What is this?

Glen's got it! His guess was water frozen in a bottle. It is a large piece of ice. A 1L jug of water froze in our fridge and I pulled the ice out of the jug as I thought it looked so cool (pun not intended).

Here is what it looked like originally:

Welcome to the family, Miriam!

On Wednesday night, 8.55pm, Miriam Elizabeth Taylor was born to Mike & Katie!! Katie and Miriam are both doing well. Miriam is absolutely gorgeous. The birth was long, according to Katie, she was having intermittent labour pains for the previous 4 nights, but eventually Miriam arrived. Miriam seems to be sleeping and eating well. Here are some photos:

What Do You Think?

What do you think this is?





(Hint: All these photos have been taken of the same thing, but different sections. Also, I have played with the colour, so these colours aren't its natural colour)

In His Hands

How do we keep trusting God's hands? 

Yesterday I went to Equip, a Christian women's convention, in Darling Harbour.  The topic for the conference was In His Hands.  Di Warren, who is a fantastic speaker, shared her thoughts on being patient and trusting God.  She spoke on James 4:13 - 5:20.  I found her talk very compelling and challenging.  Di explored the notion that society tells us that everyone can have a fairytale life and live happily ever after.  But is it really that simple?  Is life that simple? Do we, mere humans, really have control over our aspects of our lives to create our own "fairytale" life?  Do we hold to Oprah's belief, "whatever your goal, you can get there if you're willing to work," or, Quentin Bryce's opinion, "you can do anything, you can be anything"?

These ideas are  very encouraging and motivating, and there are some truths to what they say.  But is our "fairytale life" really in our hands?  Reading James 4:13-17, we're reminded that it's impossible to think that we have control over all that happens in our lives.  We don't know what will happen tomorrow, despite trying to plan everything out.  It doesn't mean that we shouldn't make plans, but we need humility about our plans, because we just don't know.  It's not in our hands, it's in God's.  Furthermore, Di pointed out, our attempts to pursue creating this "fairytale life" testifies against us (James 5:1 - 6).  James uses very strong imagery outlining how we can so often get life wrong.

Through all this, we need to acknowledge that the "fairytale life" is in God's hands and be reassured.  But, it's so hard to be patient and to trust God's hands, as there's a gap between what is now and what God has planned.  How do we trust God and his hands?  Well, Di reminded me that the Lord's coming is near (James 5:7-9).  It's only a matter of time before we get the fairytale - heaven.  It could be any day.  Not only is the Lord's coming near, but the Lord is full of compassion and mercy (James 5:10-11).  God's character is the answer, therefore we should know that we're safe in his hands.  He is patient and he cares for us.  It's knowing God that keeps us patient.  Hence, James calls us to pray, asking God to help us to trust in his hands.

So, let us pray (James 5: 12-20) when we're in trouble, when we're happy and when we're spiritually sick and struggling to be patient.  

My Hobby Hoarse

For all of you who know Dave well, you would be well aware of his, shall I say, keenness for hobbies.  You would also be aware that when Dave gets into a hobby, he goes all the way with it and does it properly.  He pretty much becomes an aficionado on his current hobby. I often find it quite funny following Dave as he goes from one hobby to the next.  Dave says that his hobbies are "cyclic", so he never really gives up a hobby, he merely moves on to another one, knowing that he'll come back to the other hobby some other day.

When I first started going out with Dave his hobby was going to the gym (and I certainly didn't mind that one, let me tell you!).  Since then, Dave's hobbies have included golf, squash, tennis, basketball, cricket, indoor and outdoor soccer, home brewing, AFL, motor bikes, drums, guitar, mountain biking, coffee, coffee roasting, and so on.  I'm sure I've forgotten many more, of which, you could probably remind me.  You just need to go into our garage, where you will be shown the history of the hobbies.  

What I think is really great about Dave is that not only does he get involved in such a variety of interests, but he's pretty good at them as well.  He seems to have the knack of being good at whatever he puts his mind to (don't you just hate people like that?).  Usually, Dave goes from one hobby to the next.  But, I'm pleased to say, there's been a couple of hobbies which have stuck.  

One in particular has been his coffee.  This has been one of my favourite hobbies.  He makes fantastic coffee.  Recently, he's had a few ideas about his coffee hobby.  He's been taking his coffee machine to church every now and then, and making coffee for morning tea.  I help out and do the "shots".  He often toys with the idea of having a coffee cart at Nepean Hospital and making coffee for all the nurses, doctors, patients and visitors, who are in dire need of some caffeine.   Just this week, he took his coffee machine to playgroup and made coffee for the mothers there.  They were very appreciative of that.  One mother asked him if making coffee was his profession.  I think he was tickled pink by that.  I like the way Dave likes to serve others with his coffee and do something worthwhile with his hobby.

He also does this with his guitar playing (a hobby that he got back into last year).  He plays for church now.  When I first started going out with Dave he certainly would not play his guitar in front of groups of people.  But now, he plays for church nearly every second week.

Another hobby that Dave's into at the moment is mountain biking (he's saving up for a new mountain bike, just after he finishes paying off his guitar).  He's bought a whole range of maps, a compass, and a water backpack, and set forth to do as many of the tracks around the Blue Mountains as he can.  I think he's done about 7 now.  I went on one with him, up along Faulconbridge Ridge.  He's even done one track (starting from Martins Lookout) where he had to carry his bike down the valley, ride across the valley, and carry it back up the valley.  He did that about 3 times on his journey - crazy, isn't it?  

Well, this is the man I married - a hobby nut.  Well, it certainly makes my life interesting.

Vegies

We have planted our winter crop of vegetables.  Here are some photos of them.  I will record how well they succeed (or not succeed!).  It's definitely not the most attractive garden in the world - we've gone for "practicality".

Here's our main vegie patch.  At the front, we've planted broccolini.

In the middle there's cauliflower and then at the back there's broccoli. 

You can probably see brown round things in the garden.

Dave's taken to putting his used coffee grounds in the garden.

I don't know how beneficial it is, but it hasn't seemed to have done any harm - yet.

Here's the broccolini close-up.  

It seems to be doing the best out of the vegies so far.

This is our herb garden.  It's looking pretty shabby. 

We've planted some more parsley; that's at the front.

There's basil to the left, mint to the right and sage behind the basil.  

The rosemary has been overshadowed by the chilli bush.

This is a close-up of some spinach.  Behind the spinach is some rocket. 

We've also planted some "wok" vegies (e.g bok choy, choy sum, etc.) and some spring onions, but they weren't looking too crash-hot, so I didn't take a photo of them. 

Another Post-Posting Tag

My sister had inspired me to start a blog and now I've got our friend, Chris, to join the blogging club.  Now that Chris has got a blog, I tag him to do this meme.