rocky road icecream cakes. One I made. And I got my Christmas cards and the stars I crocheted done for a little Christmas wish to hand out. It's been so satisfying to cross things off my list and know I'm getting things done. Yay.

Christmas really is just around the corner. One week from tomorrow. I hope you have a lovely time this celebratory season--laugh, have fun, enjoy the delicious food and the wonderful relationships you have in your life. Merry Christmas to you all!

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!)

newness

It's SPRING! The season of newness. Leaves will soon be budding on twiggy trees, some blossoms are out already, there's a little more sunshine and it's increasing (slowly but still...) and the expectations of baby sightings in the animal world. It's a season that inspires some newness in my life too. New starts anyway. I've seen some programs lately on healthy eating and decided I need to do more to make sure my body is getting all the nutrients it needs. Mostly I've been eating somewhat healthy mixed with a lot of sugar and fat tastebud addictions and quick non-nutritious meals. So I looked up a site about low GI foods and have been flicking through some healthy cooking books. It takes a while to get it in and filter it through. So my cooking today was of a healthy nature and also newness in the area of something I've not tried or tasted before. I made Pumpkin Curry with Couscous.

I've had couscous once before, in the USA, but this was different. I think the stuff I had in the USA was Israeli couscous and it was bigger and more ball-like. But this was good too. It worked out quite well. I sort of looked at a recipe and just took some ideas and threw stuff together and cooked the couscous as the packet directed. I put in curry paste, coconut milk, pumpkin, sweet potato, capsicum, beans, spinach and chickpeas. Even Matt said it was pretty good..."for pumpkin!"

And it was such a beautiful day today. Quite sunny. Work was spent almost entirely outside playing (that's nannying for ya) and when I got home Matt and I went and played a bit of tennis. It's been quite a while since we have. And I lost. Just.

For other newness, this week I adjusted a new opshop find to suit me. A lovely green flower print singlet top I've been wearing over my black longsleeve top. I'm also working on making a needle roll to keep all my knitting needles and crochet hooks in. With one of my housemate's in the process of moving out, Matt and I have talked about just paying the extra and having a spare room. We have plans to rearrange things which leaves me having a room for my crafting!!! How exciting is that! My own studio. (Which will also contain Matt's electric drum kit and cupboard of stuff and space to bunk up visitors so they don't have to sleep in the lounge.) Oh and I cleared my desk and its now an organised space for creating. Pics on my other blog.

So there's been a bit of newness happening for this new spring season. Hope there's some fresh newness in your world too.

vegetable tempura

Tried something new tonight. So I searched the net and had a go. I used zucchini, sweet potato, carrot, capsicum and snow peas. Tasted pretty good too. Should have cooked them a little longer I think as they weren't quite crunchy enough. Still good though.

cook up

Heather invited me to hang out with her a few weeks back while she had a cook up. I helped a little--cut up the veggies for soup--but mostly just chatted while she 'slaved over the stove'. Much delicious food preprepared for storing in the freezer ready for the school term when there's less time to cook and get some lunch together. I was quite amused by her 'cooling rack'. Haha. Ingenuitive! And I had a lovely time and lovely meal at the end of our morning.

happy jacks playworld

I've been planning to take my nephew to this great indoor playground as a birthday present. Finally did today about two months after. I met my sister and her two kids there and we settled in for hours of fun. It's a pretty good playground and I l♥ve that they make it big enough for adults to fit. (Necessary for rescuing the stuck or scared or retrieving the one who just doesn't want to go!) I fulfilled all my Aunty duties--paying for them to go, buying them food, playing with both of them on the playground including going down the slides, climbing in and out the holes, crawling through the tunnels, going in the ball pit etc, sharing my fizzy drink and assisting with social skills like sharing and taking turns and not pushing! Hmm, I think it was all partly an excuse to play myself. Ha ha.

Gotta love the ball pit! Seriously, how long has it been since you were in one!!? Jasmine was a little overwhelmed as they were really deep for her.

Huge slides and climbing through small gaps to the upper levels. They had some GREAT air driven equipment like the air gun Byron enjoyed using. Put in a ball at the top and press the button on the handle to fire it. Of course I played with these too!!

Jasmine conked out in the early afternoon for a while but later joined us on the trampoline and the jumping house.

We got there at 10am and didn't leave until 2:50pm when I had to go to work playing with other kids. I spent most of my time with the kids on the playground and Tammy spent most of the time knitting and watching. It was a great day. I'm sure Byron would tell you so!!

*note: Please excuse the photo quality. The pics were all taken with my mobile which is not so great normally but more shocking with flash.*

mudpuddles!!!!

Oh what fun! I don't have gumboots so I didn't join in but I certainly let them go for it. How could I not? Such a great part of childhood.

Of course, I'm in charge of clean up! Ü

work

more than a cold

I had such a bad cold last week. It really wiped me out but I still managed to work. If I don't, I don't get paid. This week has been better but there is still the lingering cough and I'm tired. I went to the doctor today and after a bit of look said that I've probably had bronchitis. No wonder I felt so sick. It was more than just a cold.

roast goat

So the colour isn't so great. The photo is from my mobile phone. But it was truly delicious. My brother and some friends went shooting at my cousin's farm. They came back with goat meat. Never tried it before. Doesn't really taste much different to lamb. This dinner was delish and the left over meat my brother made into a shepherds pie which was soooo tasty. He cooks some great dishes. And these goat dishes were definitely worth trying. I'd eat goat again...

hangin' out with family

Ahhh, love hanging out with family. Esther and the kids came down for the weekend and we also went out to Tammy's too. Lots of aunty fun for me. These are just some random pics fun with my lovely family.

Roughing around with the boys at Grandma and Grandpa's. (My mum and dad's.)

Abby made me this great card. Don't I feel special!

Picked up Jasmine at my sister's when I got out there and she looked at me, put her head on my shoulder and was asleep within minutes. Awwww.

Tim takes his move playing Quorridors with Abby, Ben and Auntie Tammy. (Esther and Ezra watching and helping Ben.)

I let the kids run around snapping away with my camera. What fun! Nice snap of the paper aeroplane, Tim looks worried about Australia or something and such a classic of Ben on the treadmill. Such a comic. It wasn't even on.

After some time and a lot of noise Jasmine woke up. Such a cutie. The youngest and oldest of my auntyfiers and my only nieces.

Later big brother, Byron, helped feed Jasmine.

funny kids

I was looking after two boys the other day and I made them a hot milo. I called to the three year old that it was ready and he came out to the kitchen and climbed up on the stool at the bench. I handed him his milo and he started drinking it straight away.
"Where's your thankyou?" I asked.
He looked up at me and said quite politely, "I don't have it with me today."
Ha ha. Really quite amusing though I told him he better find it quickly. He found it after his next sip.

Then later that day he was drawing on a piece of paper with crayon on the floor. With the carpet underneath the crayon was ripping the paper. After trying to coax him to move to the table with it I finally said, "We'll draw on the table." He then got up with crayon in hand and proceeded to draw on the table.
"NO, draw on the paper! I mean we'll put the paper on the table." He he he. I couldn't tell him off for doing exactly what I said. I must be careful with how I word things.

29 years and counting

Hello Birthday!! Today begins the last year of being in my 20s!! Worthy of noting. So here's a few progressive snapshots of my day...

It turned out a little different than imagined but it was quite pleasant in the end. I worked this morning, beautified myself (part present part just coz), was visited by family, went shopping, drove out to Michael and Katrina's new place...they weren't back yet so I went for a walk around Lake St George having fun on my own and leaving a funny message for Tab Ü, hung out with Micky, Katrina and Matt and had tea and watched a movie and shared my day with you! He he.
*Note: The socks were knitted by my sis. Didn't she do a great job!? They're toasty warm too.*