Book Spine Poetry Meme

A couple of weeks ago (eek! I am slow!) Jean tagged me and challenged me to create a poem using only the spines of books.  I eagerly set out that day and photographed it, but sadly I am only now sharing it with you. It's been a busy couple of weeks...

Here are the rules:

• Create a book spine poem (see some more examples here).
• Take a photograph of it.
• Post it on your blog.
• Link back to this post.
• Tag another blogger, or two, or ten!

So here is my poem (apologies for the quality of the photograph) - bear in mind that we'd just finished watching through season 9 of Spooks.

Here I stand
No name
The Secret Agent
Where angels fear to tread
No guts no glory
To kill a mockingbird

I tag Emily, Sharon, John, Dan and Farrah. I can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

It's Not Easy Being Green

Envy.  What do you think about envy?  Until recently I thought it sounded like a less offensive term than jealousy.  I felt better saying that I was 'envious' of someone or something, rather than saying I was 'jealous'.  I thought that they were a pretty much synonymous. Then I went on our third year college weekend away.

Did you know that envy is more than just jealousy?  Envy adds a whole new level of maliciousness.  According to my ancient and pre-political correctness Chambers's Dictionary, envy is "grief at the sight of another's success: to hate on account of prosperity".  Now that sounds pretty darn serious, but as Bill Salier pointed out, it can be seen on all kinds of levels in our society.  At a seeminlgy harmless level, you see it in the gossip magazine's "Celebrities without makeup" photo shoots.  We get that little surge of pleasure at seeing seemingly flawless beauties with bad hair and pimples.  You also get a sense of it on Funniest Home Videos.  At an extreme, you see it when parents hurt their children so that their estranged partners "can't have them".  Societally, you see it played out in our 'tall poppy syndrome'.  We Aussies love to cut those who rise above us back down to size.  Envy is rife.

I don't like to admit it, but envy is resident in my heart too.  Honestly, sometimes when I hear about good things being given to other people there is a little part of me that wishes that I could have it instead of them.  The little voice that whispers, "Why them?  I work so much harder. I am so much more deserving!"  Or that thought that if only Jane had a little bit of a taste of how hard things are for me, then she'd really know what this job/parenting/running a household is all about.

How quickly I forget everything that God has given me that I have not, can not and will never deserve.  I have forgiveness and every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), and yet I stew over and begrudge these tiny fleeting things that appear so very big at the time.  Envy is evidently something that we are seriously warned to put off (1 Corinthians 13:4, Galatians 5:21, Galatians 5:26,  Titus 3:3, 1 Peter 2:1), but how do we do this?  To scratch the surface, Galatians 5 implores us to keep in step with the Spirit and it's desires, and to put off the desires of our sinful natures.  I think regular Bible reading can be a big help here, reminding ourselves of God's big plan and everything he's done for us and keeping our priorities in line with his.  Prayer is another huge one - asking for God's help to overcome envy and praying for those that we feel envious of, perhaps even thanking God for the way that he was blessed them.  Steering clear of people or situations that provoke us to envy might also be helpful.  Be encouraged that in imploring us to put off envy, with the Spirit's help, it is possible.

How wonderful that it is not only our actions, but also our thoughts that are important to God.  He loves us in our entirety and changes us entirely through his Spirit. Thank you Lord for a new hearts. Please help us not to return to our old ones.

Image is by lamazone of flickr

Sugar-Free Since 18/03 ... and then not..

As a follow-up to my No Added Sugar post, I thought I should probably tell you how that actually went.  My goal was to go for one week without eating anything with added sugar.

It all started fairly well - will power was high, to the point of even turning down freshly baked blueberry crumble muffins that everybody was raving about in Bible study.  The first couple of days weren't too bad, although getting used to tea and coffee sans sugar was interesting (it added a tinge of sadness to my morning tea coffee ).  About two days in I started feeling quite awful.  I'm still not 100% convinced it was the lack of sugar, but perhaps it was.  After a day or two, I was feeling better again, but nothing significantly better than normal.

It was all going so well, I was six days in with one more to go, when we went out for our Friday night take away.  There we were, sitting in McDonalds (we're very classy) watching Hannah drinking water from her little happy meal bottle.  I raised my cup and took a long draught through my straw, and thought to myselfm "Hmm, Hannah's drinking water.  My water tastes quite sweet ... Hang on a minute!"  It was lemonade.  I was 24 hours from reaching my goal when I found myself accidentally quaffing down a medium sized cup of sprite.  Oh well, close enough.  It turns out that I would have had to break it the next day anyway, because the only morning tea that was served at the Equip conference were little 'sweetie treaties', as we have come to call them in our house.

So, at the end of all that I have nothing particularly remarkable to report.  I went without sugar for a while. Now I'm eating it again.  I have noticed though, I do tend to feel a mild sense of rising panic when I watch my child each chocolate or lollies, while I'm happy enough to eat them myself.  I'm not quite sure what is with that.

Photograph by Uwe Hermann on Flickr

Fun Around the House

I realised a few weeks ago that I'd stopped taking photos of the kids for a while.  This is something that I've tried to rectify, especially as I feel like they're growing up at warp speed.  I'd like to learn how to use our camera better.  Here are some recent photos from our place.  And yes, this is David's most common facial expression.

Our small life at home.

Here's a happy Davey - sometimes I call him Mr Funshine

Hannah's choice of pose - Hmmm...

Here we go, cooking in the kitchen! Small people call for interesting measures.

Yes, we like our food!

We really like our food!  It's a whole sensory experience.

Of Hearth and Home - Natural Mould Killer Spray

I was excited to feel a bit of a nip of cold in the air last night and again today. Ah, hopefully Autumn is finally beginning and we can return to tights with skirts and boots, long sleeves and the skin colour that God originally blessed us with (which for me is just about glow in the dark white).  I wanted to share this most excellent mould killer spray recipe with you, although hopefully with the turn in the weather, it won't be quite so necessary.  Although, having said that there was one share house I lived in that had such bad bathroom ventilation that your towel would never fully dry during the winter months...

This great concoction is brought to you by the wonderful people at the Western Australia Office of Public Health and I found it particularly good when I was pregnant and didn't want to be sucking great wafts of bleachy nastiness.  It's even better in regard to bleach because the WA Public Health people say that bleach doesn't actually kill mould due to its high pH, it just bleaches it.  So much for my bottle of Exit Mould's claims!

Anyway, here it is:

Tea Tree Oil Mould Killer

Put 2 teaspoons of tea tree oil and 2 cups of water in a spray bottle, shake and use.

That's it!  So simple and it's great for getting rid of relatively new mould.  The best tip for getting rid of mould in the long term, however, is to reduce the humidity, so maybe think of installing an exhaust fan in your bathroom, or hitting your real estate agent up for one, if necessary.  May your bathrooms look like the one below (in terms of cleanliness)!

Image by NickNguyen of flikr.com

Comparisons and Why They Just Don't Measure Up

What do you think about comparisons?  Do you think it's good or bad to compare ourselves with others?  Do you do it?  Does it bother you, or make you feel better?  I think comparisons do have a good and appropriate place in our society, in health care for example.  How else would I have know that my son David is (a little ironically) gargantuan for his age, or that my Dad should cut salt out of his diet because his blood pressure was out of normal limits?  Yes, comparisons can save lives.  But in the wrong context they can also cripple us.

Let me be the first to step forward and be honest.  My name is Bek and I compare myself a lot with other people.  Sometimes it makes me feel better, to the detriment of other people in my thinking, and sometimes it makes me feel horribly inadequate.  I've been challenged in my comparing tendencies on two different fronts lately.  The first was at the recent Equip Ministry Wives conference.

This year's conference was called 'The Fear Factor' and was all about the fears that we face when we're involved in ministry.  This issue of comparing ourselves to other people was a recurring theme of the day.  Phillip Jensen mentioned in one of his talks, that in Australia and I suspect most of the western world, our very society  is built on comparisons. In removing the concept of absolute truth from our frame of reference, all we have left is comparisons.  We are encouraged to judge everything on a bell curve; so long as I'm better than someone else, I'm okay.  This is definitely not a biblical perspective.  God most definitely does not encourage us to seek the world's approval, or even their measuring system.  We are to look to please God only - to play to an audience of one.  In the context of the conference, if there are other women that you find intimidating because of how capable and gifted they seem in ministry, then praise God! We're on the same team after all!

All of this was a great reminder and encouragement not to compare myself with others, but I still found myself leaving with the nagging question of just how do I do that practically.  Enter college Bible study.

Last week I was leading our college Bible study on Galatians 6.  It was the first time that I've led this year, and is so obviously providential in both the timing of the study and also the content.  I sat down on Monday night to prepare and found myself reading,

"¹ Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.² Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³ If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴ Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, ⁵for each one should carry his own load."


How should I stop comparing myself with others?  I should look to God and see how I appear before him.  There is no bell curve.  In the words of Isaiah, "⁶ All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."  There is no point in looking around and comparing to those around us, because we all fall equally short, if not for the amazing saving work of Christ.  Safe in his arms we can find a true and lasting comfort.

In Addition: 
This seems to be a really big lesson that God is teaching me currently.  This morning I went to Community Chapel at Moore and the sermon was on 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 and not judging others, not worrying about what they say or think about us, or making judgements on them.  Now to put it all into action, internally and externally!

Photograph by bionicteaching from Flickr.

In Review -The Hunger Games

If you're an Aussie television watcher, no doubt you've seen, or are possibly even getting sick of seeing, advertisements for "The Hunger Games" movie, which is released here on Thursday.  For the last week or so, however, I've been immersed in the book-world of The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.

I hate using clichéd terms.  I very much want to find something more imaginative sounding than "gripping" or "thrilling" or even "compelling", but either my brain isn't working properly (highly likely) or those words genuinely do it justice.  I've had trouble putting this book down, and in fact, am probably at least 1/3 of the way through the second book of the trilogy.  This book was also my first ebook experience, having read it on my kindle.  But lets get back to the book.

The Hunger Games takes place in what remains of North America, now called Panem.  Panem is divided up into the Capitol and 13 Districts.  There was an uprising in the Districts about 74 years earlier that was put down by the Capitol.  In the process of this, District 13 was completely annihilated and the rest of the Districts left to eke out their lives in service to the Capitol, whilst annually supplying a lottery-chosen boy and girl between 12 and 18 years of age to take part in the Hunger Games. These Games are required viewing by all and are designed to remind the greater population that they are subject to the Capitol, with the victor being the last "tribute" left alive.  It's a fight to the death.  The main character Katniss finds herself thrust into the Games after she volunteers to take the place of her 12 year old sister Primrose as the District 12 tribute.  And so the Games begin.

The Hunger Games presents such a bleak picture of life in Panem.  I found myself hoping from the start that they would rise up and overthrow the Capitol.  So many people in the Districts are left to starve to death under the horribly sadistic government, that just surviving ordinary life is no mean feat.  The story is told in first person present tense, which took me a little getting used to, having never read a book in this tense before.  I think it adds to the pacing of the book though.

Collins apparently came up with the premise of the book while watching the television one night and channel surfing between reality shows where young people were competing for money and stories of actual war, where young people were fighting each other to the death.  Whilst it is set in a very bleak world, I really enjoyed this book.  In fact, I found myself getting quite emotionally invested in it and feeling a genuinely concerned about whether I could handle the stress of the story when reading the second book. That's got to be saying something about the skill of the writer, if you find yourself that involved in their literary world!  I  give it an 8 out of 10.

I'm looking forward to seeing the movie and I hope it will do justice to the book.  Having seen some of the previews, it looks like they may have greatly sanitised at least some of the characters.  If it's as action-packed and well paced it should still be well worth it.


First image from http://www.firstnovelsclub.com/2011/04/judge-y-mcjudgerson-which-books-helped.html. Second image from http://screenrant.com/hunger-games-images-katniss-peeta-fire-costumes-kofi-147705/the-hunger-games-movie-poster-katniss/

No Added Sugar

Today I am beginning a little experiment.  I'm not sure how it will go or even why I'm really doing it, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.  Deep breath and here goes: I am going to try to cut out all (or as much as I can) sugar for one week.  Phew. I think that still scares me a little...

I would be more scared, but since John and I started doing the 1 Million Kilo Challenge I've cut back to 1 teaspoon of sugar in my coffee (oh, how I love our espresso machine... But that's a story for another day) and half sugars in tea and Ecco (it's a weird drink, I know, but I like it).  I think the hardest thing will be resisting Bible study morning teas and collecting a sweetie treatie from our weekly Baker's Delight leftover's collection.  I'm not sure if I will get withdrawals, but I've recently been reassured from another friend that whenever she goes off sugar for a while she feels "heaps better".  Plus it surely it can only help with weight loss. We shall see how it goes.

I'm glad that Easter isn't in the next week.  Now I just wish I hadn't had a pre-experiment top-up to make up for all the sugar I won't be eating...

Photo from Flickr by Sidereal.

Of Hearth and Home - Super Easy and Healthy Banana Bread Recipe

I grew up reading a lot of classic fiction, especially Charles Dickens, so I love the idea of the hearth - coming in from the snow, sitting nice and close while you heat a bowl of soup or roast a chicken...  I thought I might try a regular feature with some homey-type things that I enjoy and would love to share with you.  I couldn't wait to share my first - a super easy, low fat banana bread.

I found this recipe back in 2008 from a www.weightloss.com.au forum.  All I can say is thank you Ing86, you've revolutionised our banana bread consumption.  The things that I like most about this recipe are it's variability (don't worry, of ingredients, not how it turns out), how quickly you can make it with a stick mixer and that it still works when I've made it with gluten-free flower and rice milk (although not being used to consuming these alternatives, I did find the finished product a little troubling...  Not as bad a soy milk Boost Juice I tried once though...).

This will be my stick mixer version - if you don't own one, just lightly beat the eggs and mash the banana first.

Healthy Banana Bread

Ingredients

2 cups self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarb soda

Pinch of salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup caster sugar

3/4 cup sultanas (or pitted dates for less sugar)

2 eggs

1 cup reduced fat milk

2 large bananas

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line the base and sides of a largeish loaf pan with baking paper, or if you're a little lazy like me, spray oil lightly over a silicone loaf pan.

Sift the flour, bicarb soda, salt and cinnamon into a large bowl.  Stir in the sugar and sultanas.

Whack the eggs, milk and bananas into your stick mixer cup and whizz them all up together.  Using a large metal spoon (not 100% sure that it really has to be metal) stir the egg/milk/banana mixture into the dry ingredients, until well combined.

Pour the batter into your loaf pan.  Bake it for 40-45 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.  Slice and serve.  It's nice toasted and if you're not worried about the health aspect, smear it generously with peanut butter or nutella.  Mmm...  It also freezes well.

If you're going through a great banana famine, you can replace the banana with pie apples, a can of dessert pears in chocolate sauce (replacing some of the milk with the chocolate sauce), replace the sultanas with blueberries.  I even tried it with fresh mango instead of banana once, although I'm not too keen on replicating that one again.

Eat and enjoy!

Photo from Flickr by Francesg29

(I'll admit it, I didn't make this particular loaf of banana bread, and I'm no food stylist, but this looks a lot like my bread)

Yes.  I may have just lost all credibility.

Hanging in the Balance

It's been a while since I've posted.  Sorry about that. Doesn't life get busy?!  I felt quite busy last year with having a second baby and trying to run an online shop. This year I think I got a bit over excited.  I've tried to add in starting up and co-ordinating  a Junior Jivers group, starting a one-to-one with a lovely lady from church and doing a proper Moore College subject one evening a week.  That should be a walk in the park, right?  I'm not sure I've thought this all through properly...

Let me give you an idea of my week:
Sunday - John leaves for church early and I get the kids and myself there by 10:30am.
Monday - We were going to try and go to playgroup, but so far we haven't made it this year. I think I'm going to have to let that one go.
Tuesday - College Bible study and Moorewest Community Dinner
Wednesday - Running Junior Jivers
Thursday - College subject in the evening.  John puts the kids to bed while I head into the city at 5:30 for a 3 hour class.
Friday - Meet my one-to-one fortnightly
Saturday - Family day/whatever else is on

All of this is while I still breastfeeding and introducing David to solids and really feeling the need to nanna-nap each afternoon. This really takes up a fair chunk of time (much to Hannah's disappointment at being put down for a sleep).

What I've discovered so far:
1. My house is an embarrassing mess and I really struggle to have time to clean it properly, let alone de-clutter the mounting piles of "stuff" everywhere.
2. I'm in constant risk of going off at the kids for minor things, because I'm feeling so tired and like a failure because I'm not doing everything as well as I expect of myself.
3. I'm not doing very much very well, because I'm not preparing for things properly.
4. I have a rising sense of guilt about all these things.
5. I need to de-stress by making things, but I don't end up having time when I still need to finish chores in the evenings (hence my online shop is currently on "vacation mode").
6. Caring for small children can really leave me feeling peopled-out, but then I still need to spend time with adults or I get way too introspective.

Do you find it hard to decide what things you should fill your week with?  How do you decide between what's good and what's best?  How do you let go of the expectations upon yourself that there's always more you can fit in because you're not "working"?  I think that this is a lesson that I'm going to have to learn many many times before it sinks in.

Photo from Flickr by NCinDC.

Besties! And the Resties...

My family and I live in a Bible college community.  Every year some of the families move out - some move closer in to college, others finish their degrees and head out into their ministry "careers".  It's always sad to see a good friend go, and then exciting to see who will move in next.  Normally  I get quite stressed about meeting and befriending our new neighbours (I still see myself as I did in high school - a bit awkward and not particularly well-liked), but I'm glad to say that I've calmed down a bit this year.  I haven't been rushing off to introduce myself to our new neighbours in case someone else gets in first and they decide that I don't measure up (oh, the positive self-talk...).  Instead I've been taking things a little more slowly and trying to take advantage of opportunities to spend time with our new neighbours and get to know them better.  It's been good!  I am starting wonder how I can keep up with all these new friends, as well as all the other things that are going on in our week - *happy sigh*.

This has also got me thinking about a comment that I heard about friendship and exclusive language, from Ray Galea, during an Equip Ministry Wives question time, .  It went something along the lines of him never referring to anyone except for his wife as his 'best friend', otherwise it can make other people feel like they are excluded, bracketed off into an inferior class of friendship.  I don't know if you've thought about this before, but I've definitely felt the sting of it previously.  I can clearly recall spending time with a friend when they have referred to, "My best friend Taloulah..." It's not that they were trying to put me in my place, or establish a hierarchy of friendship, but (especially to one as sensitive as my insecure little heart) it can kind of feel like that.  It's something that I've tried to take on board, especially when developing new relationships.

This is not to say that we shouldn't have any especially close friendships, after all, as Proverbs 18:24 says, "A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." But perhaps we should be mindful of the way that we refer to them amongst other friends.  Let me tell you about the oldest friend of mine that I'm still in contact with.  My friend that "sticks closer than a brother".  Our friendship was born at the tender age of 13 when we were our local youth group rejects - well, I really shouldn't speak on behalf of my friend on that count, but I know that I definitely didn't feel as hip or cool as the other kids.  I think this kind of genesis was the "Mount Doom" of friendship forging - seemingly indestructible.  Plenty of other new and wonderful close friends have come along but today she is still one of my dearest friends and I miss her very much (she currently lives in another state).  I hope and pray that this friendship will continue life-long.  

The BBC News estimates that we can handle between about 6-12 close friends in our lives.  Aristotle says that we are not truly friends until we have "eaten salt together", or spent enough time to be able to call ourselves friends.  I'm not sure how this number is going to work out for me, but whilst in ministry, and especially while we're living in a Bible college community, I'm going to try not to put up too many barriers to creating new and hopefully some deep, friendships.

Photo is by ol'pete on Flickr.

Children are for Sharing

Life can be pretty fun with small children, and after the week that I've had, also extremely frustrating and tiring, but on the whole Fun.  Their little voices are just so cute  as they giggle and play and snuggle up to read a book (or eat one, depending on their age and stage).  I've become increasingly convinced, however, that children are also for sharing.

We get told that we are a 'global village', but I think the every day reality as you walk down the street, especially in a big city, is one of individualism and busyness.  We can retreat into our own little worlds and struggle to connect with others, especially people we've never met before.  Children, however, can burn through all of that like a laser beam.  I now really try to take the time, whilst counselling Hannah to "Sit down... Stay where Mummy can see you... Put that back on the shelf - you can look, but don't touch," to see who is watching my kids and, if appropriate, take the opportunity to have a chat with them.  There's nothing like a 2 year old "changing bug's (a toy we take in the pram) nappy" in the waiting room, while your waiting to see a GP to connect with those around you and brighten their day.  It's such a natural way to strike up conversations as people start by asking their ages, and then keep on chatting.  I've been amazed at some of the more personal things people have told me, because being friendly and having kids with me seems to mark me out as someone trustworthy.  And the kids, aside from bringing smiles and giggles to those around them, can have a ministry all of their own.  One that sometimes I can learn from.

I remember my brother and sister-in-law telling me that their oldest son came home from school one day and declared that during lunch he had told his friend Jimmy that "he was going to go to hell because he didn't believe in Jesus."  While I wouldn't generally recommend that as an evangelism method, it certainly is direct!  One of my other favourite stories comes from an email that was circulating a few years ago.  Some of the details may be a bit off, but the gist is that a mother was busy working in her kitchen when she looked out the window and saw her 3 year old son sitting out on the porch of their next door neighbour's house, snuggled up on the elderly gent's lap.  She hoped that he wasn't being too annoying, because the old man had just lost his wife of fifty years.  Eventually the boy hopped down and came back home.  His Mum asked him what he had been doing next door and the little boy said, "Mr Jones is very sad, so I was helping him cry."

I hope that I can be so free to rejoice with others when they rejoice, and mourn with them when they mourn.

WAY More Flies with Vinegar!

We've been having a fruit fly problem in our kitchen recently.  It was driving me crazy.  Every time I went to the sink or reached for a sponge and small black cloud of fruit fly would alight and disperse around the kitchen, flying in their frustratingly unpredictable patterns.  They were also having a field day in our fruit bowl, laying their nasty little eggs in the fruit that was supposed to make us fit and healthy. 


 Initially I went for the swiping hand-clap technique of killing them, however it soon became evident that that just wasn't going to work. After a small amount of googling, out came the now tried and tested vinegar trap.  Basically, you put some vinegar in a bowl, cover it with cling wrap and then poke some holes in it with a skewer.  The flies smell the fermenting bouquet of eau de vinegar, crawl in through the tiny holes and then find that they can't get out again.  Simple. Easy. Smelly.


But I thought you were supposed to "catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar"?  Apparently not.  All this got me thinking about the nature of the gospel.  More specifically it really reminded me of the truth of 2 Corinthians 2:15-17 which says, “ For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God."  


I think a lot of times, when we really understand the seemingly abrasive nature of the gospel and it's call that none of us are good enough to please God, but that we have all fallen short of his glory and must rely entirely on Jesus' death on our behalf to be made right with God, we can seek to soften this when we share it with people. We can seek to sweeten it up by not explaining the starkness of our state before God if we choose to rule our own lives, or to downplay the hardships of the Christian life by laying on the honey that "if you follow Jesus then your life will be problem free".


In our society, where appearance is everything, as Christians, we are to resist the urge to sweeten the gospel truth.  Yes, we are to come before God with nothing and continually rely on Him to do everything to save us.  Yes, the Christian life will be hard and we should expect to be persecuted for following Christ.  But also, we are called to preach a true gospel.  A gospel in which we are counted to be co-heirs with Christ, given every spiritual blessing and saved eternally.  It's a message that is caustic to the rest of the world, but to those that catch it's scent, it is the sweetness of Life itself.

Photo by MightyBoyBrian on Flickr

Scenes from the Summer

From Gunnedah to Skye and Beechworth to Briar Hill, it's been a big Summer.  Here's a quick glimpse into how we spent it.

Defusing the Clutter-Bomb

Stuff, stuff, stuff. I don't know about you, but I feel like our life is drowning in Stuff at the moment. Stuff of the tangible kind, especially after spending Christmas interstate with 2 small children and some very generous relatives. Sadly it's not a new phenomenon however - when we moved to Sydney, we shifted 40-something boxes from our tiny two bedroom unit. Even the moving men expressed a large degree of surprise at how we were able to fit that much Stuff in our home to begin with.

Being away for 3 weeks and living largely out of 3 bags has made me realise all the more just how much we have that we really don't use, let alone need and possibly even want! Add to that we're still living in a 2 bedroom unit, albeit a fair bit bigger than our Melbourne digs. My plan for this year, well, hopefully the next month or so, is to work through our home and sort out what we really want/need and get RID of the rest, be it through ebay, freecycle or offering good Stuff to our neighbours.

So very much Stuff, and yet I still find myself obsessively searching ebay for a good deal on an espresso machine... I think it's going to take me a while before I get this whole Stuff/materialism thing really sorted.

Image by A.Currell from Flickr

A Grand Day Out

Recently we took our train-loving 2 year old to The Train Shed at the Vicary's Winery in Luddenham. Needless to say she was bouncing up and down as we got out of the car and could barely contain herself as we took of the ride on Thomas. Mavis was the first train there as arrived at the 'station' and after looking a little perturbed about not knowing who Mavis was (she hasn't actually seen or read very much Thomas), we climbed aboard.

To add to the drama of the day, we were promptly involved in a derailment on the bend approaching the tunnel - naughty Mavis jumped off the track - but we were quickly set right and headed off again. They have five different Thomas trains and I think all of them were running at some point while we were there. We also had an Ouffer voucher that gave us a free children's meal (4 chicken nuggets and a juice box, but Hannah was happy with that) and 2 devonshire teas for my husband and I. While it was a 'make yourself' tea (or instant coffee - though you could pay to upgrade to a cappuccino/latte), the scones were Huge and they were very generous with the cream and jam (much do the frustration of the self-control for 2 people trying to lose weight...). The staff were really friendly and Hannah loved it. Her only concern was that she wanted to drive the train. We have another voucher, so were looking forward to going some time again before April. It isn't super cheap, with 4 rides (lasting about 7 minutes each) costing $18, but it is a fun morning/afternoon with little ones.

The next train we're planning on riding though, is the Toilet Train(ing), which is sure to be a wild ride, hopefully without too many derailments...

In the Quiet Moments

I have been feeling quite overwhelmed lately with just how much I love my children. They are currently 2 and 5 months. Now that the first few harder months have passed with my son and we're getting some more sleep overnight, I feel like life is settling into a routine and we're feeling a lot more "normal". We've developed a routine lately of having a little snuggle just before he goes down to sleep for the night. I lay him on my bed to get him zipped into his swaddle and then lay down next to him to give him some kisses and tickles. I can't explain just how much joy seeing him also enjoy my closeness brings me. It's just a little quiet moment, but so very precious.

I get a similar feeling with my daughter when I get her up from her naps and she just gives me a big relaxed, full body, head-on-my-shoulder hug - it's bliss. Or else when we're in a new place and she comes and wraps herself around my leg because she's feeling a bit wary, the knowledge that I am her place of safety and that feeling of closeness is so very special.

I love those small quiet moments.