Prayer August 2016

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[b] predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he[d] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

Lord God and Father, 

We gather every week in the name of the Lord Jesus as sinful, forgiven people. We basically ignore you God, and we turn up here every week with fresh sin, fresh proof that we live as if we are the gods of our lives and other people. You see the real sin inside us.

We’ve seen in Romans that you are just to punish every one of us as we deserve, but you are faithful to your covenant, you have shown mercy on us, and mercy to people all over the world. Make us amazed at your salvation, make it always fresh and powerful as we remember again and again that we are sinful, and we are forgiven, especially after we leave here tonight and start our weekly routine again. May you be gracious to us and bless us; look on us with favour, so that Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.

Lord we thank you that we can partner with others in making Jesus known to the nations. We thank you for K in France and her commitment to learn French language and culture to serve the church there. We thank you for the people who have gone out from us to different places to meet the needs of people in the local church as well as those who need to hear about Jesus. 

We thank you for our pastors and leaders, please keep them strong in their faith, and help them to work together in love and humility to make wise decisions and to keep everything fixed on Jesus. We pray for the B family to enjoy some refreshment together as R takes a week off. 

We pray for the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, our sister churches, and the upcoming annual conference which will bring the churches together from all over Australia. We pray that it will be a time of good fellowship in the gospel, and that all the churches will be encouraged to stay focussed on the gospel and the vision of seeing the kingdom of God grow all around Australia. We thank you for all the churches in the fellowship, and praise you that over a short number of years you have grown your kingdom through these new young churches.

God, you are the father of the fatherless, and your church is a family that must be like you, welcoming all who seek justice and material help. We thank you for the opportunity to care for the Afghan asylum seekers in our community and we particularly pray for M who no longer has any support from the government to stay here. We thank you for news this week that a lawyer has been appointed and we ask for compassion from our government and the people of Australia on him and many other desperate people. We pray for T and others as they continue to care for the boys.

We pray for ourselves, that we will listen to your word, that your Holy Spirit will work it into our hearts, and that we will be changed week by week to be more like Jesus. Give us opportunities to make your word known to our friends, compassion to understand others, and wisdom to reject the lies of the world. 

We ask all these things in the name of the lord Jesus, that everything might be for his glory, and we submit to your perfect will to answer our prayers, knowing that you work all things for the good of those who love you.

Amen.

August. Pacing myself.

I struggled to get back into work after my holiday. Before holiday, I was acting team leader, so work was busy, then the wedding, then the holiday with all the driving, so when I got back, I really wanted another couple of days. But there was a Rural Resilience Team workshop I had to prepare something for and attend. It involved each of us doing a 2 min presentation. Mine went well. There was good networking. I got to see the people involved in some of the projects I design for. 

Then I took Friday off. I did chilled out things at home, bought expensive new bamboo cotton bed sheets (from an outlet) because my very very old ones tore, had a hot chocolate and did some sudoku, went for a jog with Cass, and got a haircut. The haircut was the highlight because I "auditioned" a hairdresser and was very pleased with their work. This bob has a steeper angle up at the back.

After that day off, it was night church weekend away. I decided to conserve energy this year because it's not my favourite thing. I've figured out that I can manage events where I go home after the session, but night church camp has no escape, no boundaries, it's pretty much designed for extroverts who like board games. So I did not go on Friday night, I slept in my own bed. On Saturday morning I collected the fresh bread and the forgotten groceries from Woolies and arrived for the talk. On Saturday afternoon I chatted to people happily for a while, then I went to my cabin and had a phone call with JB. That was a good way to do things. I went off to bed at 8.30. Still, by Sunday, I was crabby, so I left straight after lunch and recovered at home with tea and finished Stranger Things, which I loved. Everybody loves Stranger Things.

The annual stunning photo from the Tahlee jetty pool. We actually saw dolphins in the bay.

The next week at work was very tired, I buried myself in an ebook about fungi, and ignored everything else, which was really good. I finished the book, so I've got something to show for the month. There was a death at the college which was very shocking and sad, and the effects are still playing out.

Last Saturday was the hunter Word in Song conference. The talks were fantastic. The workshops were probably good but I get nothing much out of them because I've done them all, seriously all of them, even drumming. I did songwriting for the second time. It was good to go though, spending time with the church band I'm about to join.]

On Sunday I was solo, and I walked to Maitland to have lunch at the Aroma food market then caught the train home.

This week I've been fully charged! Jumping easily from job to job at work, doing good creative work,  after work I've caught up on personal jobs like sorting out what sheet music I need to print and trying to organise my tax stuff, and I've done Jillian and cello as well. It's good to have energy to do things and not have them looming over me.

Things I'm looking forward to:

• Starting to play piano at church.
• Making a Jane Austen costume from my old sheets. I need to find a pattern. I have enough time to make it, and a costume event to wear it, so it's going to happen! Then one less thing to do before I'm dead.

July. Christmas, wedding hair and skiing.

Blogging is something I like to do when I download photos off my phone and reflect on the memories. It’s unfortunate when I have a run of full weekends and I have no time to do it, the job gets bigger and less enjoyable and more of an obligation, but I’m going to still do it anyway even if it happens only monthly. 

The first thing that I’m pleased to rediscover from July photos is the Christmas dinner party that a couple at church had. It was unusually fun. Pretty much all church things have an element of duty to them, everything is an opportunity to talk to a new person or care for someone. This dinner was duty free. When I looked at the invite list on Facebook I thought “oh, those are all fun people!” and the atmosphere on the night was rare, it was an excitement to be with each other. It’s not that we are all best mates, in fact we’re all spread through different home groups and always doing various duties, so we literally never hang out. We had secret santa, roast pork, christmas pudding, decorations, home made bon bons, the whole wonderful thing.

Next, I played in the church bush band. Pretty much only morning church people went. I did get to dance a couple of songs when not playing, but it was touch and go and I was super fragile until I had a partner.

These are some flowers that have dried nicely out of a bunch Denise sent me when I was sick. Very delicate and pretty.

JK's birthday dinner, which was just her housemates and myself on a Tuesday night, but we headed into Honeysuckle and had cheap schnitzels and expensive beers and free giggles. She already had a 10th Xn Bday recently which was a big deal with a big group.

I've been doing a lot of hair work. This is my excellent curls for a wedding, which I did with my hair straightener. SO PROUD.

I treated myself to a new dress for the wedding, because I've worn the same one for a long time. Also new shoes, because I got rid of my bridesmaid heels, and I bought some really lovely and comfortable flats from Ziera. This is my home group mob.

It was a daytime wedding, and when I got home at 4pm I pretty much showered, threw my stuff in the car, and left for my holiday. I was so tired after the wedding I cried in the car. Saturday night in Goulburn with my parents, gave dad his 60th birthday present, then onwards. I went with Emma and her parents to ski in Perisher, we stayed in Jindabyne. 

We had half a week of bad weather before it fined up for skiing, so we did low-key stuff like driving up to see snow, cafes, etc.

A highlight was visiting Cooma, buying sudoku books at Percy's, having excellent berry bread in a cafe, and visiting the Birdsnest shop, which you can do online shopping in the shop! You click in the online store and they deliver clothes to the change room! I bought a wool skirt on sale for $40. Emma also found me a new long black merino cardigan for work at Jeans West, which I'm loving. Holiday purchases are the best. 

Something killed all the trees so the landscape is spooky.

On Thursday we finally got up to Blue Cow. It was a clear blue morning and amazing. I did a first timer's lesson.

After the lesson I went down the Easy Starter with Emma and her mum showing me the places to turn, and that's a lot steeper than the school area, and it has a chair lift, so I fell over a lot. I was OK with the falling, but after about 8, I was too tired to get up anymore. So after lunch I went back to the Pony and just cruised safely to fill in time til the others were finished.

The next day, I had another lesson, got a bit more advice on traversing slowly down hills, practiced on the Pony, and then at the end of the lesson I headed bravely off down the Easy Starter on my own. I did not fall over. I came up on the chair lift and got off it without falling over. This is one of the proudest achievements of my life. It was all really scary. After a rest Emma joined me and we did it another 7 or so times, and I got better and better and had no falls, until the last time I jumped off the chair lift and sat on my skis.

I found a Corroboree frog in the tank at the visitor centre. The lemon cheesecake in the cafe there is very highly recommended by B.

And then back home on Sunday.

June: Back to back, shopping, snow.

Side note, I got sick with a throat infection. I think I caught it at Women of Truth, had a few days off work (watching Good Witch), and feeling better on Saturday I went to a church engagement party, which was fabulous, but my throat wore out. I went home early very sore and lost my voice til Wednesday, and it took weeks to cough my throat clear. It has been 2 years since I was sick though, so I have had a very healthy run.

There's a wedding in July, and I was planning on making a skirt like this. I still do want to.

Elsie visited on the June long weekend!! And because she found a skin product on sale we spend Saturday shopping at Charlestown. I tried on this dress and coat from Leona Edmiston  on sale because I liked the retro cut. I didn't buy though, even on sale, because I had the dream of a long silk skirt.

I feel that this photo is 'skinny' and not my true weight, but the dress was really a good cut and a skin-tight fit.

We had dumplingy lunch and used an Entertainment Book discount!

I bought a scarf which is grey with brown dots, it is wide so also a wrap, finding it pretty useful. Scarf/wrap is very multi-purpose.

On Sunday we went to Tocal for the Back to Back wool challenge. It was once again a lovely day. Shearing, spinning, knitting, live music.

I went to Spotlight and silk is $60 a metre and there are only 2 colours, burgundy and cream. Sigh. I changed my mind about making a long silk skirt for the wedding and decided to get the dress from Myer because it was cheaper as well as gorgeous for no effort.

I got an email from a music shop about EOFY sales, so the next Saturday I decided to finally go piano shopping.

So I had a big Saturday in mind. I wanted it to be fun though, not a lonely trawl around Newcastle. After a womens breakfast I hit up Emma who was having a PJs day, she invited me over for soup lunch and we went from there. We went to Charlestown and I bought the dress and it was an extra 30% off! So just over $90 in the end, over half price. A good price for a dress, and it's quality. We tried on similar styles in Portmans I think, and they were dreadful. So unflattering. That's why they had heaps on the sale rack.

Then we went to Foleys. Played around in there for 40 minutes. This is the baby I think I want. Note, it has a little lightbulb over to the left. Look at all those dials too. There is also a good Roland I like, more cheaper and more reliable but less wow, so I'm choosing between two. Going in to buy one of them on Thursday with a colleague who is very knowledgable about music equipment.

Then we briefly visited my home group leader who had a baby. A very soft baby.

This week I started back on Jillian feeling pretty energetic, but after several weeks off sick and recovering I started small and got some DOMS. There was a staff lunch on the windiest day this week, we bussed out to an old house on the property, Bona Vista, and had THE BEST SOUP.

Today I got up at 6.15, motivated to cook myself a good hot protein breakfast to fuel me for a bush walk. It was a spontaneous arrangement with a girl at HG.

We left my place at 7am, drove out through Dungog and Salisbury, through pretty country with dairies and cottages, then up into the Barringtons, and after 90 minutes we were at the base of the walk. It was 4 degrees. The air was cold and pure. I kept marvelling how pure it was. And we were so fortunate with the weather, after some dodgy wind and rain during the week it was sunny and calm.

The photos I took don't capture how steep it was. We climbed several hundred metres in the first hour I think. I suggested we walk with sticks because I remembered that it takes some of the effort from your legs to your upper body, and we found it really works. Once you get the technique, you basically keep the sticks behind you, rather than swing them out in front, you get a fair bit faster.

We walked for an hour, stopped to remove fleece layer, drank a little water, kept going. After another half hour the incline was a lot less steep and I noticed some unmelted ice on the ground! And then we saw snow! The first snow I've seen in 20 years I reckon. Just hints.

It is amazing how much heat we worked up climbing. I kept my beanie on the whole time, but just a singlet and flannie for much of it, even though it must have been very cold.

When we got to where there was a constant light dusting of snow, it was magical! We were non-stop delighted. We whacked fern fronds covered in snow to shake it into the air. My hands started to feel the cold, also sore from holding the climbing sticks, so I put my gloves on.

After 2.5 hours of walking, it was 11.30, so we stopped for lunch, put our soft shell jackets on a snowy log and ate for just 15 minutes. We cooled down quickly, so put jackets on to turn back. We were maybe 7 or 8km into the walk, and my leg-lifting muscles in my hips were now tired, and it was further than D had ever walked. She said I set a good pace and pushed her. Her pace was slow and steady, and mine is more a spurt for a short distance then a rest to wait for her. On the way down however, she led. I was much slower.

On the way down we chatted to an older man we saw with proper hiking poles. He was an expert at hiking, and having done the track with a GPS before, we got the stats on how far we went. The walk has no signs! So you have no idea how many kms you've gone. But he estimated we'd done at least 7km, maybe 8, before we turned back, and we'd done a climb of 700m from the car.

We got back down in 2 hours. I really struggled for the last half hour. We drove to Dungog and got hot chocolates and a slice. So good. Got home mid afternoon and shared my photos of snow and wrote this blog post!

June has gone well. Solstice is past, so although there is much cold ahead, the days will get longer.

Photos from the end of Autumn.

Sydney work breakfast thing. Had a good trip down in a work car, with Liz, we stayed over night at Kirribilli, walked over the bridge, networked at breakfast and then had I all sorts of fails catching the train home, but it’s a nice thing to be out and about during work hours, people at shops and train stations were friendly. The central coast train trip is enjoyable.

I’ve helped mum make a website and a business card for her counselling business. inkspotcounselling.com

I had an efficient day off work where I got appointments done. I drove down to Gosford for my last retainer check. I have never driven there I think and it’s a long way but the exit of the freeway is really cool, windy through cliffs. Then I went to bunnings and spotlight on my way back. Then I took my car to be serviced. Then I found a very cute shop over the road from Toyota where a girl fixes up old furniture.  

Then I got a quote from locksmiths. Then I think I sewed a new pillowcase for my banana pillows. I don’t think banana pillows or pillowcases are around anymore.

Maddie and I had a big youth group dinner on a Friday night, in the garage. I also organised dinner for church the following Sunday so that was a baptism of mass catering.

I wanted to do some decluttering so I hit the spare room, which is the room of things I am least attached to. I donated a spare queen sized doona to friends. I threw out my old feather pillow. I found so many pictures that I put in the cupboard because I actually like bare walls now, but I decided to hang most of them up gallery style in the spare room (to create cupboard space). They look nice there. Also they are rather childish. Nice but childish, so I will try and remember to give them away to friends who have babies. There is a scene in Guards Guards where Vimes is looking at Lady Sybil’s bedroom and she’s an older single lady and she has a bunny dressing gown or something sad. Teddy bear cross stitches are like that. I’ll keep the ones that spark joy and gift away the others.

 Also in the spare room I found the braids for a rag rug. I decided to declutter it by finishing it.

Weekend visit to Goulburn for Grandfather’s 93rd Birthday. All my siblings were there. We are a quality family.

I went for a scooter around town with Julia’s Mr 4, and found a chair and I really regret not buying it. It's so beautiful. Comfy. And green.

Then I must have been a bit tired and down, because Maddie gave me flowers.

I saw a gorgeous sunset at work last week which I actually managed to get a good photo of on my iPhone, which is normally rubbish at sunsets.

This week has seen me off work a few days with a throat infection. It's Friday and I'm feeling well enough to enjoy being off work, which is the perfect amount of sickness.

I've forgotten so many of my ponderings in the last month. I guess one thing is wanting to buy furniture but also wanting to have an uncrowded house. I rearranged the furniture which gives me the buzz of new furniture and new spaces, without actually buying anything. 

Another thing is feeling loved. When I was feeling like the I was looking after other people but nobody was looking after me, I had people suddenly look after me. Maddie gave me flowers, someone else is checking in to see if I go OK this winter or how I'm going with singleness, someone else keeps me company on Sundays so we can go to church together instead of alone, someone else writes encouraging emails to me. Amazing. 

Another thing is, people asking me about marriage or kids, or telling me I'm so lovely I'll get married, etc etc. I'm OK at the moment with being single, but what do people think I'm going to say to those questions?

Another thing is, I'm reducing meat and processed food. Whole grains like oats, a variety of vegetables, eggs and dairy, but no chicken any more and just occasional steaks.

Another thing is, I'll join the music team, when someone can replace me on the sound team or in August.

Today I've realised I have too many jumpers. I'm thinking of decluttering my clothes soon. It is hard though. I like my clothes. But I've changed how I dress since moving to Maitland. A different work environment I guess, and different weather. I still like my old clothes, but I've left them behind. Time to Kondo, respectfully release things into the world to serve someone else. With a housemate the same size as me and other girls at church my size they don't have to go far! Look at the positives.