Just another day at the beach, except for...

Bastion Point - where we mostly swim

...something extraordinary happening, one of those moments where I knew that I was alive

and free, a sensation that awoken my soul!

Would you like to know what happened?

Really?

Well, you may not truly know what I'm saying, unless you have experienced the feeling either the same as me or in regards to another event in your life.

Alright already, I'll get on with it!

The beach is just the beach with a zillion tiny little particles of shell all crushed that we call sand that gets under our nails, up our noses and makes it's way into the sunscreen to give it a sandpaper feel as we bathe it onto our skin.

The ocean is a city of salt water that is filled with all sorts of creatures, and a force that produces waves that demands respect.

Is this all the beach really is?

To the seeing eye it is, but what about our mind's eye view?

Ever since I stepped over from darkness to light and made Jesus Lord of my life, the beach became alive to me, a place where I experienced emotions that never occur anywhere else. A place that connected me with the creator of the universe and made me love Him more and more.

To move right along into the event that happened today, I was out with my children, swimming, body surfing and body boarding, and I have not body boarded for quite some time, but today I did and the waves were huge and I was laughing and yahooing and I felt like me again.

After being out for over an hour, I came in and sat down on the sand, panting and smiling. Feeling so refreshed I laid my head onto the sand and I just burst out into laughter, there I was just laying there laughing, and yes there were people right near me, but I just couldn't stop.

Now I can almost hear you exclaiming "is that it, just a bit of laughter after all that build up?"

YES! That is it! That emotion that was awoken to me when I realised I needed Jesus in my life, appeared today, that emotion that you're no longer blinded by the sin in your life, appeared today, the emotion when you feel totally free, nothing holding you back, appeared again today.

Today my friends I had no expectations of anything extraordinary happening, the past week has been very tough, I have felt quite down for my lack of motivation for homeschooling, and having anxious thoughts like "what if my children are not getting a good enough education", discouraged and disillusioned at my children's disobedience and for lying to my face.

At the end of this week, I felt like a terrible mother, and felt as though my Father in heaven was not near!

But today my saviour once again, proves His love to me, and reaches out in all His mercy and Grace to reveal to me yet again, that extraordinary sensation that only comes from God which is-

"Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

~Psalms 16:11

The coolest trollys...

This very cool trolly is on my wishlist for next year!

how wonderful to organize everything and also

for my B&B!

One maxi dress...

...that I will be asking "Honey, could I please get this one?"

Would you believe that my husband LOVES going shopping for clothes and accessories and it is really so fun going together! I am the one who really keeps a budget, and Dave "tries" to as well, but just say we are going shopping for toilet paper and we see a packet of 12 on special for $4.99, I'll grab 2 packets thinking I am really getting a bargain, whereas Dave will grab 8 packets to save us for the next 2 months.

It is just the way he is and I love it, so when you bring us together we balance each other out.

Now I would not normally pay $113.00 for a summer dress, a pair of jeans, yes, but a dress, no!

But I am so in love with the colors of this dress, you see turquoise blue is my very favourite color in the whole wide world and I am just hoping my hubby will let me squeeze this one into our budget!

What do you think?

Worth it? OR

Not worth it?

Loongie, the greedy crocodile...

Morning friends!

Loongie is a saltwater crocodile who lives among the mangroves at

Walaman Creek in the remote Kimberley region of

Western Australia.

He has no friends and no-one will come near the creek while he's around.

Loongie soon learns why being greedy has it's consequences.

Jeanne from http://ohpeacefulday.blogspot.com/ blogged a while back about Aboriginal book week or day and whatever books you purchased in that week went towards helping the education of the Aboriginal community. I have just spent the last 10 minutes over at Jeanne's blog, but cannot find the post!

Anyway, 'Loongie' was one of the books that I purchased due to the absolutely stunning illustrations by Bronwyn Houston.

Her vibrant expression of colors is what captures my attention and I wasn't the only one in awe of her delicious art work the other day when we were all the laying on the bed reading books.

My husband has a real gift with the Aboriginal community, a love and compassion that has flowed over to me in the years of us being married.

There is a moment I recall on our honeymoon when Dave & I were on our way out for dinner in Noosa and an Aboriginal walked past us and says to Dave "hey brother", and Dave was like "yeah, hey bro" and I was like 'right'!

Now over the years I have come to understand and respect Dave's gift with the Aboriginal community and the people just love him and Dave loves them and everywhere we go where there are aboriginals Dave is always accepted into there groups and because I am a part of Dave they just accept me, it's really amazing!

In talking about the aboriginal community, today the movie 'Rabbit-Proof Fence' is airing on channel 7. Based on a true story, set in 1931, three Aboriginal girls set off on a trek across the Outback in search of their family after escaping a government mission.

The children and I will be watching this for it is a very real part of our history and I want my children to see how Aboriginals were treated and to develop an understanding and a compassion for the aboriginal community.

Does God Exist?

Cooking with Miss Grace...

Unlike my son and myself (except I do enjoy a bit of dark chocolate), my daughter LOVES chocolate, dark and all, just like her Daddy! For the last 2 weeks everyday Grace has been reminding me relentlessly "Mummy you said we are going to make chocolate muffins"!

With the B&B booked out, loads of cleaning, washing, puppy training, and email enquiries, I kept putting it off, but friends today we did it!

Grace thought it a great idea to place a melting chocolate upon each muffin...

Grace always loves a dollop of cream or 2 or 3!

Here in my life

I have never walked on water
Felt the waves beneath my feet but
At your Word Lord, I’ll receive Your
Faith to walk on oceans deep
And I remember how You found me:
In that very same place
All my failing surely would've drowned me
But You made a way

You are my freedom
Jesus you’re the reason
I’m kneeling again at Your throne
Where would I be without You
Here in my life, here in my life?

You have said that all the heavens
Sing for joy at one who finds
The way to freedom, truth of Jesus
Bought from death into His life

And I remember how You saw me:
Through the eyes of Your grace
And though the cost was
Your beloved for me
Still you made a way!

Cappuccino for a Cause...

The closest Gloria Jeans to us is one hour and a half away, but if your near one and drink coffee then why not grab a car load of friends and make a difference.

Cool & Catchy Spanish Alphabet song...

Nature Study and being in the right place at the right time!

Oh yes, isn't she a beauty?

“A love of Nature, implanted so early that it will seem to them hereafter to have been born in them, will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health, and good humour” - Charlotte Mason (Vol. 1, p. 71).

This magnificent butterfly Joshua spotted, while we were in Merimbula last Monday! She was just sitting in the tree looking delightful.

After a good hour of web research I finally identified this wonderful creature...

She is an Orchard swallowtail (papilio aegeus)


Today the children and I found out they are common to Brisbane, QLD and that there food plants are orange and lemon trees. Charlotte Mason encouraged that we don't go into a full depth study of all new things we discover, especially while they are little, so we just learnt the basics of this little beauty!

"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." Revelation 4:11

Fun Astronomy

Simply Charlotte Mason put this link on Face book today, and I thought it was really cool, so I wanted to share it with you!

Fun astronomy: get tweets when the International Space Station will

be visible flying over your location.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twisst.nl%2F&h=805139da1ef90cf4213b87fad1b71e24

Also to encourage you to become a twitter, go on you know you want to! Actually I wasn't really into twitter up until a month ago and I began following some of my mentors like Joyce Meyer, Brian Houston and others, I thought 'this is really cool', so now I just update my face book statuses and tweets through http://tweetdeck.com/beta/ and I LOVE it!

It's a Good Day...

Here is a little something to get your feet tapping and your head nodding!

A blog I like posted this and I just wanted to share with you...

Monday morning blues...

...ummm,

hold up,

did I say Monday morning blues, well it's actually called 'daylight savings' blues!

What is in the air when we turn our clocks forward, seriously I have 2 chains attached to my feet and a sack of potatoes over my shoulder!

Even though I went to bed at 9:30 last night and slept all night, I still feel an hour behind. Now is this just a mental thing, like your brain actually knows it's really 8am and won't let you start your routine?

Daylight savings really does have a major effect on our daily routines and somehow I feel schooling today is going to be just a little bit slow and I also have two apartments to clean and a shopping list for my new 21 day wonder diet...I'll tell you about that later!

So tell me, how are you feeling this morning...

Return of Winnie-the-Pooh

As a child I adored Winnie the Pooh and all his lovely friends, they very much exist in my mind!

Today in the paper there is a full four page piece about the all new development of the return of Winnie the Pooh!

Lynne Neary from NPR wrote:

It used to be that all good things would come to an end, but these days, at least in the world of books and movies, there is always "the sequel." And so a new version of one of the most beloved children's classics — A.A. Milne's story of Winnie the Pooh — is being released.
Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is the first authorized sequel to the Winnie the Pooh tales. David Benedictus, the writer who has taken on the task of re-creating the Hundred Acre Wood and all its inhabitants, says he tried to enter Milne's mind to find his voice.
"What I had to do was to imagine myself to be Milne. And the best way to do that was to visit the Ashdown Forest, which was where he lived and was the basis for the Hundred Acre Wood, and to read everything by and about him," says Benedictus. "When I'd read all that, I felt I could become him."
But Benedictus was not entirely alone in making this sequel. Illustrator Mark Burgess re-created the look of the original artwork, which was drawn by E.H. Shepard. And Benedictus also had input from both the trustees of Pooh Properties, and the publishers in the U.S. and in Britain.

"With something like Milne, I think everyone knows the stories so well that there was quite a lot of pressure from people who wanted to have their finger in the pie," says Burgess. "I had to be very mature and very tolerant, and those are not my usual qualities. I'm a bit of an indiscreet sort of person. ... I think I am ready for the Senate now."
Benedictus says one decision that involved some wrangling was the creation of a new character; he was determined there should be one, though his first concept — a grass snake — was not well-received.
"There were those who thought a grass snake would be too scary for children," explains Benedictus. So instead, the new character became Lottie the Otter, whom the author describes as "a bit of a snob and ... a bit catty, too."

Aside from the addition of Lottie, the trustees and the publishers didn't want the characters to stray too much from the original. And Benedictus says he felt an obligation to be faithful to Milne's creation. But Philip Nel, a professor of children's literature at Kansas State University, says based on what he could glean from the first chapter, they may have played it too safe.
"It's almost like reading someone else's memory of A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard," says Nel. "It's a pleasant memory, but why wouldn't you read the original? It's not like they've disappeared."
The result, says Nel, is a book that feels like an imitation: "They've got the characters down. Pooh is ruled by [his] tummy. Piglet is timid. Eeyore tends to be sarcastic and depressed."

Benedictus says he expects some negative reaction, especially from those who feel no one should tread upon the sacred woods that Milne made famous. But he adds that it was important to him to remain faithful to Milne's world.
"If the worst comes to the worst and everyone thinks I've got it all wrong, I won't have destroyed the originals in any way at all," he says.
And, he adds, after years of working on it, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood feels like his own book, albeit one that he shares with Milne: "I couldn't have written it without Milne having set the scene and creating the characters for me. But, yes, I feel like he's a sort of old uncle sitting in the background either smiling or frowning at my efforts a little bit."

There are a lot of mixed emotions regarding this, and I can understand both sides, but I am interested in reading it!

So what are your thoughts on this? I would love to hear your feedback!

No Matter...

No matter how many friends I may have,

no matter how many gifts I may receive,

no matter how many blessings I receive,

the lyrics in this song is what is deep in my soul...

Please drag your mouse and press play,

you won't regret it!