The Party That Never Quits

Cyberly, that is.

I know I've done that a lot over the last year or so. But this place just didn't fit. Which is a shame. It was also difficult to feel at home when I didn't have a computer. I kind of got out of the habit. But I thought about it all the time.

Adam bought me a new computer a couple of weeks ago, and I've set up a little corner of the blog world over here.  I do hope you'll humour me again and skip on over. It's very plain, though I had a lot of fun setting it up. I hope you like it, and I'm really looking forward to getting back into the swing of blogging.

You guys are wonderful. See you over there :)

It's Australia day tomorrow in an hour, and it's our kids favourite holiday next to Christmas. They've been asking for a week and a half how many sleeps it is until "Straya day" (oh yes, I raise my kids right; Bogan.) and are totally off the wall that it's only tonight.

Yesterday Amy was sitting in the couch 'reading' one of Troy's "Wimpy Kid" books and singing to herself. I figured out she was singing the national anthem, her favourite song this week. (Other than a praise song she's made up all her own that went something like "God is so big and God is awesome and up in the sky".) I managed to catch a couple of minutes of it before she noticed me :)

Which would have been awesome to post, however after trying all possible avenues, I failed
:( Not having WiFi at the moment sucks majorly.

We are going to a friends house to have a bbq, which is sure to be a fantastic time. We've been looking forward to it for a fortnight, and it's been ridiculous how giddy we have been planning it all. Hopefully the weather will hold off; it's been rather wet and windy for the last two days, thanks to the monsoon trough passing over the top of us. And what is Australia day without cricket??

Since moving onto our block, we've been having fun playing house and tidying up the place. It's like living in  cubby house, and so far the novelty of that hasn't worn off.

There's a lot of wild grass stuff that needs to be hacked away before we can do anything, so that has taken up the most of our time outside. I mowed the entire front lawn on Tuesday, which took me a good three hours or so. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get a relatively guilt free tan (since I was working) only sort of forgot about using lotion and subsequently fried my back. It's finally started to blister and peel today, so Adam is having a great time seeing how large the pieces of skin can be when pulled off. I'm letting him, because oh my gosh, the ITCH, and it's stopping that.

We were very blessed when friends of ours mentioned that they had acquired some old ride on mowers that they were going to fix up, and offered us first dibs. Adam hastily accepted, and today was able to play with his new toy. He managed to mow a substantial part of the back area of the lawn before a belt gave way, but he is incredibly delighted to have something that will make the yard work so much more easier.

The rain has finally remembered where it supposed to be, so we have been able to see how our tarpaulin is standing up to the wind and water. It is incredibly loud, especially at night, when the wind picks it up and so on and so forth, but that can't be helped if we want the water to drain off it. When we first put it up, we had it all nice and neat and lovely. Unfortunately, during a night of large quantities of rain, the water all pooled and weighed it down to the point it was nearly touching the ground! Adam and I were up at 3 in the morning trying to empty it before it broke everywhere. It was rather amusing. Normally, in any other circumstance, I'd be irritated, but knowing that it was going to be one of the stories that we'd look back on when remembering building our very first home, it made it very easy to laugh through it.

The kids are learning their surroundings, and have staked claim to a particular tree that Troy has already fallen out of. They've hooked up a swing, and quite often I see them perched up there in the branches with their drawing pads. Since there is not a lot else for them to do, they have taken to reading more, performing puppet shows and writing stories. They are good at staying in our yard, even when close to the road (we live in a cul-de-sac, so nice and quiet) since we don't have a fence yet, and are enjoying not having restrictions placed on them about where they can and can't play. They are totaly delightful in their enthusiasm for picking wild fowers for me... it makes me sad that we have to mow them all down.

The cats have settled in, they like being under the containers during the heat of the day, or under the cars during the late afternoon, and are indside with us during the evenings and nights. I am so much more aware of how much they scratch my furniture though!

In all, it's been a fun almost three weeks. It seems unreal that it's only been that long... it seems like ages already. It also makes the fact that i've ploughed my way through three series of Bones already slighly more intervention worthy. The kids are back to school in 15 sleeps, and then our routine can become a little more regimented. For now, we are just enjoying the laid back, do as we please rhythm we've got going :)

My mother used to tell me, No matter what they ask you, always say yes. You can learn later.
~Natalie Wood

To say yes, you have to sweat and roll up your sleeves and plunge both hands into life up to the elbows. It's easy to say no, even if it means dying.
~Jean Anouilh

All you have to do is say yes. Don’t make some big project out of it. Don’t make some big deal out of it. Just say yes. You don’t even know what it means to say yes, but you say it anyway. You’ll never know what it means to say yes, but you do it anyway. Freedom and Love arise when you die into the unknown mystery of being.
~Adyashanti

I have enjoyed life a lot more by saying yes than by saying no.
~Richrd Branson

Our task is to say a holy yes to the real things of our life.
~Natalie Goldberg

As I say yes to life, life says yes to me!
~Louise Hay

It is a f#@%load of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.
~Dave Eggers

Say no to the demands of the world. Say yes to the longings of your own heart.
~Jonathan Huie

Love is the mystical, unconditionally all-affirming yes.
~Daphne Rose Kingma

Doing work you love is the dizzying path of saying yes to yourself and yes to a brilliant, hidden self you do not yet know.
~Tama J. Kieves

Enjoy saying no but don’t make it the wellspring of your vitality. Be fueled by blood-red yeses...
~Rob Brezsny

How do you say yes to yourself? By allowing desire to be your compass and the wind that fills your sails and asking the mind to be the servant of the heart. In our culture we ask the heart to obey the mind, and it can't because it is something so vast the mind can't even comprehend it. Just let go, say yes!
~Doug Lesser

Saying yes means getting up and acting on your belief that you can create meaning and purpose in whatever life hands you.
~Susan Jeffers

When we learn to say a deep, passionate yes to the things that really matter, then peace begins to settle onto our lives like golden sunlight sifting to a forest floor.
~Thomas Kinkade

One way we can know that we are aligned with the life force that is God is that we feel more and more alive. Notice what gives you aliveness and what diminishes you, deadens and numbs you so that you only skim the surface of life. Begin to say yes to what quickens and energises, to that which brings joy and gratitude.
~Mary Manin Morrissey

Always say yes to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? What could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say yes to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.
~Eckhart Tolle

I imagine that yes is the only living thing.
~E. E. Cummings

Since my new years resolution from last year was


I decided to continue on with my zero coke idea, and extend it to all soft drink. No biggie.

Then God poked my heart and suggested that perhaps dropping all candy might be a good idea as well.

I found I substituted coke for skittles a lot last year. It was disgusting, really, because I'd eat the whole packet until I felt sick. It probably averaged out to a packet a week. Not good.

So, since my One Word for this year (post coming soon, I am fashionably late *cough*) is "YES", all candy and soft drink have been booted from my "oh I'll just grab this" list. That's fine :) I found during the past year that just reminding myself that I actually don't have to buy that bottle of coke was the easiest way of not actually, you know, drinking the stuff, so I figure it'll work the same with a bag of skittles or chickos. I was gifted  box of fun sized chocolates for Christmas, however, and come New Years Day, I was wondering what I should do with them. I'm not a big chocolate eater, so I still had about half the packet left. I took it to my facebook page, where I was informed that chocolate is actually classed as a food, if made with whole milk.

oooh.... a loophole!

I decided to think on it a bit more,  but I already knew the answer. Chocolate is also out, as is icecream. Icypoles are ok. I'm starting to think I need to stop with the cordial as well, since I've drunk more of that in the last 7 days than I did for the previous 6 months.

I think God is wanting me to learn self -discipline. Something I have lacked pretty well my entire life. But last year proved to me that I do have it in me, if I really set my mind to it.

Well, that and have a lot of face to lose.

I think this year, it's more than that. Sure, my stubbornness got me through last year. I think this year is going to take some relying on God... to turn to Him instead of the sugar. After all, His Word is like honey, right? :)

How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
~Psalm 119:103

It's been a week since I had my last skittle and swig of lemonade. Tonight I'm struggling with a headache caused by a lower sugar level than I'm used to. I've been all weepy the last few days, and I've not been sleeping well. It's an interesting thing, to watch how your body reacts to the lack of something it's so used to. It's like it has to find new rhythms, a new centre of balance, as it were. Getting healthy is a fascinating study :)