proverbs3v5n6 on Xanga

Weblog

Tuesday, 13 October 2009

A Change

After discovering Xanga has a photo upload limit that seems totally ridiculous, I made a decision to swap our family blog over to blogspot. I don't know how much of an upload limit blogspot has, but I like the way it is set up better than xanga anyway...
I have reposted our road trip posts on blogspot, but don't just skip over it... I added a few extra pictures on the last post! So come on over and see us at Aussie Van Nattan Adventures!! Let us know what you think of our new design and blog :)

Monday, 12 October 2009

Road Trip - Victoria/NSW - Day 2 Part A

*I had no idea Xanga had a photo upload limit each month... Unfortunately I have reached that limit for this month, so this will be the last installment of our adventure until I am able to add more pictures!*
Saturday October 3, 2009
This morning we woke in good time and got ourselves packed up and breakfasted, then I helped hold Becky while Kath and Frank got the garden watered, and the children and themselves ready to go; we had planned to all go to Sovereign Hill, Ballarat... Sovereign Hill is a town modelled on life in Ballarat in the 1850s. A gold mining town.
The first event we were keen to see was the firing of the musket. The people taking part in the displays and helping around throughout the town were dressed in period costume. The man firing the musket was dressed as a policeman of the time, and explained what it was like in those times to work as a policeman (many of them were ex-convicts!), and showed the weapons and equipment they carried in those days.

We wondered if the loud bang of the musket would frighten Danny, but he wasn't afraid (Dan covered his ears so it wouldn't be so loud, but even then it was loud!!)

I have a real fascination and interest in the life, the lifestyle, the clothing of the time and everything about the old-fashioned eras, so to me this town was like living a dream...

Dan and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it too - I'm not sure if I enjoyed it more or if Dan did!! We stopped to take many many photos and tried to go into every building and exhibit of the town and lost sight of Frank and Kath and kids for most of the morning - having 5 children including a baby meant they couldn't stop and look at all the things we did, sadly.

This gentleman carried around a bell and rang it and announced things; we never did get a chance to speak with him, but we assumed he was a town-crier.

Aren't the ladies' dresses and bonnets just perfectly beautiful?

I LOVED the clothing store

It also sold this beautiful delicate china. Many of the things displayed were for sale.

I tried to get as many pictures as I could without tourists in the picture, to make them look more authentic!

Part of the gold mine - both the external workings of the underground mine and panning in creeks (above and below)

We saw many of these cute wheelburrows... I'd love one like this to place decoratively in my garden!!

The town is situated on 25 hectares, and in 1958 became the home to the second largest gold nugget ever found - a massive 69kg (over 152lb) lump of gold!

We went on a tour of an undergound mine (which the kids found a little intimidating as it was pitch black with only dull lantern light and lots of noises (simulated sounds of a gold mine), which included some rather fearsome stairs in near-pitch blackness! I couldn't really see what was in there, but I took a few photos anyway, and the flash revealed how it looked beyond the darkness (above)!

I loved the timber houses! :)

Inside the hut we saw how basic their way of living was!

Horses and carriages made their way through the town constantly, offering rides to tourists - made it seem more authentic because we had to be constantly aware of the traffic they created.
(to be continued)

Thursday, 08 October 2009

Road Trip - Victoria/NSW - Day 1

Friday October 2, 2009
We had been looking forward to our first road trip together as a family for some time, so we were very excited as we set off on the long drive to my sister Kath's before 7am. The night before Dan and I had stayed up late to tidy/clean the house (nothing worse than coming home to a trashed house after a holiday) and to make sure everything was packed and ready to go in the morning... The late night meant that we were a little slow getting going in the morning, and were more tired through the day than we would have hoped, but we seemed to manage just fine.
I did most of the driving (I feel less motion-sick when I'm in the driver's seat), while Dan napped on and off through the morning. It was a beautiful day when we set off, but the further south we drove the more overcast it became. Dan had never been through Victoria before, and I had never driven down at this time of the year (spring), so we were all captivated with the bright yellow canola and fields of purple flowers in Victoria.

We stopped off several times on the trip, prefering to take the drive slower and enjoy it than to make it a mad dash. At lunchtime we stopped off to eat at the fruitfly zone - I had forgotten we couldn't take fruit across the border, so we had 8 tomatoes and 4 apples to eat at lunchtime with our bread rolls, cheese, ham and mayo!!
Kath & Frank live west of Melbourne in the countryside, so we didn't have to drive through the city of Melbourne, but did see the Melbourne skyline from a distance!

I had forgotten to get hold of a Victorian street directory before we left, but had printed off several maps and directions from Google Maps. Unfortunately, Google maps aren't so great when it comes to correct mapping, besides which, they tended to write street names into the directions, while Victorian roads tend to be marked with numbers (eg A300)... this made the Victorian part of the entire road trip a little frustrating (even maps from tourist centres didn't necessarily have the numbers!), but we managed! When we got closer to Kath & Frank's, the map we had became useless (it had totally wrong directions!), so we had to stop off to ask for directions (which turned out to be not much more correct than Google maps)... but eventually we found their house - much to our relief!! The trip had taken close to 12 hours (due to stops and getting lost).
It was fun to see their 'new' house and mini-farm, and to meet my new neice; we really enjoyed our time with Kath and her big family! The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins, and Dolly was thrilled to have a cuddle with Becky!! They were very disappointed to stay just the one night! I loved seeing the baby chicks and look around the house so I can better imagine my sister and her family's daily life! :) Thank you Frank and Kath for your great hospitality and good food!

Friday, 25 September 2009

Household Happenings

It's been awhile since I wrote an update of things in our household because not a lot of exciting or newsworthy stuff has been happening. Dan plods on with his job at the produce/farm store even though his employers tend to get on his case regularly for no apparent reason... He is constantly keeping an eye out for a more permanent, long-term job - the current job has always been a temporary one to fill in the gap while employment got worse through the world-wide economic crisis. He has had offers of quite good jobs, but they have been rejected for various reasons due to location and other issues. We continue to seek the Lord's guidance in this as in everything.
The children continue being children... They are growing up so fast sometimes it takes me by surprise! I have been more relaxed about book learning recently, instead doing more active learning in our homeschooling - they both finished their sewing project, and our latest lessons have been focusing more deeply on Scripture memorization and learning Bible stories better. Following the storms this past week, we've been learning about weather and storms, and did an activity to make a rainbow using water in a glass dish, a mirror, a piece of white paper, and the sun. We've been learning about the benefits of lightning for plants (lightning creates a natural fertilizer because the electrical energy causes a reaction in the air that results in nitrogen being absorbed by plants - this is why after storms the garden often looks extra green for a day or two), and that thunder is not something to be feared for those who love God - because the Bible describes God's voice as being like thunder in various places, and we know that He loves us! The children have been enjoying learning these practical things, and our science and Bible applications regarding the storm seem to have helped allay Danny's fears.

Working on their sewing lesson (above), Playing tea-parties with teddy (below)
I have been keeping busy sewing, knitting, gardening and other such activities. I've been enjoying the hand-quilting course I took online, even though I have nowhere near finished the projects suggested by the course! I had several weeks of feeling much less fatigue, but the past couple weeks I have been more tired again - it seems to happen in cycles, and believe me, I make the most of the less tired weeks!!

My seedbox starters (above), Working on my hand-quilting project (below)

Do you think you can answer this correctly? Which of the following pictures is Dolly, and which is Danny?
1.
2.

Thursday, 10 September 2009

The Albatross and Atheism

There are several species of Albatross, such as the Wandering Albatross, the Great Albatross, the Short tailed Albatross, and more. These magnificent birds have wing spans up to 3.6m (nearly 12 ft), and spend the majority of their life soaring through the skies over the oceans. They can even sleep in flight, and while they are growing up (before beginning to breed) they might not even touch land for three or four years! They can soar for hours without needing to flap their wings as they use techniques known as slope soaring, and dynamic soaring.

Slope soaring is pretty straightforward: the albatross turns to the wind, gaining height, from where it can then glide back down to the sea. Dynamic soaring is a technique by which the albatross (and some other seabirds) repeatedly dives into the valleys of ocean waves, and then wheels back up into the air. Albatross are particularly adept at exploiting the technique and they use it to travel many thousands of miles using hardly any energy. When the bird pulls up into the wind out of the still air in the lee of a wave, it suddenly becomes exposed to a head wind, so the speed of the air over its wings increases. It then turns in the other direction and, with the wind behind it, dives back into the shelter of a wave. This also results in an increase in its air-speed. So by repeating this "wheeling" pattern, the bird can continue flying almost indefinitely without having to put in much effort besides steering. In effect it is harvesting energy from the wind gradient. (Description of technique from Wikipedia)

The Albatross understands the weather systems; an Albatross who wishes to fly north from the southern hemisphere takes a clockwise route, while those flying south take a counterclockwise route! Albatrosses have been created for this lifestyle, and when they are flying, their heart rate will be the same or similar to their resting heart rate. The most energy-demanding part of a journey for this amazing bird is taking off, when the Albatross must make a run first before flapping its wings, thus gaining wind and an uplift. These birds can weigh as much as 12kg (26.45 lb), which makes taking off a strenuous exercise.

Albatrosses are commonly found in the Southern Hemisphere, although some species are found in the North Pacific. They love to eat fish and squid, snatching them from the water's surface; they have been known to be able to smell food from about 30km (18.6 miles) away.

The Albatross is an incredible bird, and I'm sure there is a lot more about their structure and life that is amazing than what I have discovered. When I started reading about them, I was amazed - particularly at the fact that they can literally spend years soaring without landing on the ground even once. That made me think about God. He created this bird to be special, to be different, and to be incredibly and perfectly built for the type of lifestyle it leads. Just as the Albatross is so perfect and incredible in design, God has created all things intricately, with every little detail fitting together perfectly to make something beautiful.

Yet the world does not want to see God in the intricacies of the world around them and the beauty of God's creation.

The Psalmist knew something of the wonder of our creation, he says, "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well" (Psalms 139:14). In Job we read of many of the facts of the world around us that Scientists think they are only just discovering. God created it all through His Word - "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3).

The Albatross finds the right wind currents, and it uses them to soar. How are we living? Are we fighting God's will every step of the way, or are we listening for God's will? Are we reading about God's way in His Word, and using His wind currents to soar?

"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31).

The wings of an eagle are long and broad, allowing more direct and faster flight than other birds... Those that wait on the Lord will have renewed strength, they will mount up with wings as eagles, flying directly and faster on the path God sets before them. They will run and not get tired, and they will walk and not faint.).

There is a God. He created. And He loved so much that He sacrificed His very own Son to die for us and take our punishment. And then He rose again and wants to share His inheritance with us. And... as if that wasn't enough, He wants to guide our every step, carry us through the storms of life and wipe away our tears. What a wonderful God He is.

Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)