All the family

My brother and his family are down from Brisbane, so it was fun to have a picnic (in Mum and Dad's yard!) with all of my siblings and their kids. All but one of the children feature in this photo . . .




Well, this is the last post from me until the last week in February. In the meantime I'll be busy trying to complete craft projects before baby comes, keeping house, using the produce of our garden and my parents' garden, keeping up with my "read the Bible in 90 days" plan, and more! I'm grateful to God for purposeful days.

December pictures

We had a wonderful month celebrating Christmas! Dave loves to decorate the tree.


My sister gave us a bassinett some time ago, and it is set up in our room looking pretty . . .


On Christmas Eve, we had "Nine Lessons and Carols" at our home. This is a worship service with carols and Bible readings and prayers. Christina was to give birth to Eve the next week (who, by the way, is a most beautiful baby).


On Christmas day we harvested some veggies to take to our family Christmas lunch.


Our sister-in-law obligingly took photos of us in my parents garden.

I hope you also had a fantastic Christmas and December.

Our new garden

Dave has built us a wonderful new garden. He did it all on his own, using a lot of materials and soil we already had. In this picture we are with Tim & Shellyanne.

So far we have planted some flowers, carrots, lettuce, spinach, beetroot, radish, spring onion, various types of beans and tomatoes, corn, patty pan squash, zucchini, gem squash, and sunflowers. We are growing mainly from seed this year, so it takes a bit longer to get started! It is rewarding though, to see the plants poking through the soil.

Broadband has arrived!

Would you believe, Dave and I have been able to upgrade to broadband Internet (yes, we have been using dial up all these years!). We are grateful that we have Internet access at all, and now we are doubly grateful that we have a faster connection.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Dave and I have been finding marriage a joy, despite all the challenging adjustments and discoveries, from day one. There is nothing like a prolonged separation, though, to make us realise just how much we do love each other and delight in each other's company! Since Dave arrived back on Monday, from nearly three weeks away, we've been rejoicing in God's gift of marriage. We are amazed that God has given us more than we dreamt of or deserved, in the gift of each other. A life partner who loves God is sure worth waiting and praying for.

I have a confession to make

This month I have received the gift of an amazing new desk that really fits the printer, computer, books, and scrapbooking projects on it, as well as my slope board for reading. Amazing! Friends decided it was too big for them, and we think it is just the right size for us right now.


I have taken lots of photos of the view from our study.



I have observed Mum and Dad's amazing new glass house.

We have had Shellyanne and Phil Ninness for dinner.


We have sampled our bottled beetroot and discovered that it didn't need quite so much sugar!

I have finished my Developmental Psychology for Teachers final assignment.

I have also done lots of other things, like hosting Bruce Colman of Choices of Life for a week, and participating in his training to do pro-life school presentations.

But I haven't written my testimony or asked others to write theirs for my blog. I'm sorry for presumptuously saying that I would do this for my Great Commission week this month. I hope that it will happen another time, but I'm not going to make a deadline! Even though I haven't written about it yet, I'm still deeply grateful for God's saving work in my life. Lets keep praying that others will know this same joy.