Beyond the Edge of Adventure

It's amazing. Two hours in the saddle - with brief periods spent bouncing in and out of it - has done wonders for my fitness (read: saddlesoreness!) and my spirit. Horse riding is something I enjoy doing and I've spent the last 10 years wanting to get back in the saddle, but have been pregnant, breastfeeding, too poor or too busy! I was even a little challenged by my instructor to try a canter (sort of a slow run, horse-style), which I'd never done before. I'd forgotten how good it to try something a little risky and enjoy the exhilaration. So, when are you off on your next challenging adventure? It doesn't have to be a horse ride. Maybe it's dancing. Or making a special dinner for your family. Going on a long bushwalk. Painting. Reading a certain number of books. Whatever it is, I dare you to get out there, grab the experience with both hands and shake all of the life-giving enjoyment out of it that you possibly can!

I'm a bit sad about the general attitude towards having babies these days. It seems that the concepts associated with having children are burdens, bondage (lack of freedom), expense, trouble, crazy and my personal favourite: something to 'do' or 'get' after you've 'had a life' or 'got yourselves sorted'. I think it's a pretty nifty trick of Satan to build a lie around a little thread of truth. Yes, children can be seen as those horrible things listed above. But only if you go by the standards of the world! God's standards or expectations of family life are ALWAYS referred to in the Bible in very positive terms (Psalm 127:5). 'Blessing' and 'joy' are two words that spring to mind off the top of my head. The Bible sees having babies as top priority for a family (Jeremiah 29:4-9). The Bible looks upon getting married and having a family as life , not a thing on the 'to do' list when you've finished doing all t...

I'm sitting here on my couch. I'm drinking a coffee (I'm a new convert to coffee with my low salicylate diet). Everyone's having a rest, including the paramedic of the house who's just come off night shift. The baby's asleep. There is no sweeter sound than the sound of a quiet house on a lazy summer Saturday afternoon. It's been a long week. Several times a day this week, I've had two and sometimes more children start to talk to me at exactly the same time. It does my head in - having a queue of little people who want to share something with me! I'm ready for a break. On Monday morning, I'm getting up early and driving about an hour from my place to go on a trail ride. It's my husband's christmas present to me and I'm SO excited to go! I haven't done any horse riding since 2003 at SU (Scripture Union) Schoolies and before that with my high school friend with whom I used to go riding with occasionally. That's almost 1...

In the interests of - well - staying happily married, my husband and I are launching a new little project. It's called 'The Date Night Box'. Isn't it cute? It's my husband's idea - we were always thinking of awesome date night ideas, then forgetting about them! So, the other night we wrote down our ideas. I thought we'd just get a few ideas down, since we were both really tired. But no, we got started and just kept going! We thought of 22 ideas for date night! That's over five months worth of weekly date nights! Wow! We need somewhere to store these wonderful ideas, of course. And since Ben's not using his index cards that he bought for his study, he suggested putting them to good use - cut them up, write our ideas down and store them in a cute little box. That way, when we book in a date night, we've got an idea ready to go, instead of falling for the usual "Oh, let's just watch a DVD." thing. These ideas are what we...

OK, so it's a bit late for my Christmas greeting. But it's only the day after, so it still counts, right? I just wanted to share a bit about the year that's passed and about what lies ahead. This year has been busy and at times quite difficult. I'd say there were more valleys than mountains, but on the whole, I think I've come out the other end stronger and learning to trust my faithful heavenly Father much more. We started our year with a positive pregnancy test for our fifth baby. That was scary and at times difficult to comprehend, but as the year progressed, we realised just how much God wanted this precious baby to be on earth with all the little miracles he performed along the way to make it my easiest pregnancy (no nausea, no fatigue until third trimester), my easiest labour (6 hours with only an hour and a half of active labour) and one of my most settled and calm babies (my eldest was by far and away the most settled!). Lara Julie arrived on Septemb...

Yesterday, I dropped four of our children with their grandparents for three nights. Since I had driven five hours that day, I hadn't had any wonderful ideas for dinner. Thankfully, my husband often does!   After I picked him up from work, this is where we went and what we ate!   It was a half hour drive from his work. We chatted on the way and I tried to figure out where we were going - it was a surprise and I adore surprises!   As we got further and further along on our trip, I realised I was tired. I was sick of the car and I just wanted to lie down and rest! I had been to the beach, so was sticky and sandy. I longed for a shower.   On the tip of my lips was the question, "Is it much further? I'm really tired." But I held back and reminded myself that my husband had spent time thinking about where to take me and had gone and purchased some items for dinner in an interesting-looking paper bag that reminded me of deli food - one of my favourite...

I didn't know all that much about spiritual warfare eight weeks ago. Now I know more. On October 14th, my seven-year-old son was baptised. It was higher than any other 'mountain top' experience I have ever had. Ever. Better than getting married, better than going to church camp. Better than the day he was born. I'd had baptism for him on my heart for about six months prior. I continually had that feather-brush thing going on in the back of my mind about having him baptised and becoming a christian. It felt weird. I didn't know how to approach talking to my own child about Jesus and I felt like a bit of a spiritual gumby. That's a terrible phrase, but it's how I felt. Like I was moving through wet cement to reach him. I prayed about it lots whenever it felt heavy on my heart and prayed for God's protection over him while I looked for any small opportunity to start 'the' conversation that is the single most important conversation one can ...