Christmas lead up part 2...on a happier note

Well, it's only 1 week till Christmas (surprisingly!) and things are really rolling now! I'm excited, a little busy and even a tad unorganised...but excited none the least!

So what's exciting me about Christmas??? Well, it's not just the fact that I've been able to buy those that I love presents that I believe they will enjoy, and it's not just that I have a beautiful Christmas tree set up, or even that I have lights decorating my the outside of my house. It's not just the fact that I have had a chance to make a bunch of pretty Christmas cards or spend time with people I'm getting to know at various Christmas parties, and it's not just the carols that are playing everywhere. It's also not just the fact that this saturday night I get to sing Christmas carols with a couple of hundred people or so and see fireworks or the possibility of playing Mary in the nativity scene with Chris & Hamish on Tuesday night out the front of church...

So what is really exciting me about Christmas...the fact that I'm being reminded about the true gift of Christmas. I was thinking about this yesterday. People say that the true gift of Christmas, that is, the reason for the season, is Jesus being born and just leave it there but I came to realise yesterday that that is only part of the gift...if we could relate it to a tangable gift we might be given, it would be like receiving a torch without the batteries. Until we put batteries into the torch, it won't work and we'll be left in the dark. So, the Christmas story ending with just Jesus' birth also leaves us in the dark...we need to know that Jesus didn't stay a baby, but grew into a man...a perfect man...who not only taught us great things about who he was, that is, God's Son, but who died on the cross so that he could take the punishment that we deserved for all the times we reject God, rose again THREE DAYS later and then went up to heaven to sit where he deserves to sit...at God's right hand in heaven on a throne because he is the KING...he's my King!

So that's why I'm so excited about Christmas and it's lead up...I'm loving the thought that I can have a public celebration to show my thankfullness to God's great plan to save humanity!!!

Christmas Lead Up

I love Christmas...I love the excitement, the decorating, the food, the joy that seems to fill the air, and I'm even brave enough to say that I love the presents (both giving & receiving) and most of all, I love the promise of HOPE that it brings.
BUT, in saying all that, this year hasn't been such an easy lead up to Christmas for me. Complications that arose for me health wise after Hamish was born have meant that I'm yet to do any Christmas shopping, put up the tree & decorations (which, normally, I would've done yesterday) and frankly the whole situation has made me a little bit blue so I haven't been able to embrace the excitement yet.
Hopefully things are on the up now and I may be able to make it to the shops to do some shopping and planning events that make Christmas so much fun!!
Maybe I need to put on a Chrissy CD and make some decorations??

A bit of a depressing rant I know, sorry...hopefully in a week or two I'll be able to post an up-beat joyful note!!!

Shopping

So, there was a time when grocery shopping was merely a chore...not a job I necessarily enjoyed. Grocery shopping these days isn't a chore, it's a mammoth task! It requires careful planning...how to get both children around the supermarket and get everything I need whilst keeping said children happy!
So, today, I arranged to meet a friend at Woolies who has a little boy 6 months younger than Caleb. I was hoping to get one of these new trollies that they have with a Toddler Seat & Baby Seat...but, alas, they did not have it available for me. Thankfully, though, they did have a double toddler seat one. So both boys sat next to each other and Hamish had a trolley to himself.
The boys pulled a lot of adoring fans...especially when they gave each other hugs & kisses!!!

Church Weekend away

Well, our little family packed up once again this last weekend and headed off to Ridgecrest Christian Convention Centre at Burrendong Dam. We had a great time looking at the Cross of Christ...What God wanted it to mean and what it SHOULD mean to us!
We were reminded of the fact that God doesn't like us rejecting him (and that's what sin is), that this makes him angry. We were also reminded that we are unable to subdue God's wrath by anything that we do or say...only God can thwart God's wrath. This is why Jesus was sent to earth (and I say THANK YOU) so that people could be acceptable to God, and therefore accepted into heaven, not just because of Jesus' death and resurrection but through peoples faith in God and acceptance of this exact event. That's right, Jesus' death wasn't an Amnesty where sins aren't actually paid for but, rather, a substitution of the penalty. How amazing is it that God would take on ALL of EVERYONE's sin so that people could know him???!!!

So that's the amazing stuff I learnt about...

We also had some non-teaching time stuff over the weekend. There was a bushdance on the Saturday night with a dress-up theme of pre-1900's. Most people dressed up which was great seeing that we only had a week & a half's notice. I managed to create a dinasaur costume for Caleb...it was really cute except he didn't want to wear it! Hamish went as Baby Jesus (so easy!!!), Chris went as a golfer from the 1800's and I went as an alien...after all, who knows what Alien's wore before the 20th Century???!!!

If you want to look at some picks you can on my facebook page either here or here.

Although I came home pretty tired, I also came home happy...it's a great time when you can get together with a whole big bunch of people and get to know them better...good times!

Encouragement to press on!

I was reminded of Psalm 121 last night and thought I would share it with the mum's out there as an encouragement to get through those times that sometimes we wish we didn't have to deal with. Feel free to share this with the Dad's too or anyone else that may need that little bit of a spur along!!!

Psalm 121
A song of ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Also, these words from Colin Buchanan's song (Do it in Jesus' Name) I found a great encouragement also...

Press on Mum's in all the chaos
Look to Jesus through the tears
Press on Mum's God will guide you
through those precious tender years

And in all you do it for Jesus
One new life and free forgiveness
Yesterday, today he is the same
All you do, do it in Jesus name
(And when all your human energy is gone, Look to Jesus & press on)


I hope this is as much of an encouragement for you as it was for me!

Life goes on

So, a month on, life as a mother of 2 has proven to be a time of challenges, laughs, smiles, tears...always interesting!

I love my family of men (I'm starting to wonder what it will be like in 15 years or so time with a testosterone filled house!!!). Caleb is absolutely gorgeous with Hamish and is so cute when he tries to feed, burp and change his teddies nappy.

So, that's really about all that my brain allows me to write...I'll include photos though!!!

It's a boy

Well, it's been a while since I blogged...sorry about that!

My latest blog entry is all about the new man in my life, Hamish Blake Waghorn. Hamish was born Wednesday 20th August, 2008 (for all those numbers people out there, that's 20082008 - 20.08.2008).

He's very much a Simmons which is nice because Caleb is nothing like the Simmons part of the family.

Hamish came into the world 10 days earlier (which is fine by me). He was 7lb 3ozs and 49cm long with a head circumference of 53cms. It was a pretty quick labour (only 4 1/2 hrs!!!).

So far he's been a little treasure!!! No screaming, he just grunts for feeds and can even do 5 hours at night between feeds which is lovely!!!

We love him heaps!!!

Caleb thinks he's pretty special too...he definitely thinks that he is meant to be around, making sure that we always comes with us and that we won't leave him in the car or anything! Very special!

It's all a bit Mudgee!

Well, Chris & I went to Mudgee for the weekend. My sister, Jacqui, babysat Caleb for the weekend. We stayed at a nice place and visited lots of nice things.
The funniest thing was Chris doing his wine tastings! Chris never used to like wine, he's only just recently started to drink it...so you can imagine my angst that I couldn't taste but he could, he with his "unrefined" tongue!!! There was even white port!!! Oh well...only one person can bring the baby to the family and that has to be me!!! He just better make it up to me later!!! hhahahaha

We also did some cheese sampling...all very yummy.

I had heaps of fun taking photos around the place...you can see some of them at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37801&id=548836694

We have never been massive fans of Mudgee but it did grow on us by the end of the weekend...I guess your probably wondering why we chose Mudgee if we didn't like it...well, it was close to Dubbo and had some things we could do.

It really was a weekend of food though...mmmm....food....

We ended our weekend with a trip to Gulgong...that was really interesting, such a cute town!!!

So that's about it really...

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says"

Well, this is a verse from James, a book in the new testament of the bible, that I have known for years. It's taken me a long time to actually grasp what it is saying.
What I mean is, for too long I've thought that I was cruising along ok...I listened hard in church, even taking notes so that I would come close to remembering what was taught, I was a diligent bible study member getting involved in the conversation and things like that...but lately, mainly because of an indepth study of the book of James in our church and it's bible study groups, I've come to realise that that isn't good enough. I really need to know the bible for myself...that is, picking up my bible and opening at church, to do bible study prep and, well, to be honest, that's probably about it, just ISN'T good enough for someone that claims to be a follower of Jesus...which I do!
So, a friend & I from church have been meeting regularly for a couple of years now in an accountability type set up but we have both always confessed that we STILL haven't achieved the art of having a personal bible reading time. So we set the challenge to read a chapter a day. When I say read, I mean read and take notes so that we are actually taking notice of what the chapter is saying. Although I still haven't managed to work out the knack of reading every day, I catch up when I haven't so I'm on target...I'm really enjoying the affects it is having. I don't know if my actions are following the thoughts as yet (hopefully they are) but I'm starting to question my priorities and laziness...so it's a start!

One thing that I was challenged by today when I was reading Titus was this...Titus 2:13b-14 says "...Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."
It made me think...am I allowing Jesus to make me his very own or do I only give him part of me...the conclusion I came up with was "I'm ripping Jesus off". I want to be "eager to do what is good" so I started to try and think about how I could make this an action instead of a thought...and that is where I'm at now, trying to act out my desire to do good for the one who gave his whole self for me, who was and never will be perfect in my own right, even though he was perfect and didn't deserve it, and give him my whole self in return gratitude!

Church, Yabbies, Ants, Puppies and eating...my Easter Long Weekend

Well, another Easter has passed again. We had a wonderful weekend reflecting on and rejoicing in the wonder of the cross. We made it to our first "event" church service at Dubbo Presbyterian Church in the 2.5 years of us being here. We went to the Good Friday service which was a combined service which saw a very full building and a great time of fellowship and worship.

After this we had some friends over for lunch and to watch "The Christ Files". This was a great opportunity to learn that about the facts that do actually exist to prove the existence and death of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It was a lovely lunch spent with lovely friends.

Friday afternoon Chris' parents arrived from Sydney. They used Dubbo as a launching pad for a 3 week holiday (yay for them). We spent the weekend talking, playing with Caleb, shopping, eating hot cross buns (both Choc chip & normal) and just some hanging about. Sunday morning we all ventured out to Narromine and went to church with my fam at Narromine Baptist, it was an encouraging service and was really nice to see mum, dad, Phillip & Ruth's new church family. We then proceeded to go out to the new farm.

It was funny, by the end of Sunday we had managed to scare Karen ( Chris' mum) enough to not leave the house. We were telling her just general (and what seemed harmless) stories of events that had happened on the new property in the last 7 weeks...these included stories of large carpet snakes eating chooks, massive echidna's which fill a whole milk crate, many many little frogs that inhabit the garden, mice, rats and geckos. She & Charlie were sleeping outside in the caravan so it was interesting because she wouldn't let Charlie go to bed until she was ready because there was no way she was going to walk out there by herself! Poor lady.

At one stage on Sunday we went down to check the yabby traps and couldn't stand still beside the dam because the banks were literally crawling with massive sugar ants!!! But we got the yabbies required for fishing the next day with the kids and all was well!

Fishing failed...no bites...oh well.

So all in all it was a lovely weekend. We farewelled Karen & Charlie this morning. Chris' comment as we waved goodbye was "I wish we were going on a holiday"...they sound like they are going to have fun campervan in tow, no set plans of where they will stay just hitting the road.

We hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter too!

Easter is nearly here...no bunny ears for me please!

Well, Easter is nearly here. It makes me wonder how many people eat hot cross buns, give/receive easter eggs and make the most of the public holidays without giving a second thought to the reason we have all these things. It's amazing how people seem to think that Jesus either didn't exist or that he was just some normal man like everyone else yet not wonder why we have the dating system we do and that Christmas and Easter continues to roll around every year.

For me, Easter is a wonderful reminder and opportunity to celebrate the victory God has through the death of his one and only son Jesus Christ. This may sound morbid to some but to those of us who embrace the hope that can only come from following Jesus, we say "Thank you God" and praise him for saving us even though we are worthless sinners!

It's also a great time to help remind each other that the world isn't about us, that we were created for a reason and that someone ALWAYS pays the price for the things we do wrong.

So, when you chomp away at an easter egg or hot cross bun...have a think about why you are doing so!

Kevin, please say no to telemarketers!

I have no idea if Kevin Rudd has any power whatsoever over the control of telemarketers, but if he does, I wish he'd put a stop to them. I'm so sick of people intruding into my life & time to try and sell me something I'm not interested in. I don't mind too much about the odd Charity (when it's a legitimate organisation) call but oh my goodness I'm sick of all the others.

Today I had a phone call from Telstra (the second in 2 weeks). The guy on the other end of the phone opened the conversation with "Hi, I'm Paul from Telstra. I want to offer you a better deal to get you to take up a Telstra Mobile phone account". He then asked me how much I spent per month on my mobile (like it's any of his business). So I told him. He then asked what I got for that amount...now I know for a fact that Telstra cannot beat the plans that we are on with 3. 3 can't even beat these plans and won't ever offer them again. So, when I told him the deal he said "well that is a good deal" and hung up on me. Thanks for calling bud!

We have our number on that stop list thing on that website but it doesn't seem to help. The thing that gets me is that you can have a phone call from the same company 3 days in a row. Are they too stupid to make notes on the numbers they call so they don't waste their time and money?

PLEASE, SOMEONE PUT A STOP TO THESE MOST ANNOYING CALLS!!!!

Blogging catch up

Well, it's been a while since I've blogged...things have been a bit crazy town here!!

We enjoyed a good week or so in Sydney at Chris' fam's place for Christmas. We also got to catch up with heaps of people and go to the beach so that was pretty Fabbo. Caleb got spoilt massively...he now has what I consider too many toys but at least the toy box (which my dad built for my sister when she was a little girl) not too empty!

We then came back to Wello on New Years Eve and went to a Farewell/NYE party at my cousins as they moved to the NT. The next day we came home to our place in Dubbo had some lunch just the three of us, then my family all arrived to have our "Christmas" which comprised of opening presents then heading to the town pool for a swim, BBQ and then we had the waterslides to ourselves for an hour which was heaps of fun! This was also the day that we announced to my family that I was pregnant again (ohmygoodness!!!)

We also had my sister (Bron) and her family stay with us for a week at around this time...we all headed out to Narromine the Friday after NYE to help my brother unpack a removalist truck.

We had a couple of weeks in Dubbo doing normal stuff then we headed to Forster for a week. My whole family were all heading to Forster for what will probably be our last ever all in Family holiday as from now on either Dad or Phillip will have to be around to look after the farm. It was heaps of fun, we all stayed at different places, mostly in walking distance to each other. We were directly opposite the beach. Caleb learnt to love the sand and eventually the waves. Now we can't keep him out of water if he sees it...this includes puddles!

We came back, had a weeks break then I headed to Wello on the Sunday to go to mum & dad's farewell service at Wellington Baptist Church...there were lots of tears as reality started to set in about my parents leaving Fairholme...a farm that had been in our family for 4 generations (my great grandfather prospected the land). The next day I was helping do some of the last of the packing (more tears) then went to the new farm on the wednesday to help unpack the removalist truck and then stayed a few days to unpack boxes...I've had a few days back on deck which brings us to today...

Lot's of reading...probably boreing reading sorry...but that's the last couple of months in a nutshell for us hence the lack of blogging...besides the fact that any free time has been spent laying on the lounge due to tiredness or nausea from our growing bub!

Haircut

Well, today we spontaneously got Caleb's haircut. I guess it wasn't completely spontaneous, we have discussed and planned to do it before today but when we headed for the shops we didn't think we'd come home with Caleb having shorter hair.

He looks like a real boy now, not just a baby version of a boy! The people had the hairdressers put his cut hair into an envelope for me with details documented for my information! Very considerate of them.

So Caleb no longer has a mullet!