A Timely Reminder

I was inspired, and deeply moved by this very honest and heart wrenching account from the blog of Kelle Hampton:

http://www.kellehampton.com/2010/01/nella-cordelia-birth-story.html

Life rarely goes where, or how, we want it to, but it is how we face up to these sudden sharp turns & twists that truly define us. Thank you Kelle (via Cheryl) for this very timely reminder.

And so my prayer is that your story will have involved
some leaving and some coming home,
some summer and some winter,
some roses blooming out like children in a play.

My hope is your story will be
about changing,
about getting something beautiful born inside of you,
about learning to love a woman or a man,
about learning to love a child,
about moving yourself around water,
around mountains,
around friends,
about learning to love others more than we love ourselves,
about learning oneness as a way of understanding God.

We get one story, you and I, and one story alone.

God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution.
It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?"

-Donald Miller

Blue skies and sunny days

Today, we had a picnic down at Scarborough



We took sandwiches and fruit



And sat in the shade of the towering Norfolk Pines


Enjoying the sunshine and the fun

Just the tonic after 6 weeks of rain and cloudy skies


Psalm 118:24 - "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it"

My Christmas Craftiness

My funky & fabulous sister-in-law Sheree

My delightful sister-in-law Sarah

My lovely mother-in-law Lyn (& Sheree)

My adorable neice Sabrina

My wonderful Mum

And my beautiful sisters, Kathryn & Bronwyn

A huge thank you to my mum who embroidered the names on her machine and who STILL managed to look very surprised when she opened her present!

It's 2011!! *GASP*

Phew, I made through 2010 ... barely. As with the beginning of any new year, I find myself asking the same questions. What will this year bring? Am I ready for it? Will I come out the other side with as much hope and optimism as I entered it?

Well it's a new year and again I ask those questions. So here's my attempt to answer them:

What will this year bring?
Excellent question considering I have no ability to see into the future! What I can say with absolute certainty there will be challenges, joy, heartache, tears and laughter.

Am I ready for 2011?
Not on your nelly! But I sure am excited at what I see unfurling before me.

Will I come out the other side with as much hope and optimism as I entered it?
Hm, can't say for sure, however, I do believe that how I tackle the problems and challenges that rise before me will have a direct impact on how I end 2011.

So, to all my faithful family, friends and fellow bloggers I wish you a very Happy New Year. May you make the most of every opportunity, seek to uplift others and take time to count your blessings!

With love,

Suz xoxo

Hidden Joy

About 2 weeks ago I realized that I needed to think of a present for a darling little girl turning 1. Like so many of us at the moment, money is a little tight, so I put on my thinking cap. What could I do that wasn't to cost an arm and leg but was still that little bit special?

Well, I searched high and low (thank you Google) and I thought, what if I was clever enough to make a soft toy for this adorable little girl? I carefully chose my pattern, printed it off, chose my fabrics and painstakingly cut out the pieces.

Then I pinned, sewed, looked at the tutorial, sewed, unpicked, sewed, pinned, scratched my head, threw my hands up, looked again, aha, repinned, sewed, stuffed, sewed, (repeat all of the above, and repeat again) and finally, I tied a ribbon.

Behold, my creation:

A suitably gorgeous softie for such an adorable little girl. Happy birthday Tiffany!

Fear made me ...

I have been reading a book called Fearless by Max Lucado. The basic premise is, if we were to get rid of all our fear what kind of life would we lead? This has been very thought provoking for me because over the last few years I have become quite a fearful person, here's just a few:

I am afraid of:
- the dark
- heights
- getting lost
- being seen as too talkative
- not friendly enough
- too opinionated
- not pretty enough
- not smart enough
- not nice enough
- of being a victim of crime
- of being in a car accident
- being in a plane crash
- losing a limb(s)
- becoming disfigured
- not being spiritual enough
- being too rigid in my beliefs and values
- being too loose in my beliefs and values
- not being a good enough wife
- not being a good enough mother
- people knowing that I don't cook every night of the week, or even every second night of the week
- losing control
- losing my temper
- not knowing what to do
- being seen as a child
- being seen as too serious
- not having enough fun
- being diagnosed with a terminal illness
- change
- things staying the same
- giving more than I may recieve
- letting go
- being too compliant
- tripping up or down stairs
- being left out
- being talked about behind my back
- saying the right thing
- being laughed at
- not being wanted
- being asked "so what do you do?" when my reply seems so insignificant "I'm a stay at home mum"
- getting the wrong haircut
- having hope that things can change
- being given up on by .... family, friends, etc
- getting hurt by putting myself out there to try and establish new or renew friendships
- emotionally /psychologically damaging my daughter
- Presley seriously hurting herself
- not being able to offer anything of value or worth to anyone
- BEING INVISIBLE

And trust me, these are only a few of the fears that ramble through my head. I know that some of you may read these and think 'how silly' but the reality is, we all have lists like these. Yours may not be as long, or even maybe as specific as mine but we all have fears. Sometimes our fear is simply a reminder that we are human and other times it can cripple us. Think of those who suffer from extreme fear, phobias such as spiders, snakes, heights, dying, flying, being outside, antique furniture, other people, needles, hospitals, etc, etc. The torment and the terror that their fear holds over them.

Our mind is our most powerful enemy and we must conquer it. When irrational fear strikes we must banish it, when real fear attacks we must balance it with what we know to be true: God will never forsake us. He is our rock and salvation, on Him we can depend. The Lord is our hope and our defender.

I have a long way to go before I can say that I am fearless but for now I will say this, I am slowly learning to put my fears aside and take hold of the life that God has given me, to become the woman He created me to be.

I'm working on it

Today has been one of those days. A day where you start out getting out of bed and feeling quite good. Although it is overcast and drizzly, you are still feeling good after breakfast and a shower so you decide to take your nearly 2yr old out to the shops because you need to look for a baby shower present for a friend. Now, the drive to the shop and the initial foray through the shopping centre are still allowing you to feel good. You're looking at your child and thinking 'You are just the cutest thing in the world', and then all hell breaks loose. She wants to keep trying on shoes, you want to walk away; she wants to get out of the pram but you want her to stay in it; you need her to sit in her car seat so you can do up the buckle, she decides that RIGHT NOW she needs to play with the interior light just above her door; you want to get in the car and drive home so you can relax with a cup of tea but you discover that your mobile phone is missing. OMG!!!!!!! The proverbial hits the fan and the monster within is unleashed. After searching through and emptying the entire contents of your handbag, the shopping bags and a most thorough search of the car you nearly see red. Steam is pouring out your ears, visions of traipsing back through the shops and retracing your steps nearly cripple you and the steering wheel has received undue abuse for this catastrophe.

You suddenly realize that the last time you saw your phone it was on the top of the pram, so you open the boot and whip open the canopy of the pram. There, in all it's metallic glory, is your phone. You quietly ease back into the car, start the engine, turn the on some easy listening music and just weep. You are weeping because you saw something in yourself that made you pale with fear, a darkness that you thought you had overcome, the pit opening up and the monster emerging. Not dead and buried as you thought, but merely dormant, waiting for that moment of weakness, to unleash blackness, to spew hot bitter words, to make you doubt everything you thought you knew about yourself, to get you believing its lies.

BUT I have this to say to my monster: I will not succumb, I will not bow down, I will not be cowed. It is you who will succumb, it is you who will bow down, and it is you who will be cowed.

In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us