Mum and Mawwage

What a weekend! My dear mother-in-law, Emilia celebrated her birthday. She is such a precious part of my life - and in the life of so many others... in fact the cake in this picture was given to her by a neighbour who also just loves her dearly and wanted her to have it with the kids ! Not only a Godly example to me of trust in the Lord through the challenges of life (and recently loosing her beloved husband) but an absolutely wonderful help to me as a Mum - always serving, always looking for ways to lighten my load, to help little ones when they have sniffles, always encouraging them to try their best .... oh I could go on...

I just love her!



This weekend David and I celebrated ten years of marriage! Thanks Lord for these ten years - all the fantastic times - the snuggles, the sharing of life and for getting us through the tough times (for helping my husband put up with my weird and wacky side, my foibles, my sins, my emotional ups and downs and my smelly feet!) and for helping us to look back and see the Lord's hand in it all. My husband always has a ready hug, an intellectual comment, some big shoulders and such a steady, faithful love for me and more importantly for the Lord. I am blessed beyond words!

Ten years!







We went away for a night and enjoyed some quiet time in a lovely apartment with views over the river! We even saw the Kookaburra Queen go by... where my very nervous David proposed ten years ago!

Secret agent Joshua on a mission

We have been hearing all about the fantastic time Joshua and Owen have had at Kid's Club this week. Josh has been coming home, learning memory verses and filling us in on some of the stories he has been hearing each day. The theme for the week was related to robots, secret agents and space (just what a boy like mine loves!)...using the Bible story of Esther, some other ones (I guess I will hear more about these this week) and something about an asteroid about to hit planet earth (hmmm... I guess the stories all hang together but this is how my son interpreted the week :) Here is my very handsome secret agent:

Forget not the goodness of our God

Soaking up some beauty, soaking up the goodness of our Lord, soaking up some time as a family..

For the beauty of the earth...

noisy neighbours

We've had some noisy neighbours lately. Every so often we hear one cocky tell another something and then a whole flock of them gather round at an agreed upon place and start chatting away and having a great family reunion. This time it was in our neighbours tree. Joshua and I went racing outside to see them up close... a very timely treat as Joshua has been studying about birds - their markings, calls, their habitat and the way they fly...

Check out our neighbours:

I think if there is anything we have learned about these cockatoos it is this:

• Cockatoos really know how to communicate to eachother


• They like eating green passionfruit (they came swooping down to our vine last year and dropped the bits they didn't like on the tin patio roof... Womp Womp Womp!


• They are very noisy and lack manners!


• They fight a lot with eachother about which branches are best


• They have favourite types of trees but will all get together to grab fruit when it is at its peak. How do they know that the passionfruit is just the way they like it - and then tell eachother?? - I am just amazed at how God has made creatures with all these little tricks... mind boggling to the non-scientific type mind like mine!

Social Graces and Civility

We have been discussing manners in our house today... what are some good manners, how they have changed over time (and boy have they changed... will get to that in a moment). Joshua wrote out some manners /habits that he wants to work on and I read through some manners that George Washington outlined in Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour
http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/manners/rules2.cfm. On a funny note here are a couple that gave me the chuckles (I have tried to change the spelling a bit as its original spelling is old Englishy:

• Shake not the head, feet or legs, rowl not the eyes, lift not one eyebrow higher than the other. Wry not the mouth and bedew no mans face with your spittle, by approaching to near him when you speak

• Kill no vermin as fleas, lice or ticks in the sight of others, if you see any filth or thick spittle, put your foot dexteriously upon it if it be upon the clothes of your companions. Put if off privately, and if it be upon your own clothes, return thanks to him who puts it off.

• If you cough, sneeze, sigh or yawn, do it not loud but privately; and speak not in your yawning, but put your handkerchief or hand before your face and turn aside.

• Read no letters, books or papers in company but when there is a necessity for the doing of it you must ask leave: come not near the books or writings of another so as to read them unless desired or give your opinion of them unasked. Also look not nigh when another is writing a letter

I could go on and on but what has struck me most (on a serious note) is that this was written by George Washington sometime before he was 16.

On Monday I took the children to the hospital on the bus for Owen's appointment. On the way home a huge group of highschool students jumped on the bus. The remainder of the journey I was desperately hoping my impressionable seven year old would not comprehend or repeat the filthy talk I heard from the mouth of some boys in front. Honestly I was dumbfounded ! The things the boys were saying to eachother was so degrading and foul. And I would say these boys were about 16 or so...

So I guess I can appreciate a little more why elderly folks tend to say that kids today have no respect/ are bad mannered....

Of course this isn't the situation for all teenagers. It just got me thinking about integrity/spirituality and respect... food for thought and things to pray for my children....

Precious moments

Some precious moments from my day. I was afraid these precious moments might be gone by the time I grabbed the camera from its case!

Not sure how much reading you managed to do, Owen :) I just love these sweet moments - just stood and watched the two enjoying eachother's company!

Happy Birthday Cousin!

Some of the highlights from the weekend:

Cousin Tim's Party! Joshua's cousin, Tim turned 6 on the weekend and had a soccer theme party. I think the highlight for me was the look on Tim's face when he saw the cake his Mummy made! Angela - you did such a fantastic job and Tim just loved it!

Joshua also played very well at a Piano Festival. All that hard practise and help from Grandma, Dad and Mum with music theory (it takes three of us (mostly non-music literate) to try and help understand music theory - Grandpa (very musical) used to help with this...)

Little sister is proud of you too, Josh:

Lovable Mischief!

These are the two cheeky little smooches that have been keeping me on my toes of late! I think if you look closely you will see that cheeky little twinkle in the eye (you captured it well Uncle Peter!)

Catch up

General run down of some recent events (just to catch up)

Colour matching games with Owen and Rosa



Visiting Great Grandma



Staining and Reviving an old cupboard I picked up (eventually for Rosa's room)



We also have party inherited Dad Campbell's van which is at this very moment at a fitters having seats added for our family. We are quite excited about the fact that we can actually use the van to take an extra person or two or three - up until now all seats have been taken so this will be quite a treat.

I am thoroughly enjoying my new ladies Bible study - getting into the nitty gritty of the book of Matthew.

Hmm... sorry for the bitsy look at life - just so many things have been happening it is hard to catch up on them all!

Chocolate experiment

David recently asked Joshua to choose a Science experiment from his book that they could do together for fun. There were quite a few to choose from. Well... lo and behold there was an experiment involving chocolate. Daddy didn't need to be asked twice about that one - they both raced to the fridge (literally!) and were delighted to find a few bits of chocolate - perfect for their experiment!!! They learned all about solids and liquids ... or should I say they learned about how sweet chocolate tastes - whether it is warm and gooey or solid and hard!

And if you're wondering whether this is all an excuse to eat chocolate - there is proof that this really is a scientific experiment (see the photo below)!! So if you want your kids to rush to do some Science on their public holiday - just try this one. No objections guaranteed!