It's a crafty sort of day

I have had a few crafty designs in my head for the past week or so and they finally came into existence. So here are the three things that were made out of rubbish or clothing that I no longer wanted.

Item #1

No it is not something used in the old days of torturing. I had Brandon weld some forks I bought at the op-shop onto some scrap steel he had at work. I bent the forks this way and that so that I could hang my necklaces from them. I needed a necklace organizer and well here is what materialized. I think it weighs almost as much as Adele :-)




I could also use it to attack a burglar, I am sure anyone would think twice if they saw someone approaching with this.


Item #2
I have been wanting a shrug, crop sweater, for awhile but haven't found one cheap enough for my liking. I had this sweater in the closet that I never wear so I thought hmmmm, maybe I could alter it a bit. Here is what it turned into.


I cut the mid section out and then reattached the bottom band. I also cut the arms off and reattached the band on each of those as well. I kind of gathered the arm fabric so that it would be a bit more puffy when it is on. Anyway it was pretty much free (except for the cost of thread) so that makes me happy.



Item #3
Brandon brought the necklace torture object home in a pillow case because it was to hot from welding to directly handle. I thought the pattern was cool so I decided to make a bag. I had a belt from the op-shop so that entered the creation as well. Here is the finished product.



Maybe not exactly the way I saw it in my head but close enough. The belt is kind of heavy so it will probably fall off in a week or so.


I love making stuff.
M

Don't know what to do

Hmmmm so we talked to this family at church tonight. They are wanting to buy a property to invest in. They would like to rent it out as well. So they are thinking we could rent the house from them.

The only thing is they haven't bought a house yet. They are beginning to look and want us to send them links to any we find that look promising.

What to do. Keep looking for a house to rent, look for promising houses for them to buy so we can rent off them, or do both at the same time.

I looked at two rentals this past week. Neither would really be that great. One didn't have a fenced in yard and the other wasn't in sad shape.

So we are in limbo over this moving thing, just praying something will figure itself out soon.

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In other news we are thinking about coming to Covfamikoi! We are excited about that. We will probably only come for three days/two night but it will be fun no matter what.

What has been decided

Alastair McEwen came over Monday night and talked to us about the letter we wrote to session a few weeks ago. For those of you who don't remember we sent the session a letter requesting guidance on where we should think about moving.

Alastair said they would be very happy for us to stay south of the river for now. Geelong is divided by a river. The church is on the north side of the river and the fellowship group we attend is south of the river. They would like to see us keep going to the South Barwon group (the river is called the Barwon River fyi). This is what we thought in our minds would be the best option as well. Brandon does not want to leave his job right now, and in all fairness to Allen and Phil he can't. There are only three of them working full time, the business would not be able to function if one person left. So we will begin our search for a rental property somewhere in the suburbs of Belmont, Highton, Grovedale, and Waurn Ponds (seriously doubt we will find a house here that we can afford but we will still keep the eyes open). I have found a couple houses in Belmont that I really like but so far the agents haven't called back making me think they are already taken.

We would like to move before we fly home on June 12th. This leaves us with little more than two months to find a place, pack, move, and unpack. Definitely doable but not a whole lot of time to mess around. We decided that moving after we got back would be crazy. Derek and Katherine will be moving down around August 7th and we don't get back from the US of A until July 17th.

If you could, would you pray that we find a house soon. We want something that has room for people to stay or live with us for a time. I really like being able to offer our home as a resting place or cheap living quarters. It is not essential but something we would like.

So thats that,
Meg

There's a Bear in there and a chair as well.....its Playschool

As I said before, I took Jolene to a Playschool concert last Friday. Playschool is an Aussie kids show that has been on for ages. Kind of like Sesame Street but toned down. She seemed to enjoy it, she was jumping around and doing the hand motions. It is fun to take your kids places and see them get excited about something you are doing with them. When we head back to the States we will probably take Jolene to the Children's Museum, I'm sure that will be great fun.

What more could we ask for?

A new species of this...never.

Australia has quite a few nasty spiders, Huntsmans are one of my least favorite. Apparently they have just discovered a new Huntsman species.

All I can say is that these things can be hugenormous and are always found in places you really wouldn't like to see them. Here are a few examples, toilet seat, sun visor in the car, my dresser drawer, behind our sofa, in our garage, oh and lets not forget Brandon's neck.

My greatest fear is going to wake up Adele in the morning and finding one of these sitting on her head. I think I would die.

on American soil, and 100

Yesterday we were on American soil.








We drove to Melbourne and visited the American Consulate. We needed to apply for new passports, soc. sec. #'s, Adele's citizenship, and her passport as well. Sadly none of our passports that came out of the fire were acceptable, thus our wallet is more than $500 lighter. Of well, I guess we would like to be able to get back in to out country come this June.

The trip actually wasn't too bad. We had to wait for 30-40 minutes but after that everything went pretty smoothly. I was afraid some of our documents would not be accepted and we would have to turn around and go home.

Lord willing in 4 weeks we will have our new passports and then we can send them in to get our visa stamps again.

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This is post number 100, yippee!

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I am taking Jolene to a Playschool concert today. I hope she will actually sit through it all, she better...it wasn't free :-)

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Last weekend we had family camp up at Dixon's Creek. The weather was tons better than last year ( rained the whole time). All four of us slept in a tent. I was pretty worried that the girls would not sleep well together but it actually worked out really well. So much so that they are now sharing the same bedroom every night. Jolene is a good sleeper and ignores Adele when she is crying, I am very thankful for that.





It's been emotional,
Meg



p.s. what movie is that from?

Here we go again

Derek and Katherine (our landlords) are moving down here from Sydney sometime in August. They have to move into the house before the year is up or they will lose their "first time home buyers" grant. So once again we are on the move.

We are not quite sure where we will be moving. We wrote a letter to the session asking them for guidance on possible places we should move. Right now there are three possibilities.

1. Stay south of the river and continue going to the same fellowship group. Brandon would continue working with Allen. We would continue being involved in whatever way we can with the Geelong congregation. We like this option the best, but that doesn't mean we are set on doing it.

2. Move somewhere else in Geelong where in the future there could be a new church plant. Brandon would still work for Allen. We would continue being involved in the Geelong congregation until a church plant was started and then we would begin to focus our time on helping with the new work.

3. Move to Frankston/McKinnon and help with congregations there. This is by far the most drastic of the three options. Brandon would have to look for a new job and house hunting would be a bit harder since we are looking at a city that is 2 hours away from Geelong. We could not afford to live in McKinnon, unless God really changed our financial situation. Therefore, we would most likely move to Frankston. This would be hard due to the distance it is from Geelong. We have many friends here in Geelong and it would be hard to leave once again people that we feel close to. Of course if this is the Lord's direction then we will go. I guess it will require a lot more planning and prayer than the others might.

So Derek and Katherine will probably be moving down sometime early to mid August. This present a challenge for us in that we will be in the States mid-June to mid-July. We are not sure if we should move before we leave or after. If option 3 is what we are to do we don't have much time before we leave to get things figured out. Finding a job elsewhere and a house will take some time for that option.

I am trying to be content through all of this, it is not easy. Even Brandon at this point is getting tired of the moving thing. I have started reading a book about contentment, written by a Puritan. There is a lot I have been convicted of but I will have to write about that on another day.


On a more serious note, I leave you with a thoughtful picture. I hope this image means as much to you as it did to me.













Ok, so just kidding :-) These cool chickens are from an animal farm we visited. We were there for a birthday party.

My Dad

He loves to read. Here is something he read recently that he e-mailed me. I thought it would be good to add to the blog...

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I found the following in a book by a Puritan, John Flavel, which has been a great help to me. The book is entitled, Keeping the Heart This is a nice passage from it...

"...it may stay your heart if you consider that in these troubles God is about that work over which, if you saw the design of it, your soul would rejoice. We poor creatures are bemisted with much ignorance, and are not able to discern how particular providences work towards God's end. Therefore, like Israel in the wilderness, we are often murmuring because providence leads us about in a howling desert, where we are exposed to straits; though He led them then, and is leading us now, by the right way to a city of habitations. If you could but see how God, in His secret counsel, has exactly laid the whole plot and design of your salvation, even to the smallest means and circumstances: "By this way and by these means such a one shall be saved, and by no other. Such a number of afflictions I appoint for this man, at this time, and in this order; they shall befall him thus and thus they shall work for him" - could you, I say, but discern the admirable harmony of divine dispensations, their mutual relations to each other, together with the general respect and influence they all have unto the last end, then of all the conditions in the world you would choose that which you are now in, had you liberty to make your own choice. Providence is like a curious piece of tapestry made up of a thousand shreds which, singly, we know not what to make of, but put together and stitched up in orderly fashion they represent a beautiful history to the eye. As God works all things according to the cousel of His own will, so the counsel of God has ordained this as the best way to bring about your salvation...Did you but see this, I need say no more to support the most dejected heart."