LIVE IN THE LIGHT

We have just had the most Blessed 8 day retreat- called Summer School of Evangelisation(SSE 11)2011. It is organised by the Covenant Community of the Disciples Of Jesus, every January. Totally Catholic. Totally awesome. An amazing week guided by the Holy Spirit. We are exhausted, exhilarated and in awe of Our mighty God and his work in us this week.

I was Blessed to be involved in several wonderful lectures and seminars. We had 3 wonderful Priests. One a Marist Father from St Patricks, Sydney city, and 2 are MGLs’- Missionary of Gods’ Love-. The MGLS were born out of the D of Jesus community 23 years ago. We had our first MGL Deacon at this SSE11 this year.

Anyway, I have many posts to write as I was totally inspired by this week.I can’t wait to share some of these posts.

The off shoot of American Indians

Brid has had a lot of fun exploring the American Indians and as lots of children do she has created her owm teepee and camp space.
But I had an idea. I will get my hiking tent out and see what happens. Firstly to find it. Search party.!!
Ok found, Well it is a hiking tent and wind resistant and it was the top of the line when I was a Caving and hiking, and I haven't been able to give it away. And thank goodness for that...
Otherwise we wouldn't be having a sleep out in it tonight. Brid is all ready and has claimed her land and is enjoying the freedom to play in it.
So Here are a few of the preparations. Wonder if we/ she  will manage to sleep in it all night!!!!!

..............she did stay in the tent for a short time the first night...It was raining, The next day was a beautiful day and Brid was keen to sleep in the tent overnight again. So again, we said yes, and well she lasted an hour. Her excuse was it was noisy and the wind was howling. Bless her, she came in and slept soundly in her own warm bed.

What will this week bring

Monday it was full of rain and looked like we were in for a week of it. So with that we knuckled down to a week schooling inside, snuggled up in our warm home. We said goodbye to our tradesmen as they couldn't tile the pool with the pouring pelting of the rain. We knew we had several disruptions to the week, so we chose to have a long day. I made fruit loaf and it was delicious. Brids' guide unit shared The Biggest morning tea with us parents, to aid in the research of breast cancer.
Tuesday, we saw our builders return and lots of progress being made on the pool project. We in turn had a productive school day as well. We are at the Apostolic Age in History, and Brid is writing out a recipe for living.
Although it is sunny in patches outside, and I do not like using my tumble dryer, I have succumbed this last couple of days. I am eyeing of  two pumpkins for soup today, but the builders are in my driveway again! and I can't get my car out to purchase my other ingredients. My soup will need to wait, maybe til later in the week.
Wednesday we are off to Piano in town, and we will come home via a special shop, to purchase a gift for someone special. We usually stay in town for Gymnastics and Irish dancing, but we have a special treat, an Irish dance troop are performing @ the Civic Theatre., in the evening. So we are heading home early to be prepared with a nice meal and dressed in our finery. We get a little school work completed in the morning, Brid is usually finishing off tasks that are assigned to her earlier in the week.
Looks like Thursday will be a little all over the place! I have an appointment in town, and we will stay and visit a friend, for a while, before returning home.
Friday is our usual day, and thats nice, although it is a long time until Friday, and guess what, our weekend looks just as full. Never rains but pours in our home. But we wouldn't have it any other way.

Uluru and the flies!!!!!

On our way to Uluru-
The next day we travelled 4 – 5 hours to Uluru- but we would stay, with all other guests at Yulara- 8 kms from Uluru. On our way down the Stuart Highway, we saw a sign saying 130 kms / hr. Dermot & I both looked twice and thought, Ok, you beauty, we'll do that. It was so flat and the roads so straight that it was safe. We saw a few road trains- Heavy trucks all linked together. We were warned of these. I was surprised at how green it was along on the road side, and beyond, but the Landscape did begin to change to a more rocky outlook.
Mt Ebenezar was where we got our first real taste of real aboriginal art work. The people around this are the emu people. Everything is associated with the Emu.
We first caught a glimpse of Uluru before Mt Connor lookout, but this was a place, you could take your photos. It was Amazing. I was excited and overcome with its enormity already. Particularly as it was still 120kms away!
We arrived At Yulara and after having a quick look around the complex- which was massive, we decided to see Uluru by sunset. Why not, everyone else was. There is a sunset carpark!! We arrived and there were so many cars in the carpark. We found our vantage point, the girls climbed onto the cars roof, and sat and drew and watched the sunset over this massive rock. Next day, it was a bright idea by someone- umm not me, to see this massive rock by sunrise!!!! I am not a morning person, so It was a huge challenge, but achieved and It was amazing to watch the rock change colour as the light fell upon it. This was also the day we did the 10.4kms walk around the base. The indigenous people asked us not to climb the Rock, and we respected that. It was the most spiritual feeling, to be present in this part of Australia. The walk was expected to take 4-5 hours, we steadily walked it in 2 hrs 17 min. We stopped for water and break stops and sat in awe of this great Icon. On the four corners of the rock, where men's and women's sacred sites. You could only just imagine the significance of these places to the indigenous people of our land.

There was a very informative cultural centre, which really told the story of the dreamtime animals associated with this area. The lizard and the black snake.
Dermot and our friend Garry, decided to go to The Olgas. Myself, the children and Bev, his wife, decided the pool, and a rest with a possible glass of wine was a nice idea. We knew we had a long day the next day beginning before day break, at 5am, so we paced ourselves, as wise women do. It was a wonderful way to spend a few hours, and it recharged our batteries.
We headed back to Alice to catch the plane home, and finish our most wonderful exciting, never to be forgotten holiday. So I share this with you. I hope you all enjoy my rambling. Oh I didn't tell you about the FLIES. They were very loving- lots and lots of them- everywhere.

Life in Our busy home

Just a quick post
We have been enjoying friends from UKs' company over the last couple of weeks and fly to Northen Territory this week. We are all very excited. Today I am resting I have an awful Head cold.
We have just come back from Fitzroy falls camp and had a very peaceful and special Homeschool camp. I found it very strange that Dermot didn't send me my morning txt, and I was feeling a little low about this. BUT on Thursday lunch time Dermot surprised both Brid and myself by driving to camp to join us, just for one day and night. I saw him walking toward me, and just cried tears of joy and exitement. I held him very tight and was just feeling very loved and special, that he had made the effort to come to be with us. Brid was delighted and had a huge smile on her face.
So why did he not txt, he was busy working and finishing off different jobs, so he was free to join us. He is so caring.

The photos of the swings

The construction of the swings commenced in August, after we moved in. It was just an idea. My Dad takes ideas seriously- as well as he is Semi- retired and loves a challenge. He put the plan together, constructed it on paper and purchased the materials. The day arrived. Lots of discussions and lots of digging. A VERY hot day. Lots of Water was needed for our workmen.

The frame was up and time for the seats and the ropes. I am still not fussed with the rope, but in time, it will be changed after negotiations between Grandad and Granddaughter.

Here she is swinging and loving it. We have all had a swing with her. Its a great Swing, very long. And a throw at the very high netball hoop. It is just out of picture on the right hand side. So thanks Dad, great effort. Better than a bought one!!! Made with Love by Grandad and Daddy.

A snapshot into our weekend

Last week I blogged about our school week, and what lessons we did when.

Well late last week, we travelled to Canberra to catch Diana Warings last Living, Laughing, Learning conference here in Australia.

We were to meet up with two other homeschool families, so we were excited and couldn't wait to get there. I was keen to hear the talk about 'Got Teens', and we arrived with lots of time to spare. Great.

I could relax and listen. Dermot & Brid took off after saying hi, to unpack.

I enjoyed listening and interacting with Diana, and it was obvious she is well used to doing this.

There was lots of vendors to purchase curriculum from, I was pretty right, so I wasn't to compelled to purchase anything, just looking was enough.

The 3 three girls has plenty of time to share together, especially at breakfast. We all stayed in the same place, so a shared breakfast was a great way to start the day. Anything you wanted.

Brid was introduced to babychinos- thanks for that! They had some magic moments in the parks and out at night, that were hard to describe, without photos.

We enjoyed everyones company, but Dermot got into some great discussions. Late night chats his speciality.

We had arranged to go to Mass at the local church St Brigids'. Very apt, as we are parishioners of this church in our own dioceses. Anyway, we were meant to meet everyone for a take away dinner in the park. We knew Mass would make us late for dinner, but we still arrived and the kids hung out together. They collected these opened light pods and had a little fun with those.

After the last breakfast with the whole crew, including our international guest, we went sightseeing. First up was The walk alongside Lake Burley Griffin. We did some explaining, about when and whys, saw Aspin Island- a big bell tower, saw Blundell cottage, last cottage left in the area which was operational as a farm, It was preserved in the '70's- it was going to be demolished. Very cute.

We went to a glass blowing and making factory. We hoped Brid could do some hands on, but she was too young. so We just had to make do with looking, at the various people doing there work.

We decided to go to Cockington Green. Well I'd been there before, and we knew Brid would love it. She was tickled pink, and enjoyed hearing all about the cottages and buildings. We had a little history lesson, and a world geography lesson as well, at the International section of the green.

It was a very full day, and we eventually went home exhausted to have a nice coffee and rest. phew!

Dermot spoilt us, and took us to Black Tower moutain for dinner. WOW!!.It had been raining,so I thought it would be too cloudy, but hey! it cleared as we were eating and laughing. The Restuarant revolved. That was fun and was a talking point to start with. 85 minutes to revolve once. Awesome view, and we got there early enough to see the view in daylight as well.

It was a very nice evening and we certainly had to make sure Brid had her best manners in hand. It was like Diana Waring descibes as a 'chalet suzanne' experience. Best manners please.

I will conclude our adventure soon.

Jesus all about Life and Bathurst

It had been a tradition in my family upbringing to watch battle of the race drivers and cars, at Mt Panorama, Bathurst, NSW. It was a real family day.
I didn't follow it so much as our family was smaller, but the last few years, its been a day event.
It is such a changable race.
I figure Dermot has football all footie season, and every other sporting event, so I get my one and only racing day.
Its been fun explaining the history and the whys' to Dermot, who didn't grow up in this country, so the culture is different.
Anyway, we noticed this morning that 'Jesus all about life', has a car in the race. We were delighted to see this.
I figured all they needed to do was stay in the race for as long as possible, to get the name Jesus out there as often as the commentators announces the orders of the cars in the race.
Unfortunately, the team didn't last as long as wewould have liked, oh well.
BUT it was great to see God come first, with prayer, at the beginning of the race, before our national anthem. That was a real win.
So what is Jesus all about life and why in a car race?
it is Eucumenical. All churches working together.
In NSW we have a campaign at the moment, to place the name Jesus all about Life on every church building and Church associated school in NSW, everywhere we can, so everyday people get to see the word Jesus and ask who is he? Its sad in a way.
It was meant to be a local campaign, but it got bigger.
There are TV and radio campaigns as well, placed on at high viewing TV times. Its not meant for conversion, just for awareness and bring Jesus into every home. Our local church keeps getting its banner defaced, or removed. So intimidated by this campaign are some people.
So many of our children who are educated in state or government school do not know the name Jesus. He is so far from peoples' minds in this fast lifestyle we lead as a society these days.
I heard recently that Europe is fast becoming an Islamic culture. Why is this ? They all attend church and pray.!! alarming that, that we as a whole are choosing not to do either. I for one intend to bring all my family to heaven, but in this climate of me me me, want want want it is hard to keep there minds and thoughts on the ultimate reward- heaven. This is particularly true for our older teens caught up in this untruth and the culture of death. Another reason why Homeschooling is a winner.
This is why Jesus all about Life being involved in this worldwide event is so important.

thank you, I will now get down from my soapbox.

It was Beautiful

Early this week, I put a post up of the cottage we stayed in for our relaxing, non technology holiday.

This is the first holiday we have had together for 12 months, and boy did we need some down time.

After our 5 hour drive to get to our holiday cottage, in the outskirs of the Dorrigo National Park, we just looked at the view. WOW!!

We unpacked and Dermot put Brid in charge of the fire and we cooked pizzas.

Next day we chose to do a 2-3 hour walk- called Coachwood walk and a detour to Cedar Falls. I did the Cedar Falls walk 20 + years ago as a teenager, and as we wprked our way down the steep descent it came to mind why I was never doing it again- and here I was doing it again with Dermot and Brid. It was gorgeous when we got down there, but honestly if we had a helicopter to get us out I would have said 'yes please'. For people who know me, that is unlike me.

We had our mandatory Leach stops. Dermot won- he had 4.

We got home very tired, but as we were so far away from a take away and I had planned our whole weeks food, I needed to cook dinner, we all helped so it was fun.

Next day My legs were very very very sore so we decided to have a home day. This is what we did.

says it all