Archive for Family

Moses

February 2, 2012 / Molly / One comment

The other day Miss K was sitting at the table and somehow the conversation came up about Moses. By Moses I mean Moses in the Bible. She asked me to tell her the story of Moses and then later that day she wanted to watch the ‘Prince Of Egypt’ which is an animated version of the story. I quite like that animation, I think it does the story justice.

Anyway, as I told her the story I tried to make the exciting bits exciting and the sad bits sad and the dramatise the whole thing as best I could. In telling the story I was reminded of a few things that I had forgotten.

1. God’s plan to rescue the millions of Hebrew slaves began many many years before it happened. The moment Pharaoh declared that all Hebrew slave boy babies were to die God used this awful situation to set a series of events in place.
2. This series of events happened as people trusted God. His mother did so by putting her baby in what seemed a dangerous situation, inside the basket on the river.
3. It also brought out boldness in some. Look at his sister Miriam and her boldness to go right up to the Princess and offer some help. Think about Moses’ brother Aaron and how he spoke for him.
4. God shows us that our failures will always be used to glorify him. Moses killed a man whether accidentally or purposefully and it was because of this that he shook of the shackles of being that Prince of Egypt and instead became a humbled shepherd. Being a shepherd, it turns out, is more useful. Take note those who feel they are in powerless situations of no standing.

Of course there are many more things we can learn from the amazing story of Moses and I love that my daughter(s) are interested to see what happens. Two of my all time favourite history lessons are in the Bible and both happened in Eygypt, the story of Moses and the story of Joseph.

I am grateful that at a time when there are some real changes in our household the Lord uses the simple act of my daughter asking for a story to remind me of just how far back he arranges things and sets them in place. Psalm 139 comes to mind:

LORD, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I stand up;
You understand my thoughts from far away.
3 You observe my travels and my rest;
You are aware of all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue,
You know all about it, LORD.
5 You have encircled me;
You have placed Your hand on me.
6 This extraordinary knowledge is beyond me.
It is lofty; I am unable to reach it.

The rest of the chapter can be found here.

I have decided to join Cath from Squiggle Mum with her new post idea for ‘Growing In God’. At the start of the month we are invited to share how our family grows in God through something we talk about or do together etc..

Category: All Sorts of Things, Deeper Thoughts, Family / Tags: , ,

Amazing!

February 2, 2012 / Molly / 3 comments

I’ve been putting off writing this post for almost a week now. I’m not too sure what to write really or whether I want to write this on my blog. Let me just say this, God has provided my hubby with an amazing job opportunity which means that we will be leaving Western Australia. He applied for this job back in October last year, was interviewed in December and was accepted last Sunday. In time you will know where we are but I don’t want to spend the next 7 or 8 weeks blogging about moving (actually I might not have the time once the packing boxes arrive!). To summarise though here is what moving interstate means:

At this end of the 8 weeks
- saying goodbye to friends and family
- giving away our ducks, finches, chooks and budgie
- culling our belongings
- dealing with people I’ve never dealt with before such as banks, removalists, realtors, painters etc..
- packing packing packing

At the other end of the 8 weeks
- getting to know new people
- becoming a Pastor’s wife again
- changing schools for our girls
- getting new pets at some point
- unpacking unpacking unpacking
- doing all the things you have to do when you move state (as in transferring records, changing licenses etc)
- getting used to a bigger house that has an air con that works, ceiling fans and a dishwasher (haven’t ever had any of those unless you count the big box air con in our window here that stopped working while we were in Cairns).

Only a week before we got the news we set up the girls trampoline which was their Christmas present. At the time we knew that we may have to pack it up again in a few weeks time but we promised them that we would set it up. They love it and I’m sure it will look great in the new backyard.

So. Moving. Once we have things booked up and have gotten a hold of packing boxes I’ll be on my way. Feel free to share any interstate moving tips with me!

Category: All Sorts of Things, Deeper Thoughts, Family / Tags: ,

Cairns Week 6 – The Final Week

January 21, 2012 / Molly / No comments

I was all too aware that this last week was our last in the run up to getting on a plane and returning home so we made the most of it. Somehow we managed to fit in a few more trips to places around the area and a whole lot of swimming in my parent’s pool. We managed to spend a lot of time (and snapshots) on capturing still shots above the water, that was so much fun!!


My brother driving on water.

Another thing that we all did together in the last week was go back to the Botanical Gardens and see the world’s largest (and stinkiest) flower. By the time we got there it was dying but you can still see how big it is (and thankfully it had lost its stink!):


My sister in law next to the flower.


Rainforest walk canopy


Can you spot the building? This is the Botanical Gardens Visitors Centre

The girls enjoyed some special time tinkling on the piano with Nanna:

As well as a day of doll’s clothes washing in the backyard:

We also went for a visit to the Crystal Cascades. We went there last year but it was pouring with rain so this visit was quite different. The cascades are really pretty and we even saw an eel and turtle in the water as we walked along.


Miss K spotted this very interesting caterpillar which my brother told me will become a moth.

On our last day there (last Thursday) we managed to squeeze in a visit to the Cairns Contemporary Arts Centre and see some interesting artwork. There was this huge sculpture by Ron Mueck called ‘In Bed’. He really is an amazing artist, this lady is so retrospective and realistic. I was sure she was going to move her eyeball and look at me any second!


The girls outside the art gallery.

After that we had lunch together with all of us (there are ten of us when we all are together). My brother and hubby managed to get the same coke names, great way to finish together:


I wonder if coke cans from the US have ‘buddy on them.

Finally it was off to the airport with all our luggage. There was a lot of luggage and we did make it within our limits but only just! Our flight home was uneventful and the girls slept. Thank you to Michael’s Dad who picked us up.

Now we are back in the land of heat and dry. The grass is a bit brown but our house sitter did an amazing job keeping our animals fed and our garden producing tomatoes and cucumbers! I can’t believe that our mango tree here is actually growing decent mangoes. I’ll share a garden up date post a little later. Now I’m up to labeling school supplies and sorting the house! Happy Perth Summer everyone!

Category: All Sorts of Things, Darling Daughters, Family / Tags: , , , ,

Kids, Creation and God

January 14, 2012 / Molly / One comment

I have decided to join Cath from Squiggle Mum with her new post idea for ‘Growing In God’. At the start of the month (as you can see I’m running a bit late) we are invited to share how our family grows in God through something we talk about or do together etc.. Thanks Cath for starting this, I think its a great idea!

As you know we’ve been away on holidays for quite a while now. This means we are out of any form of routine which is of course doubled by the fact that its the summer school holidays. Whenever we are over here we spend a lot of time exploring the area (which you may have noticed from my previous posts), visiting rainforests, waterfalls, farms, lakes, rivers etc etc…. As far as I can tell the girls enjoy exploring as long as we include a few stops at playgrounds along the way or let them go swimming where possible and safe.

The girls are getting to the age where there are lots of questions and Little L answers most things with ‘why?’. We take every opportunity to explain to them what the Bible says about God being the number one artist around, showing them how creative he is. We don’t sit down and have family devotions every day but we do try to incorporate God into the every day. Its important that they don’t associate God just with serious talk, praying before a meal or church. What better way to get to know the creator than to spend time in his creation!

Category: All Sorts of Things, Deeper Thoughts, Family / Tags: , ,

Cairns Week 5

January 12, 2012 / Molly / No comments

Once again this week was full of a lot of looking around and exploring. Seeing as I blogged about our little break up on the tablelands I don’t need to include that here. This week we did two long car trips, firstly up towards Port Douglas and secondly down to Babinda. Both are about 55kms away from where we are staying, in opposite directions. We also had a family photo-shoot at a beach and we can’t wait to see the results.

On Monday we got in the car and headed north. Our first stop was the Barron Gorge where we saw the hydro plant. It was quite hot so we were slathered in sunscreen. This is what we saw:

We drove down the road a little to Lake Placid. We weren’t that impressed but we were amused by a sign that said ‘kayaks for hire’ when the lake had ‘do not swim here, crocodile area’.

We took off towards Port Douglas but decided to have a look at Mossman first. We visited the town for lunch and then the Mossman Gorge. What a beautiful area, the rainforest there is quite different than other places we’ve been and they have a ice cold swimming area there:

We stopped off at Port Douglas after this before driving back.

Yesterday we spent some time at Clifton Beach having some photos taken. Its a gorgeous area although you can’t really swim at the beaches in Cairns due to the jellyfish (stingers) and sometimes the threat of crocodiles!


My hubby, Dad and brother.

After the photo-shoot was finished we all drove down to Babinda where the Babinda Boulders are. We didn’t realise just how hot it was until we got there. The boulder area is very pretty but I don’t think we all enjoyed it as much as we could have because of the heat and the march flies. However, once we figured out a safe place for the kids to swim we all cooled off as the water was once again, ice cold and beautiful!


Babinda Boulders

The rest of the week included doing piles of washing from our trip, a little shopping and a sleepover by my nephews. What a busy week! We have one week left here and I can’t believe the time has almost come to leave. I love being here, its so relaxing and revitalising. I’m not sure what this last week will bring but I do love living from day to day with very little planning!

Category: All Sorts of Things, Family / Tags: , , , ,

A Holiday within a Holiday – Day 4

January 11, 2012 / Molly / No comments

The final day of our trip up to the tablelands was also busy and fun. The kids learnt a lot as the first thing we did (once we had finished cleaning our cabins) was head to Malanda where we stopped off at the Malanda falls and reserve. There is meant to be a range of animals there including platypus and tree kangaroos (although we didn’t see any). We really enjoyed walking around the rainforest walk as each forest we’ve been to is quite different from the next. This one was full of fungi (I love me some fungi to photograph!).


This was outside the falls area.

From there we drove up the road to do a tour of the ‘Dairy Farmers’ Milk Factory. We weren’t sure how much it would be but again, this turned out to be one of the cheaper options for families in the area. The cost was $30 for a family of four and you get a tour plus a milkshake (worth $4.50) each at the end. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside the factory but we got to see how they make the bottles (and recycle the ones they need to), bottle the milk, make mozzarella cheese and then wandered back over to the cafe next door for the milkshakes.


We all had to put on gumboots (unless we had closed in shoes on already). This is myself and my Mum.

The great part of this tour was that the kids got a follow on from the previous day when we had visited a dairy and watched how the cows were milked. That farmer sends his milk to this particular factory.

After lunch we headed off back towards Cairns but had two more stops along the way. The first was back to Lake Barrine to show my brother and sister in law the tea house. The second was to see the Cathedral Fig Tree on the edge of the Tinnaroo Dam area. This one was much bigger than the Curtain Fig Tree we had seen a few days before.

After this we all headed back down the very winding road that is the Gilles Highway.

What a great four days it was, very memorable and somehow we managed to an awful lot but still relax and sit still. Each place we visited we took our time, wandering, sitting, looking, exploring and enjoying. I love living in Australia where we have such a varied landscape and I have the opportunity to see God’s creation by stepping outside our door.

Category: All Sorts of Things, Family / Tags: , , , , , ,

A Holiday within a Holiday – Day 3

January 9, 2012 / Molly / One comment

Day three was the first day that we were all together so we decided to take a bit of a drive to the historic tin mining town of Herberton. We felt a bit like we were back in Armadale (WA) because that part of the tablelands is dry and non-rainforest-like. The first building in Herberton was the School of Arts, built in 1881 and has been in constant use since. I am a little confused though as the pub has 1880 on the top of it:

The kids and their Dads went to the Mining museum together (very cheap, they all got in for $10 total) while us ladies went for a coffee (and my Dad). I managed to pick up some great Bessemer ware in a little vintage shop and out the back they had this parked:

We had to be back before 4pm as we had been invited to take the kids to the dairy part of the campsite and view the milking. In-between we had a swim and a rest:

Then around 4pm it was off to the dairy. We watched the cows file in (600 of them) and then the farmer (who owns the campsite) took us into the milking area.

Both girls and both nephews were invited to milk the cow. Little L even got ‘kneed’ in the head by the cow but shook it off and had a go (resilient little thing she is). After they had a go they got to see how they attached the milking machine and see where the milk goes. Then we got to see the farmer change over the cows before we left. It was so great for them to see the whole thing and have a go!

Once we got back from milking my hubby decided to take the girls out in the canoes. My Dad took one and hubby took the other and off they went. The girls loved every second of it!

After the canoing the kids all got to do something else they hadn’t done before, having a ride on a quad bike. Again, they loved it so much that Miss K asked for a second ride (with the campsite caretaker at the helm):

The firsts continued that day with a family campfire complete with marshmallow roasting (yum!):

So, what a beautiful day that was, full of firsts for the kids:

Visiting a mining museum
Milking a Cow
Canoing
Riding on a quad bike
Roasting Marshmallows on a fire

Of course we still managed to play cards that night before bed and boy were we all ready to sleep!

Category: All Sorts of Things, Family / Tags: , , , ,

A Holiday within a Holiday – Day 2

January 8, 2012 / Molly / 3 comments

Day two of our little break up on the Atherton Tablelands and we really enjoyed seeing a bit of the area. There were two main things we did that day, visited Lake Barrine and its gorgeous tea house and then visited the Nerada Tea Factory. Lake Barrine is a privately owned lake and surrounding area with a tea room and river cruise to boot. We spent the a few hours there enjoying the food, scenery and hubby and my Dad did a partial walk around the lake.


I even managed to get a shot of a Birdwing Butterfly as it landed on a tree.

After we had fully explored Lake Barrine we drove back towards Malanda and decided to stop off at the Nerada Tea Plantation for afternoon tea. It was a bit of a hike with lots of dips and turns but it was nice to actually see entire hills covered in tea plants.

We decided not to pay the money to do the tour but to enjoy some cups of tea instead.

Even the girls had a taste of the tea. It was worth a visit and I’m sure the tour would be quite interesting. The tea is grown in Malanda on the tablelands as well as elsewhere, processed right there but packaged in Brisbane.

By the time we got back to the cabins my brother, sister in law and nephews had arrived. My brother, Dad and I went for a wander around the property and took a heap of photos around the big lake on the campsite (pics tomorrow) and that night we all played Hand and Foot (cards). Day two was very relaxing!

Category: All Sorts of Things, Family / Tags: , ,

A Holiday within a Holiday – Day 1

January 7, 2012 / Molly / One comment

Last Tuesday we loaded up the van and drove up to the Atherton Tablelands. You have to go via the Gilles Highway and its very long and winding road.

We were staying at a Christian campsite called Quinola Lakes with my parents and then my brother and family who arrived the following day. The area is quite different to the Cairns area, its cooler and less humid so no mozzies and hardly any flies. The campsite was very pretty with lakes, green grass and a swimming hole. Our cabins were quaint and very nice too:

I have a lot more photos to share but will be doing one post for each day. Day one involved driving up to Malanda, visiting the curtain fig tree, Atherton and then the dairy and chocolate factory. We were worn out by then so went back to the cabins for dinner and to play cards that night. Pretty good start to the break!

Category: All Sorts of Things, Family / Tags: , ,

Cairns Week 4

January 7, 2012 / Molly / No comments

This post actually is only four days instead of 7. For the rest of the fourth week we went on a holiday within a holiday and I will be blogging about that separately……….er in about four posts!!! Yep we did so much in four days that each day needs it own. I suppose my blog is a bit of a photo blog so thats what you can expect in the coming days.

Back to week 4. Seeing as Christmas was over we avoided the shopping centres as much as possible. The time has come for outdoor adventures and visits to natural attractions for the most part. Here’s a bit of what we did in week four:


A visit up to Kuranda (been there quite a few times now)


While in Kuranda we popped down the road to the Barron Falls again, so pretty there.


Fascinating Nature at the falls.


Lots of pool swimming and as you can see, bombing too!


Happy New Year! This is us watching the Cairns Fireworks from the top of the hill.


The week was ‘finished’ with a trip to Rusty’s Markets where the grapes are super cheap!


As are the pineapples

Its a new year and I’m very glad of that. I’m not sure what 2012 will bring but we started the year out well. Happy New Year!

Category: All Sorts of Things, Family / Tags: , ,
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