Between work and rest.

It was an interesting week at work. The Principal of 27 years retired, so there was a large farewell dinner and speech event at the college on Wednesday night. I sat with a couple from church who are retired. It was a good event, though not really my cup of tea, so because my feet were very cold (what has happened to the weather) and I had a long day on Thursday and was missing the Bachelorette, I left at 8.30 after dessert pretty much unnoticed.

The Bachelorette is so fabulous. The camaraderie and clowning around among the men is very enjoyable. When it's women there is a lot of side-eye, with the men it's just "I'm going to stand on my head now".

On Thursday I drove to Sydney for one day at a conference on Social Media. It was a last minute thing because someone else couldn't go and it was paid for, so I took notes. I also networked, which involves talking to grownups. It was excellent.

Afterwards, I had cheap city dinner with Elsie and we went to Muji, oh how I enjoyed it because I bought stationery like very fine point pens.

On Friday it was a wet but casual day at work, we had cheese and biscuits to celebrate the Principals last day.

On Saturday I went to a cafe in Newcastle called the Blue Door, which has really excellent food, and also very trendy young people in it.

Went with JK and her clan. Then JK and I saw the Pan movie, then I went home and did Jillian and watched Poirot.

Today is Sunday, and I am doing the Sabbath thing. I've read the bible, and spent 2 hours writing a prayer I am rostered for in 2 weeks time. I enjoy prayer-writing but I need no pressure around it. I don't know what I'll be doing in 2 weeks, I might be busy. Next weekend I'll be away with friends. So today I've spent the morning sitting in the reading nook near the window, with Percy in his cage at my feet, a bunch of flowers from Bec next to me, and the bible, my laptop to search phrases, the Valley of Vision prayer book, muji pen and notebook, a cup of tea that went cold, and a view of my sweet peas. I'm glad I had time to do this.

Next week at work will be a time of new challenge. I will have a role of acting team leader, for the next 4 weeks. Its a little team, but there will be some new responsibilities to experience, which I'm not sure what they are yet. Its a good time to give it a shot though.

Now, unfortunately, it's 1.30pm so I must leave this restful reading nook to eat, drink, use the bathroom, clean the birdcage, and buy food and petrol.

Spring weekend.

I've missed blogging about many things, mainly because Ive been hoping to blog from home on my laptop with the internet, but getting the internet was an interminable hassle. So you missed my weekend at Engage with Bec, Elsie and R, my housemates birthday move night, a brunch for girls from church, a weekend of massive spring cleaning, my obsession with Bachy S3, and probably many other things. And I'll just pick up from here.

Nutritional blenders are the best thing ever. I'm abandoning my lifelong love of cereal.

Last weekend Heather came over and we sewed the blanket made from old wool jumpers. Craft: accomplished!

My group at work organise the social club event for the month and we did a High Tea. We labeled tea pots with different tea and people tried them and it was a big success.

Friday night was a planned visit from Bec and Anna plus a surprise drop in from a couple from Wild Street, which was lovely fun. OH I have started kind of jogging with church girls on Friday after work.

So the weekend having Bec and Anna stay has been lovely. My french toast speciality.

We visited tocal homestead for some photography. Some of these are my phone and some are Bec's real camera.

And then we went to Morpeth, and Anna had dinner with other friends while Bec joined us for dinner in Maitland at Marmooks, and then Bec and I watched some hunger games movies to catch up on culture.

On Sunday, we went to the Branxton markets which were disappointingly small this time because of the weather, but oh well. There was a good earring shop and a good ceramic jewellery shop.

Poppins, Aroma, animals, moving the furniture around.

Maitland had another food festival, this one called Aroma. It was fantastic weather, the carpark at the river was really well decorated and there was a lot of good food. I went for a couple of hours with 2 women from church.

We discovered a room with cats to cuddle.

I decided to rearrange the furniture. This is the new layout which I love. The table was in the other room to the birdcage, which meant I never ate at it, because if Percy can't see me in the morning he screeches. So I used to sit next to Percy eating breakfast off my lap and watching the Today show. I realised I don't like morning TV and decided to get rid of the second TV completely. It will go to the church office eventually. Moved the table into Percy's room, and now I can eat breakfast while reading the bible and Percy can see me so it's pleasantly quieter.

And where the table used to be, in the nice sunny part of the house, we put this half-couch which was leftover at my parents house. And also the piano. It's the reading couch.

This is Percy having a cuddle. I have now owned Percy for a year.

JK and I saw Mary Poppins in Newcastle. MP was my first favourite movie, and it is still a classic with Julie Andrews. I had also read the books. And I had heard good things about the Sydney musical. And while the singing and sets and costumes were very good, I actually found the play itself pretty bad. The story was a mishmash of movie, books, plus some modern elements like a song which, I joke not, went "don't reach for the stars, reach for the heavens and you'll get the stars too". That was the main song they climaxed the story with. Ughhh. I am without words. Also they left out Mr Banks song which is very funny and Mrs Banks got a new song, not about being a suffragette but about being in a difficult marriage or something.

One of my colleagues brought their puppy Ted to work. 3 months old.

In a surprise election on Monday, I pulled a Julia Gillard on Nathan and was democratically elected Pretend Office Manager.

I have sweet pea flowers! Mostly rampant vines, but the first flowers! And they are pretty and they smell AMAZING.

I'm going to remove the curtain completely and just have a window of green.

Prayer 2.

I reused my other prayer last time I was rostered to pray at church because it was a long time in between, but then I had a short gap in the lead up to this prayer so I didn't triple-dip, people might catch on. Wrote a new one. I'll get a bit of rotation happening. I never used to be keen to do prayer because it takes a lot of time to do it well, but now I just set aside a lot of time well ahead of the deadline and enjoy it.


Almighty heavenly father,

You are the awesome creator of the universe, so holy and glorious that nobody can stand in your presence, so wise that that your plans are beyond understanding, so perfect in goodness and righteousness, so faithful to your word, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

We praise you for revealing yourself to us in the bible. Every word you have spoken shows us how good you are, and how much trouble we are in. We reject you from the very beginning, and the world you made for us is wrecked by wars and injustice and suffering, and the ultimate curse of sin, death. Death that separates us from each other and from you. But, thank you that you have not left us alone. You promised to make it right, and when the time was right, in your great mercy you sent your son Jesus, God born as a man, to live with us, and die for us. Only the death of your perfect son in our place could break the power of death. Nothing we can do will fix this world, and so we put our trust in Jesus who rose from the dead and will one day come as the judge of all people and make all things new. We pray that he comes soon, but we also pray for your patience so that many more may turn to you and escape the judgement they deserve.

Father, thank you that we have freedom to worship Jesus in this country. There are many places where our brothers and sisters in Christ suffer for his name, must meet in secret, are forbidden to own bibles, or are caught up in religious conflict, and you have told us to remember them, so we pray for them tonight. We pray for North Korea, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, Eritrea, Nigeria, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, the Central African Republic, Qatar, Kenya, Turkmenistan, parts of India, Ethiopia, Egypt, Djibouti, and Bourma. Please help your children to be brave, and to show love to those who persecute them. May the church everywhere be filled with your power, to bring you glory.

We pray for university ministry at Newcastle. Thank you that many students are meeting up with their friends one to one to read the gospel of Luke, and we pray that through your Holy Spirit this simple act of reading the bible will have a powerful impact on many lives. Please be with the staff team M, J and R, and the trainees H, M and A, for the rest of the year. Sustain them physically, mentally and spiritually. We pray for A and H as they both come to the end of their apprenticeships and consider what to do from next year onwards.

We pray for the CAP Money course running this month, that it will be helpful for those who come along to develop self-control and wisdom so that they can use money prudently and for your glory. We also thank you for the opportunity to serve the wider community through this course, and to connect with people who need to hear about Jesus even more than they need to hear about budgets.

We pray for KL, who has left Newcastle and is just arrived in France. We pray that amongst whatever homesickness, excitement, exhaustion or whatever she might be feeling, that she will rely on you completely. We pray that she learns French very quickly, so that she can begin to enjoy building relationships, and sharing the bible with people. We pray that the church planting organisation she is going to join will be able to use her skills to grow the gospel in France, both in numbers and in knowledge.

We bring before you those of us with sickness and pain for healing: K, and G, and others we don't know about. Help them to trust you on their journey of suffering, knowing that you work all things for our good, and may they use their suffering to focus on Jesus, the one who will take away every pain, wipe away every tear.

In the words of Jude:
To him to is able to keep us from falling and present us before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy… to the only God our saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and evermore, AMEN.

Campfire, work fun.

I’ve been waiting to get the internet at home. Because that will make blogging and photo uploading a lot better. So the gaps between blogs are getting longer.

Here are some photos from nightchurch weekend away at Tahlee. 

 Perfectly constructed fire.

Jetty pool getting more and more dilapidated each year.

The weather was actually great! A local pastor who used to be an MEC member preached on Unity, Love, Confessing and Forgiving. The first talk was the foundation, we are united to each other and to God in Christ. But then that’s hard, so the next 3 were about how we do that in terms of cultivating genuine affection to motivate us, confessing to each other and to God, and forgiving each other. The question times were good. There was a standout book review from a woman who read a short book on conflict by Ken Sande, and she had even applied the steps to resolve a work conflict. More engineers should do book reviews.

I also played my first ever games of Mafia. It was something I wanted to do this year, and it turned out to be a good way to break the ice a bit with the yooths.

I’ve been enjoying a new luchtime walk with my new office sharer J. It’s a longer walk but more interesting, hills and swamps and through the homestead cottages. I should take some photos. J has been in our office for a few weeks. Some of the old fellas were warning us about her, "oh she’ll get you lot in line, you watch out", and we were just "pfffft. We have our own office culture and she will conform to it." And she’s very nice and she has conformed to our lovely office culture. So last week I made a certificate to formally celebrate her acceptance into the Crawford Court 6 Centre for Excellence, as N calls it. She very much appreciated it. We played a fanfare and presented it to her, and she hung it on her wall. 

The other office fun is that a native rodent called a phascagale has been into our office, eating the biscuits and chewing through the phone lines, and one night it ripped the head off a taxidermy rosella. We had a funeral for it in the garden outside our office this week, N dug the hole, I dropped it’s head in the hole twice, we all threw a handful of soil onto it, M spoke a few words and laid flowers on the grave. It was hilarous.

I scored snapper that N caught on the weekend, because his family don’t eat fish so he distributed his catch at the Centre for Excellence. I really enjoyed eating the fish, and Maddie and I shared the eyeballs. It’s 6 months since she moved in, and I am so happy she lives with me.

Percy has decided he likes Maddie and will climb on her not to attack her face but to permit her to tickle his head. 

My pea harvest is almost finished, but now I am delighted by my sweet peas, which are growing in front of my bedroom window, as high as my head. I know all the flowers will face the other way but it’s still very romantic. I’m tempted to throw some money at my garden and get raised garden beds. 

Quiet things.

After a very hectic weekend, mostly at work, I took a recovery day on Monday. It was a fun weekend though.

Aside: I’m seriously thinking about how I can observe the Sabbath. I have seen what it does to me, working full time then having busy weekends over and over again. And God has designed the Sabbath for us to enjoy, but by not being disciplined about it at ALL, in the freedom I have in Christ, I think I’m not enjoying it. I’ve dipped into the following resources this week.

http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/work-and-rest

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/magazine/bring-back-the-sabbath.html

http://www.challies.com/articles/the-day-of-rest

I’ve come up with a couple of ideas. I think I need to defend my sabbath, and use it wisely. So the first, defending. I got a message last night asking me to bring a dessert to church for some reason. I said yes, while groaning. I’ll have morning church on music, then be baking for work morning tea and church supper, watch some TV with Maddie, then night church. And that’s how I lose a sabbath. Then I remembered some of the things I absorbed, and decided to to my baking on Saturday instead. I was inspired by reading that hardcore Jews pre-rip their toilet paper on Friday. It isn’t impossible to defend the sabbath but it took that step of planning and rescheduling. And the second thought, use it wisely, will be about what I do with my mind and time, to rest and devote it to God. Will this mean screen-free time? A long morning devotion? Time to read edifying books? It’s becoming clear that real rest takes discipline.

Anyway, the work last weekend went well, I sold merchandise and there were fireworks and bagpipes in the evening so for unpaid time it was pretty good.

On my recovery day, I did some housework, waited for Optus NBN technician to never show up, and watched Chuck S3. I like S3 a lot. The NBN debacle was frustrating, because they just expect you to take another day off work and wait around indefinitely every time they don’t turn up. But then after getting really angry (had to hang up on an Indian call center employee because of tears) I realised that I’m not at all unhappy without the internet, and actually I don’t care if it’s connected or not. Meanwhile, Optus isn’t making any money until it’s connected. If it takes a month for them to connect, that’s money they effectively lose. Which made me feel a little bit more powerful, so now, whatever, I'm not going to sweat about it any more. Optus have left me messages saying they have made a new appointment, but I don't really care. 

I bought some drawer compartments for my socks. Because why not. I find the idea of an organised sock drawer very soothing. I can now see all my socks! This is more satisfying than it sounds.

I also listen to Unstuff Your Life every so often. I think books about organising and decluttering are helpful and personally I find them relaxing as well. It is helpful to reinforce my minimalism ethos regularly. For example, I can become flummoxed by gifts. There’s a teapot sitting on the bench, and I love that someone thought of me when they were at a garage sale and spontaneously gave it to me, but I don’t really want to keep another 1-cup teapot, because I already have one I like. UYL reminds me that the whole point of the gift was in the thought, and not in the keeping of the object in a cupboard, when actually someone else might like the teapot and use it if I let it pass through to the opshop. By regularly combing through the stuff I own, I want to make sure I have the space in my life to do what I think is important.

If you like piano music from period dramas as much as me, there is a youtube guy called TweedleDee1 who has arranged a whole bunch of themes and they look reasonably easy and you can download them here. My weekend amusement.
https://www.youtube.com/user/TweedleDee1/about

I'm also enjoying The Bachelor with my housemate. I'm not in it for the dates, dates are awkward. I enjoy the relationship dynamics in the mansion aka 'girl prison'. The theme is being insecure about your personality because if you're too quiet he wont notice you and send you home, or if you're too out-there he doesn't take you seriously, although basically, the whole premise of the show dooms 95% of the women on it to fail at a relationship no matter what. I like to read recaps afterwards and get an extra dose of snark.

http://www.mamamia.com.au/rogue/rosie-recaps-bachelor-season-3-episode-2/

Oshie’s hair comes out to break up with the losers for Bachie Wood, because if the Bachelor did that himself he’d seem like a dick who’s dating 16 women and just dumped three of them on national TV. Look how good Bachie Wood is at looking sad and remorseful while Oshie does his dirty work:
(pic)
Much emotion. So feels. Very hair.

Quality.