'but first there must be trust'

"God wanted his people to live not die.
God wanted to rescue His people not punish them."
but first there must be trust.

Trust builds
on
trust
Abraham trusted God
Isaac trusted Abraham.
Trust doesn't look at the situation,it looks through it to a person, a person that can be depended upon to "get it right". Trust knows that person; a 'history relationship' binding persons together.

To see the trees

We spent a very pleasant winter afternoon in the Botanic Gardens with some friends investigating trees.
















You can't study trees from a distance!









Wasn't it great that the "irish strawberry" had fruit!

Altogether a perfect winter day!

Sewing around Australia !

The boys and I have begun reading A Child's Geography as part of our World Studies. As part of the project the boys cut out and sewed Australia! They have never done this stitch before so I think they did pretty well. They will add as a different colour the state we live in and mark on the state approximately where we live.




Apologies to all Tasmanian viewers (ie Louise!) but we um ran out of blueness to put your state on so will have to do an amendment to this further on in our studies.oh and you'll just love Master 8's "profound" comments concerning missing state"mum, if Tasmania's not on the main land of Australia it really is a bit odd that its included as part of the country".
Not sure where his thinking goes with the country his mother hails from being that its composed of islands...maybe I confused him by telling him from a very young age that Australia was a country and a continent.
Ah well stay tuned for more geography posts!

Rain into Snow

Rain falls
Leaving the clouds that raid the sky.
They said the day would be grey.
I slid my hands in my pockets,
Walking carefully not to slip in puddles
Or slop mud on my pants.
Then, in a magical moment, the drops began to slow and I watched
As from dripping to drifting,rain changed to snow.

Well it did rain today(a bit!) and we are studying doublets.
Now can you :

Put MILK into PAIL

WELL into DONE

Change MICE into RATS

Find CAMP /SITE

"Lillypilly Crafts"

I am privileged to have as a very good friend a homeschooling mother who is also a talented artist and crafter in her own right. Her home is full of examples of Anna's talent and of that of her children as you can see in the pictures below.
Anna and her daughter have recently started up a small business to offer these crafts to others.I was very excited when I visited today to see the beginning of her winter seasonal display. She was quick to assure me that the display is in no way completed yet as many other little "characters" are still waiting to introduce themselves to her.
However I think you will agree it is an amazing work already and I look forward to meeting new members of the winter table as they introduce themselves!

A close-up of the Royal Winter family


Pa and Ma Ingalls below of "Little House" fame were made by Joseph 10 years old!



a beautiful felted composition of the of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

And here is a sampling of the kits:

I am going to add a list of the kits that are available.
Please remember this business is run by a homeschooling family and their responsibilities are first and foremost to their own family.

The List:

"Mother Rain & Her Three Droplets"
"Royal Winter Family"
"Felted Mice in Hiding"
"Seed Pod Babies"
"Felted Mother Winter"
"Hakea Babies (in gum leaf pods)"
"Wee Felt Folk Families"
"Wee Felt Folk Keyrings"
"Boy in Kurrajong Boat"
"Hail Mary Felt Rosettes (for young children)"
"Felted Robins"
"Crows Ash Family (family made of crows ash pods)" AND MUCH MORE.....

Prices on request!

Sanctifying the ordinary

I have always loved the art of Vermeer but never until this recent post by Holy Experience have I been able to sort out why. What is it that brings me back in fascination time after time just to stare. And why do I come away feeling so refreshed and encouraged. Thank you Anne!Now I know:
it is this beautiful ability to capture the ordinary, to sanctify the homely.




Yes we see an astronomer looking at a globe, but nothing is resolved, no mind-shattering discovery appears to have taken place.



And what of the painter. It may in all probability be a grand painting when it is completed but we don’t know that, we can’t tell yet. More we get an impression of the hours of endless working, the minutes of ordinariness that go into the completed work. But one of my favorites like Anne is the woman pouring milk. What a very normal unexceptional thing to do. Oh what marvelous talent our Creator has to put into the mind of mankind his own creative spirit glory be to Jesus!

Let's dance!

Received this in an e-mail and thought it was too good not to share!
Sometimes we wonder, "What did I do to deserve this?" or "Why did God have to do this to me?" Here is a wonderful explanation...

A daughter is telling her Mother how everything is going wrong, she's failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, "Absolutely Mom, I love your cake."

"Here, have some cooking oil," her Mother offers.
"Yuck" says her daughter.
"How about a couple raw eggs?" "Gross, Mom!"
"Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?"
"Mom, those are all yucky!"

To which the mother replies: "Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! "

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!

God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.
Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart.
If you like this, send this on to the people you really care about.


Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.

Nature crafting

Here are some recent pictures of our nature corner. 

The first picture shows one of our acorn people, made out of pipe-cleaners,wool fleece, a wooden bead and of course an acorn cap!

We love Brambley Hedge here(which is the big book you can see in the backgro

und. Also in this photo are two of ds's wooden gnomes, they are so cute and tiny and he had a ball making them when he was nine. Now if I could only find his pocket knife maybe he could do some more whittling!

The second picture shows another acorn fellow in the moss garden youngest son insisted we needed on the table! Then you can see how our family of Banksia men has grown! Finally in the back of the table are our winter gnomes...because it is officially winter here now! Still as we love autumn so much, and as we are 

still finding autumn leaves we will continue to meld the seasons on the table. A bit like life really isn't it, things change ,some stay the same, the tide moves on, yet there really is nothing new under the sun; its all been played out before.

Sneezles

can't add much to this picture except to say some of us are still a bit like the beginning of the following poem and some of us have reached the end of the poem

Christopher Robin
Had wheezles
And sneezles,
They bundled him
Into
His bed.
They gave him what goes
With a cold in the nose,
And some more for a cold
In the head.
They wondered
If wheezles
Could turn
Into measles,
If sneezles
Would turn
Into mumps;
They examined his chest
For a rash,
And the rest
Of his body for swellings and lumps.
They sent for some doctors
In sneezles
And wheezles
To tell them what ought
To be done.
All sorts and conditions
Of famous physicians
Came hurrying round
At a run.
They all made a note
Of the state of his throat,
They asked if he suffered from thirst;
They asked if the sneezles
Came after the wheezles,
Or if the first sneezle
Came first.
They said, "If you teazle
A sneezle
Or wheezle,
A measle
May easily grow.
But humour or pleazle
The wheezle
Or sneezle,
The measle
Will certainly go."
They expounded the reazles
For sneezles
And wheezles,
The manner of measles
When new.
They said "If he freezles
In draughts and in breezles,
Then PHTHEEZLES
May even ensue."


Christopher Robin
Got up in the morning,
The sneezles had vanished away.
And the look in his eye
Seemed to say to the sky,
"Now, how to amuse them to-day?"

"down on the farm"

We have just been given three "monster" white hens(no other way to describe them compared to our two remaining black ones)We tried to intoduce them to each other with disastrous results. The new ones took over the run and "cornered" the black ones who just sat there shivering while feathers flew!Dh has now divided the chicken house and outside run with mesh plus added these really nifty feeding and watering "tube things" he made out of pvc pipe which have open ends going into both runs. So now both flocks can see each other and hopefully in a couple of weeks we can remove the door in the mesh(supposed to be done in the dark)they can wake up and mingle happily. Well that's the theory...anyone any other ideas.
Oh and we have 4 silky bantam teenagers(I keep telling them they are all sisters!)we'll have to introduce to our silky bantam flock one day soon.The joys of owning poultry!

Sacred heart craft

The month of June being devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus we have started some crafts and devotions.

This idea is not original but it has kept hands occupied during readalouds when energy levels have been low.

Happy Twelfth Birthday!

It has taken a few days to put this post of Master 12's birthday up. As I mentioned in an earlier post this day was also Pentecost Sunday plus a violin concert. I am amazed at how ds managed to perform so well during the concert(given he was the most junior player by age and book level in many of the pieces. I did observe that his violin "slipped " off his shoulder after about the second piece(!)and he did use a phenomenal number of tissues, but his staying power....does that have something to do with turning twelve....well all I can say is "go Toby!"

So anyway he was feeling a little bemused when we got home from the concert, as I think the above picture clearly demonstrates. But he managed to cheer up at the sign of his favourite meal(chicken snitzel with oodles of garlic mashed potato and buttery peas(okay so it was skip the garlic for his serve, but it was his birthday!). And he was able to clown around with his younger sibling.

He was pretty pleased with his presents too, especially the scarf and hat Mel stayed up most of the previous night to get finished in time for him.And he enjoyed looking at the caramel mud cake he'd chosen for his birthday cake although he could only eat just the tiniest piece and after that he was off to bed pronto! He woke several times in the night and has been unwell on and off since. Now we all seem to be coming down with the same virus...ah well it is winter, and to quote a good Canadian friend of ours"what can you do?"!

How do you like my house

I found this blog with some very interesting ideas I thought I would share. The post is actually titled"how do you like my house? and meditates on how we see hospitality and how welcoming we are of others. It put me in mind of my time in Tonga where no matter how little you had, you shared . For instance shoud you be sitting down to your meal and someone were to be walking by you would call out"ha'u kai "(come and eat). It didn't matter if you were only eating dobai (dough pie: a liquidy broth made of white flour,sugar and coconut) the expectation that you had something to share with others was inherent and done with joy.
"we often assume people are completely hopeless just because they don't have the material wealth that we deem necessary for a quality life. But sometimes those who are in the most difficult circumstances know best of all where to find hope....

...The Scriptures are too profound just to read in isolation of the real world. They must be read and lived. To be interpreted correctly, they must be performed. The gospel of Jesus Christ is too big, too cataclysmic, to be left on the page. They should burst forth from our reality.
“Poverty, in a sense, exposes the truth of the human situation in its need of God. It dispels the illusion of being self-sufficient and secure, with no need of God. The poor are those whose material condition enables them to see more clearly than most the human need to be wholly reliant on God. It is in this sense that the biblical poor are understood as paradigmatic in their faith.” Richard Bauckham"