Winter's Arrival

Well, this week has turned bitterly cold. Bitterly, bitterly cold.

I live in sunny Queensland - trust me, for us, this kind of cold - well, it's bitter, and kind of a shock to our systems.

So the jumpers, gloves, scarves and beanies have all made their appearances. The laundry basket fills more quickly with all the extra layers. We all appear a couple of sizes bigger. ;) And with all the hot tea and coffee I'm drinking, and the winter warming foods I've been enjoying..... if I'm not careful I soon will be a couple of sizes bigger! Just today I've started filling up on fresh fruit again instead of other things. Feeling inspired with health again is good. :)

Today I've enjoyed some peaceful alone time as the older children are at school and William is at kindy. It's been delightful - peaceful music, a little reading ("Picnic at Hanging Rock", which I haven't read since high school), a nice hot shower, cooking tonight's pasta dish...... and now, packing. Tomorrow morning after I teach my music students, Saraya, Elijah, William and I are driving 2 hours south to the Sunshine Coast to stay with my parents, brother and his fiance for the long weekend. I'm really looking forward to spending time with my family.

It's kind of funny packing jeans and jackets for a weekend at the beach...... but when winter comes early, and with a bite to the air, it's necessary! Hope you are all having a delightful Friday.

Easter Sunday Joy

Pancake breakfast; dressing in our Sunday best; egg hunting.

Bible reading; Church with friends.

Decorating the bare branches to make our Easter Tree.

Lunch in the park with the brass band playing; a ride on the model steam trains; Toy Story 3 in the afternoon; another church service in the evening.

Lots of Easter Sunday Joy. :)

Easter Trip to the Animal Farm

Our family Christmas Gift from my parents last year was 2 nights at a beautiful farm in the mountains. We claimed it this Easter break.

It rained and rained and rained........ did I mention it rained?

But we were (fairly) prepared with umbrellas, gum boots and jumpers, and we still ventured out of doors to explore and enjoy the land and the animals.

The mist in the valley lingered day and night.

There were endless cups of tea and coffee (it was cold...), chocolate to share and a nice bottle of red wine for me. Warm socks, a fireplace, and feet up on the coffee table.

A lovely Easter break.

A Holiday Escape

Well, our little family is heading away for a holiday tomorrow. We will be spending time in the city with family for a few days, then escaping to the mountains for two nights at a farm stay (thanks to my parents' Christmas gift to us!), then having a night at the beach with family before heading home again. I'm sure I'll have lots of photos to share next week. :)

Blessings to you all as we head towards the Easter season. xx

Catch-Up Post

I'm sorry everyone - I said I was back on the blog, but have remained a rather non-existent blogger! Here is a catch-up type post on what's happening here in our lives.

* It is Easter Holidays. We are at the end of the first of two weeks holiday. This week we have been at home, and next week we will be away. It has been nice to be all together again (though the big two children are missing school!)

* I am still recovering from The Music Man. It has been a genuine time of grief for me - hard to explain unless you have been through this yourself. But I am working through this time with lots of prayer, good friends, and chocolate...

* The Music Man was a huge success! It covered the newspapers and headlines these past weeks, and the Theatre is already discussing what next year's musical may be. "My Fair Lady" seems to be the current favourite.

* We have a very positive lead on our house - a couple came through last weekend, and loved it. We are hoping to receive an offer tomorrow - please pray! It has been a long, difficult six months waiting for a buyer and I am praying these are the people we've been waiting for.

* We are house hunting again, after losing the last two homes we had under contract.

* The children, chickens and kittens are all well, thriving and happy. :) The garden, however, is sorely neglected.

* I had a very successful night on Tuesday - participating in a vocal 'Master Class', in which I had to sing "Think of Me" (Phantom) and "Show Me" (My Fair Lady) - in front of about 40 people at the theatre, and be critiqued by the current Adjudicator of the QLD Eisteddfod. It was daunting to say the least!! However, her critique was helpful and very positive. I came away feeling empowered and inspired to further pursue my singing more seriously.

* Tonight we fed the children early, and I'm about to sing and pray with Saraya then make Stuart and I a "grown up" dinner. We rarely do this and I thought it would be nice to sit together and chat.

* I received a Photo CD from The Music Man with about 200 professional photos on it, yesterday. Seeing them all brought all the memories pouring back! Here are a few for your interest....

'Harold' and 'Marian' - this one was used as the full page promotional photo in our regional newspaper.

Program head shots...

This one was also in the paper - myself with 'Mrs Paroo' and younger brother 'Winthrop'.

Full cast photo.

More to come, and I'm looking forward to catching up on all your blogs soon too!

Thankful For This Man

Today, as we simply spent time together at home and at the park, I marvelled at how much I truly love my husband.

He is such a devoted and kind man.

He always makes time for little William, even when he is being his most demanding self. "Play with me Papa!"

And he is so much fun to be around!

All the best to all the little ones (and their Mama's) who are going off to school tomorrow. Mine are asleep early, good food in their bellies, uniforms laid out ready. May tomorrow be filled with wonder, excitement, and new beginnings.

My Life Now

Sorry I've been a slack blogger lately. Life has been very full of wonderful summer holiday things! With the flood seemingly over and behind us, lots of other things have been keeping us busy.

We've had trips to the pool and the water park and the indoor playcentre, we've been school shoe shopping and school book covering, pencil labelling, etc. - and I even had a spontaneous trip by train last weekend for my little brother's engagement party! We are meant to be travelling to the city again next weekend to see the musical Wicked, but it may be cancelled due to the recent flooding. We know up until the Friday night performance is cancelled - but Saturday is still yet to be announced. I'm not giving up hope yet!

The children start school next week so we've been talking lots about that, praying, preparing, etc. I think we're all feeling a combination of excitement and nerves.

But mostly my life right now has been full of this:

Remember this post? Well, Marian is slowing entering my subconscious as I learn all my lines and music and try to get my head fully around this rather complex character!

Our first rehearsal was on Monday night. The whole cast was together for the first time and we worked on a chorus number. I'm not in many of the chorus scenes, so won't be required Monday nights again for the next few weeks. Wednesday nights are Principal rehearsals (SO excited for tonight!), and Saturday mornings are purely singing with our vocal coach for the show. I've had to shift three of my own piano students to lesson times through the week. Life is certainly going to be full for awhile. Once we get into February and March, rehearsals will be Monday and Wednesday nights, plus Saturdays and Sunday afternoons. Final couple of weeks before we open we need to be available to go in every night of the week. Eeek! With no family in town, this is an enormous challenge for me. Thankfully Stuart and I can tag-team quite a bit as we're mostly in different scenes - but once we start doing full runs of the show, our wonderful babysitter Hayley and a couple of special friends will be caring for our little ones at night time. It will be a whole team effort! :)

I am so excited about this opportunity, and am going to be working very hard to ensure life stays as calm and smooth for the children as possible for the next 8 weeks........ until it's all over. Theatre is my passion, and it's so good for my spirit to be working on a project like this one. While the children are at school, William and I will be busy keeping all the cogs of home life turning. :) And he will be in care two days a week in a fantastic day care centre here in town. He is calling it "Kindy" and is beyond excited about going! We went to visit last week and I just feel a huge sense of peace about it. I will use that time for piano teaching (I've got three, maybe four students to fit in on weekday afternoons), housework, cooking, appointments, shopping, singing practice, exercise, etc etc. And maybe a bit of rest here and there. ;)

Last year was quite a harrowing year in many ways. Health problems were the main concern. Then there were issues within our family - things that just weren't working well. We are all feeling quietly hopeful that 2011 will be a year of balance for all of us. Balance for good physical and mental health, balance of work and play and rest. Balance of time at home and time 'out in the world'. :) Time to read and time to delve into scripture, intentional time for prayer and spiritual growth. I just want to draw closer to my Saviour this year and trust and rely on Him more than ever before.

Wishing you all a balanced, happy and healthy year too my friends! Oh, and thank you for listening to my rambles.

Peace

The water is receding. Praise God!

I went out at sunset to sweep the verandah and feed the cats their dinner and lock up the chooks. Peace seemed to be reigning in my garden tonight.

Molly had moved into the downstairs floor of the dollhouse outside!

The sky still looked a little foreboding.... but no rain, huzzah.

The chooks were clucking and grazing before bed.

And my sweet pixie of a girl was sitting watching the sky.

Peace.

Helping Hands

A section of our town remains cut off by the still swollen river, and we had heard supplies were running low over there.

Stuart put out a call on facebook a few nights ago, and also contacted the SES workers to see if we could rally together some care packages from our side of the river and send them over. The SES volunteers were just wonderful, offering to take over whatever we brought down to them.

Well, the response was amazing!! Many many people contributed bread, milk, tinned food, nappies, formula, toilet paper - all the essentials! A local butcher also brought a fridge load of fresh meat which was wonderful. Stuart went over with the first load (yes, there were several) to make sure it got safely to the emergency relief centre over there. I believe the goods were all locked up last night, and today authorities and volunteers have worked tirelessly to distribute it to those in need within that community, and to some outlying communities which were even more desperate.

Saraya worked hard taping boxers up ready to cross the water.

Then joined lots of friends in the park while we waited for Stuart's return.

Most of the park is still underwater! The levels had receded, but are rising again today due to continued rainfall this week.

And Stuart came back to us safely!

Despite the horrific tragedy our state has faced / is still facing this week, it is wonderful to see people helping each other out. It was nice to be part of that spirit yesterday. :) Thank you all for your prayers - they are much appreciated.