Goodness. Gracious.

Golly gosh, it's been a while now hasn't it?!
Nothing all that juicy to report I'm afraid - life seems to have finally stabilised for the time being - Phew!
My absence, and stability, is mostly due to a corporate fast I took part in with church, in which I chose to limit my digital intake from sources such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogger (reading blogs that is!) for 40 days!
.. and boy did it do me the world of good - actually the heaven of good, I should say!
So I promise i didn't disappear into an abyss, and I also promise that I'm back. 
Certain things have shifted, it's the little things that make the biggest impact I think, and I'm so glad life has gone on regardless of status updates and post ideas etc...who woulda thought?!!! 


So what have I been up to? 
Glad you asked,


My very first Tafe semester is done and dusted...meaning I now have 2.5 years left of study, not 3 - yippee!! Oh and I absolutely love it - Bonus! It's been amazing cultivating new friendships and having an outlet for creativity and seeing doors of opportunity open before me - so exciting!


The kidlets are about to commence school holidays and I can't wait! I love love love having them home -yay! We are all ready for sleep-in's let me tell you.


I've spent some lovely times with my daddy lately too, it's so nice to have him close by. Mum is often at work so he's come for lunch, has brought roses from his garden (which Mr Jasper Bunnykins ate off the window sill)...and we've chatted about all manner of things, but mostly photography. Yesterday he phoned me to tell me he had a pressie to give me - the camera he had from before he met my mum. It's a dinosaur! And has been all over India, Africa and who knows where since the 60's!!

        

I've also been baking up a storm and I'm sure my hips can prove it.(with the help of the cutest little Miss Kitchenaid herself;-) Mostly making these easy peasy Donna Hay Honey Drop bikkies..perfect with a cup of tea..or two.

and I've been preparing for my sister-in-law's baby shower, making invites, buying thrifted tea-cups and treasures etc...it's been oh so fun!

Anyhoo, I needed this post to break the drought, but also to say,
I'm around, I'm here and I'm fine and dandy and loving what God is doing.
It may be winter on the outside but it's spring on the inside - a new season has begun and to be honest, I think it is due to me being... 
Honest! 
Recently revealing some of my heart here, with my weaknesses and struggles has been so liberating and freeing, like I'd never imagined. Perhaps you should try it sometime? If not here in blogland quite so publicly, then perhaps with a trusted friend? or a journal entry? or letter to The Most High?... and if not any of those, then at least to yourself. Covering up a tormented heart will do you no good, been there, done that - eeewww!
When we put ourselves out there God meets us in the middle, He does the rest,


He is The Rest!

"My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness" So that now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. - 2 Corinthians 12:9 

(oh Jesus said the red bit - that means it's good:-)

Confessions from our mouths are a powerful tool for a whole and healed heart condition.
Oooh, went off on a bit of a tangent there didn't I, oh well, it's all true! -


Hmmm, so yes, some things have changed, I'm not really feeling the love for FB these days, I'll check up from time to time but it won't be often. But I do admit, a new addiction has begun to settle in, not that i was looking for a replacement, but with the convenience of my iPhone and my love for happy snaps, something tells me that this clever little cookie, the Instagram application will be on a strict curfew for me one of these days - Yikes!!


All in all, in this little neck of the woods, life is indeed peachy, glad I finally got here to tell you so!

Lounging Around

You know that feeling after a hectic day and your body is rather tense, then you sit down on the lounge and....ahhhhh,  hang on, you have a 'I might not ever get up' moment! 
That wonderful invention that likely graces your lounge room, in that instant, almost becomes like your body's best friend (or worst enemy at times when Mr Bright Spark husband is snoring on it!!) 
Sorry got side-tracked... 
Anyway, what I'm attempting to say here is that once you lay on the couch, the weight of your body that's been carried around on those gorgeous legs of yours all day long, is suddenly shifted. Another factor comes into play as that piece of furniture beneath you allows your body to take a breather,
to renew some strength, 
so that ultimately you can get back up and get going again.

help |help|verb [ trans. ]1 make it easier for (someone) to do something • improve (a situation or problem); be of benefit to • [ trans. ] assist (someone) to move in a specified direction :

Help.

It's a funny thing actually, I'm not good at asking for it but i'm definitely fond of giving and receiving it!  

I missed my own opportunity to help someone yesterday, and it would have been an easy one too. It's how this blog post came about actually, I wrote it in my head within 5 minutes of walking away, annoyed at myself for not taking a few minutes out of my day, regardless of how busy I was at the time, to make a small indent in some one else's day. 
To allow a woman who was clearly in a rush and had misplaced something, to take a breath, shift the whole load of searching by herself and share it out between the both of us. 
But the world rushed by as she searched for whatever it was she had lost
and ashamedly I got caught up in the whirlwind it had created at that moment and walked on by.


So this missed opportunity made me think about what it's like to be on the receiving end of help and I came to the conclusion that


Help is like a couch to a tired body at the end of a long day!


You know the saying, 'two minds are better than one'.
When we have help, there is suddenly a fresh pair of eyes on the situation,
there's a new perspective on something we've perhaps been looking at with blinkers on,
the load gets lighter,
there's also a renewed hope in humanity - that good people exist and care enough to take a portion out of their day/life to replace it instead with You! 
Even better than all of that is that God's love has the opportunity to shine bright and clear.


I am blessed enough to be on the receiving end of this precious treasure more than I probably realise, and it came recently in the form of an Angel.
Well, I call her that anyway - she really is an absolutely beautiful Mama friend who has this quality of helping others despite her own circumstances, down to a fine art!
While AngelMama here isn't my mum (she's a bit too young for that) she certainly has a mother's heart and I've benefitted from it in a huge way. We laugh that she stalks me when she phones at least once a week, just 'checking in' she'll say. I don't think she realises how valuable her calls are. Isn't it nice to get a call or a message from someone just because they thought of you in a moment of their day?! 
AngelMama will call in for a Chai every now and again, and get this, she's even been known to call in and help the kidlets sort out their bedrooms and toys and has helped me organise things! I love that when she comes now she'll do an 'inspection', sometimes she is pleasantly surprised, other times...well, we just laugh!! For her, I am eternally thankful - and amazed that God would love me so much He would send me someone so lovely, so...well....helpful. A wonderful friend and a true blessing to my heart, soul & house!


When we offer help, we can share the weight, shift the perspective, take a breath, brighten the day.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.

From where does my help come?

My help comes from the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.

-Psalm 121:1-2

And while it's great to receive, it's even better to give!
Helping others usually shifts our perspective too, amongst other wonderful things - perhaps it's time to get off the couch and be the couch?! A quirky way of putting it but hey, that's me:-)
Love ya xxx