Prayer October 30 2016

We praise you God, creator of earth and heaven. You are so big, so powerful, so glorious, you are incomprehensible to us and our little brains. Even when we are gathered here to sing your praise we are distracted by our own worries. Help us to lift our minds to you. To try and take in the God whose glory is like thunder over a raging ocean; whose voice breaks huge trees and shakes the earth; who sits enthroned as a King and all in his temple shout GLORY. We praise you because you deserve and demand it, you aren’t a God we can ignore when it suits us. You have reached down to the low. You have worked a great salvation throughout all of history and all over the world. For you are good and your love endures forever. Your faithfulness continues through all generations.

As for us. We are born dead in sin. Captive to our selfish sinful natures. No amount of religion or being nice people would bring us anywhere near the perfection of your glory. By Jesus alone, by believing in him and trusting in his perfect life and accepting his sacrifice to save us, we have relationship with you, our Father. Nothing more or less than Jesus, who is over all and through all and in all.

Show us how to be like Jesus. Show us the twisted remains of our sinful natures that still fight with us, and the layers of lies we don’t even know about yet. Bring us to grieve and repent of them. We confess times that we are yet selfish, proud, self-righteous, cowardly, gossipy, mean or resentful. We are sorry for the people we have hurt or the good works we have avoided. Please continue to change us by your holy spirit to make us fit for every good work. Fill our minds with whatever is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable.

Father, there are good things we want to thank you for now. We think of other local churches. Hunter Bible Church in newcastle who supported us in the early days of our church plant and have been faithful to the gospel for over 20 years. We pray for the brothers and sisters there to be humble in unity and in seeking to welcome others. 

We also thank you for other churches in Maitland and in particular Real Life Church, and ask that in your strength and wisdom they are faithful to the gospel, active in doing good, and shining brightly to the lost. And we thank you for our own church, and in particular we thank you for our senior high youth, The Vine. We thank you for the faithfulness of those leaders and for young people taking time each weekend to think about how to read and obey your word. Thank you for the ways they serve us by setting up dinner tables and helping pack up after church.

And now we ask you Father for your help. We pray for our community street party, and T and those organising it. Please bring together all the skills and materials needed to make it run well and please bring people from our community together to hear about you and see a gospel community in action. 

We pray for a world that needs Jesus. A world of sin, hate and brokenness, separated from God. We ask you for more opportunities to speak about Jesus’ love, for the holy spirit to change hearts, and for patience to wait until Jesus returns and makes all things right. 

We Pray for the nation of Pakistan. Christians in Pakistan often face extreme persecution from radical Islamic groups, their own government and even friends and family. There are laws preventing people from speaking against Islam, which make it dangerous to proclaim Jesus. Christians are imprisoned, attacked and given only menial jobs. There have been several attacks on churches and Christian homes have also been destroyed. Hundreds of Christian women have been targeted for sexual harassment and assault. You see all these things. We pray now for

• Christians who have suffered violence as a result of their faith, that God would bring them peace and healing. 
• the many Christians who are fleeing Pakistan, that they would have safe passage to peaceful nations.

Finally. Please help R preach in your strength tonight and think clearly despite being a little sick. Help us to listen and consider your truths as he speaks and be convicted by the Holy Spirit to change our lives to be more like Jesus. 

We bring everything to you in Jesus name, Amen.

Novembering.

It's almost the end of the month and I've got some free time this warm saturday afternoon, so instead of doing Jillian, I shall do my monthly photo browse, reflection and blog.

It's been a bit of an off month in some ways. Maddie was away on prac for 4 weeks so I lived alone. I had a few weeks of computer issues at work so that was frustrating.

We kept having the hot days so about half the plants in the wall garden have died. But if I can get one row of 10 plants established to last through the summer, I'll be happy. The herb garden section is doing pretty well actually. I just have to be more patient with the daisy plants I transplanted. I bought 4 gardenias marked down to $5 each at Big W and they are still alive. My current project is to collect some bricks or pavers to pave in front of my window, which is where I want to start a pot garden. That's where the sun loving plants will grow. I went to a junkyard today and looked at recycled bricks but they are $1.50 each! So I was looking at at least $300, which is a lot more expensive than new pavers from bunnings, which would work out at about $70. 

So here are some photos from the month. Mia and I with our garden headwear for melb cup day.

I had a flex day to service the car. I dropped the car off, it would take 4 hours, then I walked to Maitland. I did some op shop hunting. I had to wait for the art gallery to open so I had brunch there, this was lovely. Pear, yoghurt, coconut bread, flowers.

There are some mural prints which I like. Definitely local.

Sweet peas and pansies from my garden. I've loved flowers this year. Have bought them, grown them and been given them.

The trivia event of the year! Nuts And Smarties won! I really enjoy this night even though it's all old person trivia. I will never know the prime ministers of Australia or the rivers of the world.

I'm consolidating and culling my craft. I threw out a box of random wool and sorted the good stuff into these large boxes from Howards. Card making box, art box, other box. I need another box. It takes up less space now.

I signed up to take two Japanese Ag students for a weekend homestay. I thought it was a good opportunity to practice hospitality to strangers. We went to the beach, Morpeth, my parents, and church. I think it went really well and they were lovely girls, happy and easy-going.

When Maddie got back last night it was delightful. We went and picked up some hay bales then had Bao at the food truck in Maitland then put up our decorations on our christmas branch. So lovely to have her back and sing to music and do homey things.

So it's been an odd month. Work has been quiet, with people away and broken computer, and home has been quiet without Maddie, and life has been a tiring routine, but I've just realised this week that it's actually all about to change gears. Maddie is back so home returns to normal, and everything is coming to an end for the year. Yesterday I suddenly had that feeling that it's the end of the year. 2016 is pretty much over. That time is all gone! Only a couple of weeks of work left to try and get things done, cello and home group will end for the year, and that's a wrap. What have I done this year? It was a very stable year. Nothing super good or super bad. Collected chairs and plants and musical instruments, stayed healthy, grew friendships, decided to have short hair, and other things I've probably blogged.

October round up! Part the second.

Lucky there is a long Bachelorette finale to have on while I blog.

I had an opportunity to do something nice for my colleagues, which was a bee themed morning tea to congratulate some team members on the native bee book. I bought in my whopper teapot and helped with food and picked a big bunch of native flowers and painted some cards the boss could write in and present to my colleagues. 

That’s not all, the next week I put together a Bachelorette themed morning tea with some colleagues for the campus social club. It was cheesy and amazing. Chocolate dipped strawberries, fairy lights, everyone had to pick a bachelor for the raffle.

I scored the decoration roses for my desk afterwards!!!!!!!!! I can't have roses in my tiny garden I think, so enjoying them was a treat. And garden roses are so different to florist roses. So generous, and showy and scented, not just perfect uniform rosebuds.

Can't stay away from my garden for long. I've been looking online at Wallgarden and other types of vertical garden system. I had rigged wire mesh to the fence. A friend cancelled her plan to visit from Sydney so I consoled myself with a trip to Poppys garden centre in newcastle to buy multi hang pots. They are pretty well designed to hang easily and be moved around. It was a few hours work in the rain on Saturday to dig up plants from the garden and plant them in the pots and hang them on the fence. I'm pleased with the results, I think the plants will cover a lot of fence if they don't die, and I can add more pots later!

Then there is the annual ED workshop, my work team from around NSW meets together for a couple of days with bosses and does seminars and things. I had nothing to present this time except a get to know you game, which was pretty fun and easy. So I was just looking forward to a trip down to the Riverina, learning some stuff and seeing new things, and my office hosted the Togies. I might blog a report of that separately.

We flew to Nerrandra in  Rex. Sydney always looks amazing from above. And then I noticed all the sort of agriculture we flew over. A lot of greenhouse horticulture on the outskirts of the city, then green green flat fields, a bit puddly and flood ruined in some areas.

I had the biggest pub meal of my life, a lamb shank. This is me on the home straight. I took the opportunity to stock up on red meat.

We stayed in a old, faded, historic hotel in Leeton. Charming.

Glen from Trangie and I played a duet, cello and viola. It was great for me to have something like that to work towards, my first string duet. Some of my colleagues said they really loved it. Looking at the video one of them took I was smiling the whole time so I must have enjoyed it too. It went well, notes-wise, no mistakes.

I ate a lot, but I went for a walk each morning. The area is amazing for flowers. Roses, and irises and things.

On our last afternoon we visited an iris farm run by our college in Wagga. I've bought a few and they've grown this year but haven't flowered yet. When it's time I will dig them up and plant them in pots in a sunnier spot. Then it was a flight to Sydney and a long mini-bus ride back to Tocal, arriving painfully travel-weary at 9pm. It was a really successful trip and workshop.

And finally, Mum re-taught me how to knit so I can knit myself a new pair of wrist warmers.

October roundup! Part the first.

I know I've got to much to catch up on, it's been a lovely full month. It's so nice to go through the last month of photos and see the things that I've got to do. It's been a triumphant month, in a quiet way.

I thought it has been a really long time since I saw a concert or play or anything in Sydney, and I plan to see something big each year. I have seen local things like Earnest this year, but I want to maintain some touch with the big experiences you get in Sydney. I really like My Fair Lady so decided to jump on that. Providentially I asked G to come with me and randomly picked her birthday! 

Monday was a public holiday so I drove to Cronulla and saw Julia which was lovely. The area was packed because of the grand final win but luckily we got a seat at a cafe and had a good brunch and a little walk to the bay. It was a lovely day.

In the arvo I drove to Birkenhead point. I’ve been trying to replace my really old sneakers for years, and BP has a Ziera outlet. They don’t have a huge range and it’s not the coolest left overs, but amazingly I got a pair of brown sneakers basically what I was looking for. New for old!

I checked out all the other shops too. Some shops were too crowded and I’m no longer keen on crowded shops. The only thing that caught my eye was this doona cover on sale at Laura Ashley. I went away and thought about it while I looked at the other shops, and it was the only thing I wanted. I went back, and the queen size was sold! But I bought the display off the bed :) I don’t regret buying it. It’s not something I needed to look for, but whenever I see my bed it looks so pretty, even when it’s not made.

I told George that Ziera had big shoe sizes and was worth checking out and that led to shopping joy for her the next weekend :)

G had dinner with her mum for her birthday but Denise was free! So we had dumplings in Ashfield and it was a lovely catchup. I wasn’t planning to see a different friend for every meal this visit, but I’m thankful to have been able to line up with Denise at the last minute. 

On Tuesday we went to the zoo in the morning, with Karen and her girls. We didn't have very long but its not a big zoo so we saw some good things quickly. The seal show was really good, and the baby gorilla was cute/weird.

G and I had our lunch at the ferry station thing, and got the ferry to CQ. It was really perfect to be catching the ferry across the harbour with a view of the opera house, to go to the opera house!

Couldn't take photos of the show but the sets were beautiful (from the back row) and the singing was perfect.

Did some useful shopping quickly up in the CBD, like a saucepan lid and a bottle of shampoo and I forget what else. Had birthday dinner with G, then I did PT back over the harbour to the zoo carpark and drove home.

Ahh, what a diversion. Back to my day to day life! Which is... GARDEN!

The snow peas finished, I've planted new seeds and tomatoes.

I felt my new camellia was going to be better in a different place to where I planted it.

  
So I straight away started digging up grass. As in straight away after work on Thursday until it got dark, and then I went to Bunnings for timber on Friday night and dug up trenches, and put my garden edging level in the trenches on Saturday morning. 

I used Eddie’s heavy tools and level, and asked DB to come around on Sunday and drill the pieces together after I had them in place. I reckon I built 95% of it myself, I knew what I was doing, and it was great to have someone do the drilling for me at the end. I moved the camellia in place and voila! Actually a couple of weeks later I decided to put some star posts and wire in behind the camellia so as it grows I can encourage it sideways.

Mulberry season!

Sweet peas season! I keep a bunch on my kitchen table and on my bedside table. Lovely to see them around and get a whiff of their perfume.

I've done a desk makeover. I tidied up. Then I realised that a piece of material I bought from Spotlight for the house was the right size for my cubicle wall so I tape it up. It looks fabulous and designy, because the cubicle walls are a bit drab and shabby it's really given my cubby a lift.

End part the first.

Obsessions.

Life is quiet, so I've got nothing to blog but my ponderings.

Something I just realised, I haven't been buying freddos all year. I used to regularly buy bags of Freddos to keep in my desk drawer at work. so that I could eat one after lunch with a cup of tea. Boring lunch but a tasty dessert afterwards. I broke the lunchtime chocolate habit over the summer holidays and decided to not buy any more drawer chocokate, but just buy a fundraiser if I really wanted something. So in the end, I've eaten a lot less chocolate this year and saved money. That's something I can be quite proud of, desk chocolate has been a long term habit.

Current obsession: how to eat better for my gut for my skin. Gut friendly diets are the current thing, and I'm jumping on board with that. Hoping that my itchy skin will improve if I have happier gut bacteria. I have to say, I've had a small win this year with skin, a colleague suggested Chickweed ointment for the itchy fingers, and I got it (after failing many a recommended natural remedy such as moo goo or beeswax based creams) and blow me down, it's pretty good. It is dark and smelly, but it sooths the itch as well as steroid cream does. I've been using it since the end of April. It's not a cure, no cream is a cure, but it is effective and soothing the itch.

Anyway, I've been leaning my diet in a healthy direction this year. I heard a guy on the ABC talking about gut health and saying the mediterranean diet is the best place to start, lots of vegetables, good oils, avoid processed foods, cut down on meat. That sounded doable. I think it is a well-balanced diet. I'm not super strict about it, but it's the baseline anyway. The next step is, decrease sugar and try some of those fermented foods that good bacteria love. unsweetened yoghurt, kimchi, etc. I'm not sure how I'll incorporate those regularly, they sound weird. But that's my next step.

I'm on a bit of a campaign to minimalise some stuff around the house. The new rule is, NO SPARES! No spare stuff. The only time you need a spare is if being without would ruin your day. So spare tire, good. Spare key. Yes. Spare toilet paper, yes yes yes yes. But spare sunscreen, spare food, no. I'm on a mission to work through the redundant contents of my pantry, freezer and bathroom cupboards. I actually use very few things week to week. It's just the assumption that I buy things for the future instead of for this week.

I was obsessed with online clothes browsing, but I didn't buy anything. Swapping winter clothes away for summer clothes under the bed helped, feels like new wardrobe, even though I haven't worn them. Got enough clothes. NO SPARES applicable.

There is more daylight so I feel like there is time to breathe in the day. There are a lot of things that feel better in natural light. Garden things, reading, housework.

I bought an audiobook called Work Clean, about how chefs are really organised and good at planning and achieving. I haven't got that far in. A common theme of all organisational management methods I've heard about is to make your day to day tasks feed your big goal. Work is more satisfying if you aren't just being busy, but working towards something and marking off progress. I think one useful thing I've absorbed from this book is your actions are easier if your environment is well planned. It's something I'm becoming more aware of. I've come up with an ingenious basket for my laptop charger and backup that hangs off the bottom of the table, so it's neither cluttering the table nor inconveniently put away. Win! So like, if something is annoying, just fix it. My iCal was annoying because I usually want to add things to my personal calendar but the default was adding things to my work calendar. I finally fixed that.

I wonder if I'm becoming too independent. My life is really good, and I don't really need anybody else. At the moment I am quite dismissive of marriage, and even friendships are a mixed blessing. I do pretty well on my own. Is that good or sad, I don't know.

Martha and Mary thoughts.

First, some excellent wisdom from a friend today. I've had a few clashes with different people, which on the bright side I think I'm getting a tougher skin, but it's a bit demoralising when generally I think I try very hard to be there for people, be reliable, do what I'm asked to do. Turns out I've even probably offended someone at work by giving them advice about how to print something. That one I'm not worried about, my professional advice is valid, but I guess it's always possible to be more tactful. So anyway, here is the wisdom I place here for myself to see in the future.

1. Acknowledge what the other person has said
2. Refrain from giving an opinion unless they want it or you think necessary or you want to create discussion
3. If giving it, give in a gentle manner, or phrase it so that it shows your concern etc etc

Hmmm, now thinking about this more. Most people don't care what we think, unless they specifically ask us.

I had an accumulated tiredness or worry or something, so many things on, full weekends, no space to think for a month or two, getting anxious about what to do with upcoming events (do I go to a wedding in Brisbane? When will I visit Heather? When will I go to Mudgee this year? I have so many people to text about things!) and I decided I just need some space. If I get some space and calm down it's easier to confront things.

I had a sudden thought at home group and went home and deleted the Twitter app off my phone. The reason I got a smartphone and got twitter was when I left Sydney I knew it would be a great way to keep in touch with Sydney friends. And it has been. But I don't really have time to check it, and I think the usefulness in that support has decreased. I'm keeping the account so I can check on my computer at home and at work, and keep tweeting @whatpercydoes, but deleting the app off my phone has been quite good, I haven't missed it and I've found it faster to get out of bed in the morning instead of reading articles in my twitter stream.

Then I took Wednesday off work. Middle of the week is a great time to have a day off because it makes the beginning and the end shorter and more bearable! First of all, I didn't sleep in. I got up and went to a cafe for breakfast and read a chapter of Disciplines of a Godly Woman. That was a good start because it mentioned Martha and hit the nail on the head. So many things! Getting anxious! Jesus says ONLY ONE THING IS NEEDED. We need to challenge each other about this. It's hard to be wise about because of all the good things you have to sift through and sometimes say no to, to have time for the one thing. Relationships, acts of service, etc.

So anyway, I had my breakfast out, and then I BLASTED a whole lot of life admin by just pottering around! I had a locksmith over, dealt with my mortgage (had to choose a new fixed rate term), received a delivery of wine (JK and I joined a wine club at the food and wine expo), planted cherry tomatoes, did cello practice, wrote a few emails, baked cookies, took my spare TV to the tip, went to the movies and say Love and Friendship, got a hot chocolate, watched a bit of Netflix, did Jillian, watched Bachelor, went to bed early. I guess I did a lot, but I also didn't do a bunch of other things and that's OK. It was an energising day.

I find landfill sad. I like decluttering but the thought of my beloved old bag or trousers being dumped in a pile and buried is really sad. Confronting. A good thing to remember when I'm obsessed with a new bag, which I am. My main soothing pastime now is to watch TV while browsing online stores for yellow clothes. I don't know what that says about me.

These two trees in Raytay are the marriage trees, where people got married before there was a church in the town.

Had a home group girls night at my place, decorating pizza and painting our nails and talking, and hearing about CAP money.

I had a very empty weekend and Saturday was sunny and windy so I basically washed load after load of clothes and bedding. Nice to open the house up and get rid of some winter dust. The house isn't clean enough for my liking, that's another thing that's weighing me down. But I'm busy living and it's not so bad that I can't have people over. I would just feel better, in my mind, if it was cleaner and tidy.

Went to a church blues night at a bowlo. I wasn't going to go because of the whole 'it's too hard to organise people to go with me' thing. I tried to get people to come with me to a music thing a few weeks ago and it was disappointing. I can't be bothered trying at the moment. I've been to the movies twice by myself in one week and that was great. I'm OK not going to things. But, I went because I got a lift with Maddie's mum and her friends, and I hung out with Maddie there which was actually really nice. We shared a huge bowl of wedges, and got up and danced like crazy people for one song.

On Sunday, I worked on my personal project, a Regency Dress. The time has come! I have some worn out sheets so the top sheet has plenty of wear in it for a dress. This is about halfway, I think. I need help fitting it, and when it fits I'll dye it and add a ribbon sash. I may wear it to a birthday party where the theme is mid-life crisis. I can't think of anything good, and Austen is often my escape from life.

And so that's all. I'm going pretty well in a lot of ways. I'm content in my singleness, I am still enjoying my job, I love my home. I'm mainly trying to figure out where I can cut back and how I can have a better time praying and reading.