My Big News

The big news in my little world is that circumstances have led me to move out of our acreage home (which still hasn't sold) and into a little cottage in town. It's a rental but after a week of moving and unpacking and pottering about this little house, it's already starting to feel like home.

It's our personal journey and I have hesitated to share this part of it with you, for fear of being reprimanded / criticised / discouraged. I'm not going to go into the details of how and why we have made this choice as part of our journey of separating, but we have. And yes, there have been tears and moments of fear and doubt, but I do truly believe that this step is an important one for both Stuart and I - the chance, for the first time in our adult lives, to live as separate, individual people. I know God is with us through this, and He will not leave us or forsake us. I hang on to that hope.

My beautiful children are all doing very well. I missed them terribly these past few days, as I was busy setting up this home for them and Stuart was spending the weekend with them. They came this morning, and it was so wonderful to have them arrive and soak in everything. I cherish them so much, and treasure my time with them now more than ever before.

My Mum arrives tomorrow to spend a few days with us, and the kids are so excited to show her everything. It's kind of exciting living in town again after 18 months out on the land. The kids and I even walked to town late this afternoon (an easy 10 minute stroll), had dinner (I'm still without saucepans until tomorrow!) and popped into Bunnings to buy a bath plug and some little brightly coloured kid chairs my children have had their eyes on for awhile. We walked home with the chairs stacked on top of the stroller, in the semi-darkness. They thought it was a great adventure!

I appreciate your prayers and ask for your support at this time. I look forward to sharing some photos of my new home once I've finished the unpacking.

Thank You

Just wanted to say a big thank you to all of you for your prayers. We have had no news as yet regarding a house offer, but I'm still quietly hopeful. :) If not this lady, then somebody else. SOON!

Please keep us in your prayers as we wait to sell, and continue our very busy schedule of rehearsals for The Music Man (this week alone I have 7 rehearsals, one every day of the week, then a promotional performance in a local Flood Relief Concert on Sunday...), and trying to keep a balance of work / family / rest at the same time.

Hope everyone is having a great week. :)

One More Sleep!!!!

It is early on Sunday morning and as I sit here awake, emotional, apprehensive, overwhelmed and excited, the rest of my family sleeps. :) I think I'm the only one having these feelings. :) The children are doing well - obviously William is oblivious to everything, but Saraya and Elijah have said they're not feeling nervous about the move, just excited. Which is great. And Stu? Well he's just plain old exhausted. It's 4th Term after all, so even without packing late at night, sorting out a rather disastrous shed, and pulling down the chook run (why oh why didn't the new owners want it?!! It's built like fort knox and isn't exactly coming down easily! :( Any guys want to come give Stu a hand today, I know he'd appreciate it!) - he's already more than swamped with work, night and day. SO. I think he's operating on auto-pilot, just trying to hang on and survive until end of term on 5th December!

Here is our little House of Dreams back when we bought it in 2006.

And this is what our family looked like back then!

Wow. So much has happened in this home. Everyday life. Conversation. Love. Hurt. Cups of tea. Meals with friends and family. Play dates. The birth of our littlest son. Special times, and challenging times, with friends who are no longer in our life. It is hard to say goodbye to this home in many ways. We are leaving a lot of memories behind.

But I understand that life is sometimes like that. It changes and evolves and we grow through the things that we go through. God's grace and love astounds me. His wisdom, and His teaching, His forgiveness, and His direction. And this verse is called to mind:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future" Jeremiah 29:11.

I trust that. And I am in awe of it. I can't help but believe that God has had this new home waiting for us, waiting for the right time, the right moment, to take us there. I am excited to be starting a new chapter of family life in that home. I am not the same person I was when we bought our House of Dreams. My sister in law said perhaps our new one should be called "The House of Wonderful Realities!" I love what she's getting at there. And I'm hoping she's right. Even Anne and Gilbert moved on from their House of Dreams, after all. :) I understand things I never knew before. My vision is different. Our family identity is more solidified. And I can't wait to see how God can use me in this new home to bless my husband and my children and everyone who walks through our door!

And I love that when we came here, we brought two little blessings with us.

But we are taking three little blessings into our new home. Wow, God is so good!

Thank you Lord for this exciting day. Thank you for allowing our home here to sell so quickly, and for finding us the perfect new one just in time! I pray today for peace, and clarity and the endurance to get everything done. I pray that the children will be settled. I pray that Stuart will be able to get those final two metal posts out of the ground, and still have time to sort out the shed. Please be close to us today Father. I love you more than I can express, and I thank you for blessing me so abundantly!

And thank you my friends and family for all your prayers and thoughts and help leading up to this week. I couldn't do without all your encouragement! Please remember us in your prayers tomorrow as it's going to be a pretty mammoth day - Stuart is off to work and I'm here to direct removalists, look after the children (though I may have a little help with that), clean the house (praying all the while that settlement goes through successfully!!), pick up the keys, fly over to the new house, direct removalists again........... and remember to keep breathing! I am seriously looking forward to tomorrow night!! I am so thankful Mum and Ray arrive tonight to be here with me tomorrow. I absolutely need their support!

We may be without internet for a few days so I'll post as soon as I can, hopefully later in the week. Until then, blessings everyone! xo

More of the same.

What has been happening in our household today?

More of the same. You know, the usual stuff that's not really worth mentioning.

Except this.

Saraya and I have discovered how to keep her usually extremely knotty hair knot-free! Hooray!! We simply style it straight away after washing it (not always this extravagantly, we're just making up for lost time as Saraya has always detested having her hair done due to knots - so many new styles to try!) and keep it tied up overnight when most of the knotting used to occur. Such relief to discover this. :) Mornings used to be 'interesting'. ;)

And this.

As part of their creative freeplay yesterday morning, Saraya ended up as Elijah's teacher - and they sat and worked from one of her workbooks for over an hour. So much great learning achieved here, it was unbelievable! Made me a very happy, very busy Mama. :) Multi-age learning is so valuable and when it's child led, it's even better!

Oh, and more of this : the puzzle yesterday..........

And today:

Wow this girl is committed. I never knew that about her. But she is absolutely determined (her own words ;)) to have this puzzle completed by the time her Nanna and Grandpa arrive on Sunday. And at this rate, she will!

I was so relieved she decided her brain was hurting and she needed to go to bed, as she had said she'd like to stay up really late working on it. Apparently first thing on the agenda tomorrow is more work on the puzzle. I think I know what we'll be getting Saraya for Christmas. :) Despite all manner of moving-related exhaustion and busyness and stress, and William's cold, it's been a good week!

A Discovery

With the car gone with Stuart to work this morning, the children and I had a full day at home. I packed, cleaned, cooked, washed, and read to and played with the little ones. Who, may I say, have been more content to play imaginative and independent games since I have packed all their belongings in boxes than ever before! They've always been creative players - but still, sometimes 'looking' for things to do. Not so at the moment, even with very few resources to call on. Very very interesting. I am enjoying seeing what they are coming up with!

Like this game of "mountain world" which consisted of draping blankets (from the blanket box which will be moved as is, full of blankets) over small boxes and our tiny stools, climbing on them, and making mountain homes for the 10 large plastic bugs we have borrowed from the Toy Library.

Will has had a lovely few days following the antics of his big brother and sister, though is still feeling pretty miserable with his cold. Sleep has been a bit elusive...... I'm praying he'll get better quickly.

Elijah discovered a small collection of dominoes which Stu dug up out of our window seat yesterday afternoon. He spent an hour or so playing with those this morning.

Colouring-in sheets printed off the internet are proving a popular activity at the moment too. Our pencils / pens are all still accessible, of course! They're packed in a basket along with blank paper, and all our homeschooling resources.

But our great Discovery of the day was this.

Saraya found a Lord of the Rings 500 piece jigsaw puzzle in one of our bags of stuff for charity, and claimed she wanted to keep it and put it together. Admittedly I said she was too little, and it would be too difficult, and I'm so hopeless at puzzles I wouldn't be able to help her (true) - but to her credit, she was adamant she wanted to try. So. She did.

And she wins! She has the jigsaw puzzle eye for detail - and was probably half-way there by the end of the day. A few sections were already done in the box from when Stu started the puzzle years back; she worked out how they all went together and set about adding to them at lightening pace.

So, a new discovery about one of my children - my daughter is gifted at puzzles! And she most certainly didn't inherit that from me!!

Isn't life grand?

Every day brings something new to love and be thankful for.

A Post

Simply titled, because I am exhausted and couldn't think of anything better. :)

My sweet friend Helen asked me to post something on my blog tonight, so here I am. Posting. Something.

Can you tell I've had a huge few days?! Hmmm. This morning we had a garage sale, and managed to do quite well. The last few items of furniture we didn't sell are now listed on ebay, and all the bric-a-brac and clothes are at the Salvos, meeting up with the other 15 or so bags of stuff I have donated lately! Garage Sales are exhausting at the best of times, but doing one in the midst of packing (9 sleeps to go, aagggghhhh...!) is even worse. And Mr William decided not to settle last night while Stu was out, and I was simply unable to get him down until after 10:30pm. Which meant that I couldn't do the work I'd planned, then relax, then get to sleep myself until after 12am. :( Will seems to have a slight cold today, so perhaps that was what threw him out of routine? Who knows. He also prefers Stu putting him to bed - I have just told Stu tonight that he is never allowed out at night again!!!

Anyway, it has been a very very productive, very very looooong day. Furniture sold, boxes packed, children tended to, meals eaten.

9 more sleeps until we're here.

I swear (figuratively...) that I'm not going to believe it until we're actually there.

So surreal. And SO exciting! :) Thank you Lord!!!!

News from Today

* We spent the morning shopping for fruit at the market, and going to "Under 8's Day in the Park" in Queen's Park. Very fun for the kids!! Face painting, craft, school bands playing, and an awesome play by Riverside's Prep Class (well done Stu, it was so great!!!).

* Came home to have lunch and put William to bed for his nap. Except........... he didn't nap. He lay there for awhile then began to call out "Mama......... Mama?" in a happy, very awake, crystal clear voice which totally shocked me - he has never done this before! No matter what I tried, he absolutely refused to have a nap. Which means he went to bed tonight extremely tired, but I'm thankful he at least stayed awake through his dinner!! In bed by 7:30pm. I'm hoping he's back to normal tomorrow.

* While the children rested / played / did things of an educational nature ;) / I completely cleaned out our fridge ready for ......... the arrival of our new 2 door, side-by-side fridge/freezer! It's so nice!!! We couldn't fit our old fridge/freezer plus the chest freezer in our new house, so decided to upgrade and get something which would fit in perfectly. And this one will. And it's beautiful. Our old fridge/freezer, chest freezer, and numerous other items of furniture will be going (hopefully) at our garage sale this weekend, to cover some of the cost of our new, beautiful fridge!

* Saraya went to play with Chloe this afternoon. Declan came here to play with Elijah.

* I have packed 0 boxes today. :( But the day's not over yet! As I sit here and type Stuart is out working in the garage, cleaning out junk and getting things ready for the garage sale. So I'm going to get off my behind shortly and do a little packing of some stuff in our room. :)

* Cathy cooked us a delicious dinner tonight - thank you so much my dear friend!

* I have been (in those few quiet minutes!) going over my dance routines in my head a lot today. Last night dance class was so good! I am actually starting to feel confident for the end of year concert which is in 2 1/2 weeks - phew! This November has to be the biggest month of our lives!!

* I got to talk to my beautiful Mum on the phone this afternoon for a short while - I love you Mum, and am missing you so much at the moment. :( Can't wait to see you soon. xo

That's pretty much it. If you're spending time in prayer tonight, please put one up for sweet little Stellan. He could really use some prayers this week! Have a great night everyone. xo :)

3 Things

Aside from the washing, the meals, the nappy changes, the running of lavender baths and other general stuff that goes on in our house, we have really only done 3 Things today.

We went to town. We bought fruit and borrowed new books from the library.

So, the children read!!! And read and read and read and read and read ..........

Today is really hot, so right now all 3 kids are wearing very little and are outside playing with water.

And lastly but certainly not leastly, I've been --------- packing.

Yep, the House of Dreams is very quickly becoming the House of Boxes.

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3 Things done, and pretty much enjoyed. Reading. Water play. Packing.

A good day. :)

Sickness and Good News.....

This slightly blurry, hard-to-see, happy photo of my sweet Saraya (and her handsome brother ;)) is the last one I'll be posting of her as a 6 year old. That's right, tomorrow she turns 7!!!! After a hard day for Saraya and I with a stomach bug, Stuart surprised the children tonight with glow-sticks. :) They had heaps of fun with them before bed. I'm praying Saraya and I sleep well tonight, after a shocker last night. :( I detest stomach bugs! Thankfully Stu and the boys have been well thus far, and I'm praying they stay well. I'm so glad I'm feeling better tonight - I honestly wanted to crawl out of my own skin at some point today. :(

So, if we are all well and healthy tomorrow morning we are off somewhere very very special - more details tomorrow night! :) If not, it will be a quiet day at home with presents and cake. Which will still be nice. :)

One last very exciting piece of news................ a couple of hours before I started to become ill yesterday evening, I received a letter in the mail to say that the contract on our house is now UNCONDITIONAL!!! Woohoo!!!! So, we are absolutely out of here in about 21 more days. Wow. SO much to do, but at least we know it is happening! The contract on our new place is still conditional but all should be well with that one - I'm just so glad the new buyers of the "House of Dreams" were happy to take it with all it's older home quirks which surely showed up in the building inspection!

Happy weekend everyone. :)

What did we do today?

Well, we went to town. We bought fruit at the market, returned DVD's to the library, and had morning tea with a friend at Between the Buns. :)

I packed some boxes. I received some mail regarding contracts which required phone calls and letter-writing I didn't have time for. ;) I wondered how the building and pest inspection reports are being received by our buyers. I thought and prayed a lot. Talked to a friend on the phone. Did the washing. Cooked dinner.

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In more interesting news, Elijah wrote his name independently for the first time this morning!! No formal lessons here I promise - just a determined little 4 year old!

He is such a delightful boy, so content and so excited when he achieves something new!

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William scooped sand in the sand pit.

For him playing outside just fills him with joy! He still spends much of the day in the backyard.

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And someone else who loves the outdoors is Saraya. Oh Lord, please let that 3 acres be ours....

In the middle of all the busyness of life and moving house, Saraya still found time for nature journaling this afternoon. :)

It's been another long and exhausting and hopeful day. I have a feeling they're all going to be like this for the next little while........

Busy, busy, busy!

Today has been a good, long, exhausting day!

I had lots and lots to organise with solicitors, building/pest inspection, figuring out settlement date, etc. as well as assembling and packing boxes (10 today, we're aiming for 10 more tomorrow ;)), and of course the cooking / washing / caring for busy toddler who likes unpacking as I pack / homeschooling / dance class this afternoon that needed to be achieved!!! Boy am I tired........

But we got there, the house is getting some semblance of order to it again tonight and although I had to knock up baked beans and tuna on toast for tea as I forgot to cook dinner, I'm happy with what we managed to fit in today!

Oh, and here's another peek of our new home...........

Dam on the left, 2 long rows of young eucalyptus trees in the front, home high up on the hill. *Sigh*....... Is it really, really real??? :)

Day 6 - Waiting

Okay, I'm getting a little tired of my headings simply stating which day of the holidays we are up to so I added an extra word. ;) Gotta continue what I started though, right?!

So, today is a day of waiting. Trusting. Hoping. Letting go.

This morning we made an offer on the house, lower than the asking price. This is commonly done of course, and so is the knocking back part. Yes, she knocked it back and we have decided not to give her a counter-offer, yet. We have a figure in mind which would put us in (hopefully) a good position to list ours at a reasonable price and get us all resettled as quickly as possible. BUT. We don't know if the owner will stubbornly stick to her asking price - her prerogative - or perhaps reconsider on our offer. We may go up a little higher than we offered this morning, but after some financial blows these past couple of years we just want to be really careful and good stewards of the money God blesses us with. SO. We are waiting, trusting, hoping and letting go.

Why do I choose to lean on God, hand it over to him and trust the outcome is the best thing for us, whatever happens?

Because "I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord; "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11.

What a promise!!! So although we can see ourselves there, I can virtually smell the gum trees and picture myself sitting have a cup of tea with a friend on that verandah, the children running around on the lawn, going down to the front of the block to show their little friends the hollow tree, kangaroos in the neighbouring bush at dusk, flocks of galahs overhead................. Okay, it sounds so superb, but although I want it for our family I don't know the bigger picture of our lives, I don't know the full details of the home, I don't know what God's plans for us over the next 12 months might be. I don't know. And He does. So, I trust Him.

And we'll be patient and we'll wait. :) *Sigh*. Not always easy. ;) But possible.

Day 5

Today hasn't exactly been restful. But it has been productive!

Stu and I have just sat and had a cup of tea after a loooong day and talked about so many things. This house, the other house, the pros, the cons, the last few years and all we've been through... Sad times, good times, silly times, joyful times, broken times - and memories of a friendship we lost last year. We both shed tears and shared some deep thoughts and feelings.

It has been such a blessing just to talk.

Now onto the praying and thinking some more. :) And hopefully sleeping a bit tonight too. Sleep has been a bit elusive lately........

So I guess you want to know if we've come up with anything. We have!! Yes, that big talk did get us somewhere.

Tomorrow morning we are going to make an offer on the house, subject to building, pest, finance and the sale of this house. We'll see if the owner accepts and I'll let you know where we go from there. Phew!! Tomorrow is destined to be another big emotional day. I think I'll go get some zzzzzzz in preparation. :) Goodnight!

Feeding the ducks and looking at houses

The afternoon that the children and I arrived home from our *break away*, Stuart took them out to Ululah Lagoon to feed the ducks and geese and black swans, while I unpacked and got myself resettled.  I love the simple beauty in these photos Stuart took that day.  It makes me wish I was there with them!

A few friends and family members have been asking me how we're going.

Firstly, thanks so much for praying for us and loving us!  I have really felt so supported during these tricky few months.  Friends and family can do so much for helping you feel heard and understood and cared for.

And I'm happy to say that we are doing well.

It's different to how I imagined coming home might be, in my idealist mind.......... we haven't had the deep emotionally connecting conversations I'd hoped for........... but I am feeling so much more positive, and God is using all this to teach us both so much about each other.  As of today, I feel closer to Stuart than I have in a long time.  I put this down to God's grace, prayer, plus a concerted effort from the two of us over the past 2 weeks.  We've been on Autumn break which has helped so much- lots of time to just *be*.  I know for sure that I love him more than I can say, and we are both dedicated to making our marriage the best it can be!  Lots of hard work ahead, but I now know that that's the case for most couples....... we are normal, I am normal.  And I am so thankful for him.

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What have we been doing over the holidays?  Well, pottering mostly. :)  Saraya announced two weeks ago that she really really doesn't like sleeping in a room on her own, and would like to move back in with the boys!  We thought it through, and decided to shift things around again...... lots of mess for a few days, but we got there and it actually looks good.  I'll try to post some photos soon.  The spare room is now "spare" again, and will be used as a guest room, craft room and study.

Today we all spent a few hours looking around at houses.  It was great fun and interesting too (I'm so voyeuristic :))......... lots of thoughts running through our heads!  Oh, the possibilities. The children were so good, and really enjoyed the whole process too.  We're going to be working hard over the next few weeks, sorting and purging and tidying and finishing etc. etc. - just to be prepared to list our home if and when we want to.   It's emotional and overwhelming - and somewhat exciting too!  What an adventure!

Tomorrow is the last day of the holidays. :(  This makes all of us a bit sad.  Even as I sit here and type, Stuart is sitting and doing class planning.  Saraya especially is quite adamant that Monday is most definitely NOT a school day......  hmmmm.  We'll see how we go. :)  Uniforms to iron, schoolbag to air out, lunchbox ideas to run through my head, etc tomorrow.  And then, the grand final of So You Think You Can Dance tomorrow night - yippee!!!!  Go Ben!!!  Go Amy!!!

Have a great Sunday everyone! :)