Ummmm...

Yeah, it's been awhile since I've posted... :-|

Anyway, I've decided to do something a bit different (for me) and blog about the different outfits I wear. Only, this will only be on the days that I wear a skirt or dress, and the skirt or dress will be a different one each time until I finish going through all my skirts and dresses. Sound good? Tough luck if it doesn't, coz I'm going to do it anyway :P

Let's go...

This is the outfit that I started out the day in......

And due to a FREEZING.COLD.house.....

This is what I've looked like instead for pretty much the whole day (minus the crazy eyes :P)

Housesitting Again!

Like the title says, I've been house-sitting again :D
This time I've been house-sitting for my sister while she's been away, and I've really really enjoyed it.
She has a beautiful house, and is so well-organized that it was really easy to look after the house.
I house-sat with Elyse, and we drank copious amounts of coffee. We had 1-2 cups a day :P

I loved having space to myself and getting to decide what we were eating for tea, and how much time I could spend on the computer.
I actually enjoyed having to be responsible and make myself do things. It was really a nice feeling of accomplishment to do the right thing and know that no one else had 'made' me :)

I hope I'm able to do it again (hint hint, Kristy :P)

Wow...

Is it really only the 12th of March?

It seems so much further along in the year...

Maybe it's because this year has already been jam-packed in 2 1/2 short months.

So far this year I have: (please note that this list is limited by my memory :P)

• Started a courtship with an amazing guy
• Been to two weddings
• Waitressed at one
• Been to a Music Team BBQ
• Started leading at youth group
• Started back leading Kids' Bible Study with Josh
• Started back at Recharge
• Started back at Music Practice (and singing on Sundays)
• Started back at piano lessons
• Started another year of TAFE
• And found out that I only have to go into TAFE one day a week (Woohoo!!)
• Organized to catch up with my mentor every two weeks (and stuck to it so far)
• Had my first Valentine's Day with my boyfriend :)
• Helped the Burfords move
• Led on youth camp
• Been blessed to see my little brother grow in God
• Pushed myself too hard, gotten overwhelmed, and broken down in tears twice (in one week)
• Been blessed by my friends, family etc giving me love and leniency when I'm tired and overwhelmed
• Helped Faye and Alex move
• Been amazingly blessed by the thoughtfulness of my boyfriend on so many occasions
• Struggled to find time to balance everything
• Struggled to balance my computer time so that I can balance everything else
• Struggled to find time to catch up with friends
• Been hugely blessed when I have found the time to catch up with friends
• Been blessed by the freedom and trust given to me by my parents
• Realized that I can't do everything on my own; I need God to help me
• Realized that it's okay to say 'no' (still working on this one though)

I've had my ups, and I've had my downs. And yet, I know that through it all God has been there. I know that there are people so much worse off than me. I know that I am so blessed, and that I will always have my needs provided by my Heavenly Father. He loves me, and wants me to run to Him for my strength. He wants to fill me up and use me for His glory. I know that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil 4:13), but that I need to turn to Him instead of relying on myself or others.

I'm still learning (thank goodness! I'd be worried if I was perfect :P), but I know I am stronger with God by my side :)

I'm slack...

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted.

So much has happened since then!

1. I've got a boyfriend

2. I've started back at work

3. I've started back at most church ministries

4. Youth group starts on Friday, and I'm going to be a leader

I'm busy, but happy :)

Josh (my boyfriend) and I are going well.

I'm still loving to sing on Sundays. I love using my ability to sing to glorify God.

Josh and I are teaching Kids' Bible Study together on Thursday nights. I started doing it at the start of last year, and he started sometime in the second half of last year.

I wanted to be a leader at youth group last year, but I was too young. However, I'm old enough this year, and I'm really excited about it!

The youth leaders that I had when I was in youth group really impacted me for Christ, and I'm praying that God will use me like He used them.

Please pray that God will bless me as I seek to serve Him, and that He will be glorified in all things. also, that He would give me wisdom as I go through lots of changes in my life.

Christmas Traditions

I love Christmas. Not as much as some people, but I still love it.
My family doesn't go overboard with it because we believe that the main focus of the day should be on Jesus as the 'Reason for the Season'. However, we still give presents and eat good food :)

A few of the Christmas traditions that my family has are:

1. Kris Kringle
This is where each person puts their name (along with 2 or 3 things that they want) into a hat. Each person draws a name, and then buys that person a gift to the equivalent of $30. It cuts down on the expense of buying presents, and means that each person gets something they want.

2. Nativity Scene
There's always a Nativity Scene no matter where we are. Most years we've had the same nativity scene up (one that my parents have had for years), but this year we're at my sisters' place, and she has a Willow Tree nativity scene up.

3. We always read the story of Jesus' birth

Last Christmas we went to Stansbury for a week, and this year we've gone to Mt. Gambier for Christmas. As much as I hate being away from home, and being unable to go to my church's Christmas Eve and Day services, I do enjoy being away from the hustle and bustle of things (in a sense) and being able to relax a bit :)

I love Christmas, and I love the way my family celebrates it :)

Hope everyone has a very blessed Christmas!!!

6 Challenges in 1 Month

I've found that if I don't challenge myself to do something and tell quite a few people about it then I don't end up doing it or I burn out halfway through. Ie. running, keeping my room clean etc.
A challenge means that I'm only doing it for a particular amount of time, and telling people means that I'm accountable to finish it.

With no further ado, here are the 6 challenges and their rules:

Challenge starts: 9th November 2009 and finishes 6th December 2009 (4 weeks)

1. Cook dinner two times per week
Rules: Use recipes from the cookbook entitled "The Potluck Club Cookbook" from the section entitled "Potluck Dishes It Up (Casseroles)". Must use 8 different recipes.
(I already cook dinner 2 times a week, but I want to improve my cooking skills by not only cooking easy dishes)

2. Run 3 times a week
Rules: Run on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday working up to 1.3 kms in 3 weeks at the absolute outside. (Saturdays are also acceptable if one of these days don't work out)

3. Clean my room for 20 minutes a day
Rules: No matter whether or not my room is neat, I must clean it for 20 minutes a day.

4. Wake up at 7:30 each morning
Rules: I must start getting up at 7:30am. I read my Bible in bed, so this means that I don't necessarily get out of bed straight away, but I must begin doing something whether it be reading my Bible or getting out of bed.

5. Eat 2 pieces of fruit per day
Rules: I have to finish two pieces of fruit a day.

6. Vacuum the house once a week
Rules: Before the week is over (Sunday) I must vacuum the whole house. My Mum will be very happy about this challenge :P
(This is one of my jobs that I'm supposed to accomplish every week, but don't generally tend to accomplish)

I'm tempted to add more, but I know this will be quite a challenge for me to accomplish so I'll leave it there.
Should be fun!!

I'll be blogging the recipes that I cook, and hopefully I'll be blogging about the different aspects of each challenge as I go :)

They left :(

On October 1st, my sister Narelle and her family arrived from America to spend 2 1/2 weeks with my family. We haven't all been together for 3 years, and they had never met my youngest nephew, Caleb.
It was a great time! It was very busy because we were trying to cram a lot of stuff into the short time, but it was great to spend time with the kids and get to know everyone better.

I had lots of fun chasing Jared (the youngest) around the house threatening to kiss him. Jekkie (2nd youngest) would run away a little bit, but mostly she would turn her head to avoid the kisses. It was fun hugging them and mucking around with them.

Lydia and Jordan were lots of fun to hang out with, but they would just ignore me when I gave them a kiss so I didn't get a chance to chase them over the house much.
Although, Jordan would 'hit' me and then run down the other end of the house, so that was fun :P

Jekkie had this thing where, once she liked you and accepted you she would hit you. It was really funny seeing the confused looks of people once she decided to accept them :P

We went down to Mt. Gambier to visit my other older sister who lives down there. Narelle and her family had never seen her house, and they really wanted to see it. We spent a few nights down there, and while it was fun it was also really noisy because she has a smaller house and so the noise seemed to be twice what it normally was because there was so many people and kids there!

On Monday (just gone) it was a really nice sunny day (the first day since they'd come) so we headed to the beach. It was so lovely and warm and lots of fun to hang out. A couple of other homeschooling families came, and the kids had loads of fun hanging out and playing with them. A few of us got mildly sunburnt (despite the sunscreen), but we didn't mind.

They left on Tuesday and I didn't want them to go :( Lydia and I talked about shredding the tickets so that they had to stay, but that would've been pretty costly for them so we decided against it.

I'm really thankful that I got to spend time with them, but the house seems a lot emptier :(
However, at the same time it seems to have settled back into routine fairly easily, so that's something to be thankful for as well :)

Food is yummy!

I made tea on Friday night, and it turned out really well. So, I decided to share it with you.

I got the recipe out of a cookbook that I got for review, and made a few changes which I'll mark with an asterisk (*) and explain at the bottom.

Crock-Pot of Spanish Rice
2 lbs of lean ground beef * (about 1 kg)
1 cup of chopped onion **
2 green bell peppers, chopped (capsicum)
1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes (800-828grams)
1 (8 oz.) can tomato soup (230grams)
2 1/2 tsp. of chili powder ***
1 1/2 tsp. of salt
2 tsp. of Worcestershire sauce
1 cup of rice uncooked ****
1 cup of water

Brown beef in skillet; drain off fat. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker, stirring to blend well. Cover and cook on low for 6 1/2-8 hours, or on high for 3-3 1/2 hours, or until rice is done. Do not use quick rice.
Serves 8

* I had about 1 1/2 kg of mince, so I used it all
** I had no onion, so I used onion salt. I plan on using onion next time though
*** I cut down the chili powder to about 2 tsp. and this worked really well with the extra meat because it wasn't overly spicy.
**** I put in another 1/2 cup of rice because of the extra meat

With the extra meat and rice, this made heaps! It tasted great, and although you could taste the chili, I could eat it comfortably (I have a very low tolerance for spicy foods).

House-sitting

Rach and her family went away on the 20th for a holiday, and they asked Elyse and I to house-sit for them.
They get back tomorrow, and I'm kind of wishing they didn't (no offense Rach. I want you to come back, I just don't want to leave your house :P). It's been fun, and it's been good.
Without any further ado, I give you a list of pros and cons about house-sitting for Rach's family:

Pros:

• I don't have to check with someone every time I go somewhere.
• I can read lots
• I'm only vying for the computer with one other person :P
• I don't get told to clean up
• I have a 50/50 say in what we have for tea
• I can have the music up loud without someone telling me that the kids need quiet to concentrate on school
• I've had some good conversations with Elyse
• I've been able to spend time with Elyse even though we've been going in opposite directions a lot
• I've been referring to Rach's place as 'home', and my home as 'Mum & Dad's' :D
  

Cons:

• It's a little bit scary knowing that I am ultimately responsible for my actions
• I've been on the computer a little bit too much
• I'm responsible for cleaning up my own mess, and no one else will tell me to clean up
• It's been hard to motivate myself to work (I have been sick as well which has something to do with that)
• I've had to drive 20 minutes in order to get to all the church activities I'm involved in as well as work in the first week.
• Elyse and I have had to organize what we're having for tea, or if we're going to our parents houses for tea
  

It's been really good, and I've really enjoyed it. I miss my family a little bit, but I'm sure if I was to house-sit for longer I would end up missing them more.
It's been lots of fun doing my own thing, and it's been good to live with Elyse because I haven't seen heaps of her for awhile because we've both been busy.

I've been sick the whole time that we've been house-sitting which has been a bit hard, but it was really only this week that it got really bad :(
I'm slowly getting better though I think. I'm not looking forward to going home, but I am at the same time because I miss my family and I miss my normal routine :)

Catch Up

Well, once again it's been way too long since I've posted, so instead of catching you up with what's been going on in my life (because it's way too long to go through) I thought I'd just post about what happened today :)

I was working today, and Dad needed a 100-metre tape measure so he got me to ring around a few places to find one. I found one at a place about 15 minutes from home for a reasonable price, and so Dad asked me to head down there and get it. I decided that I'd wear Mum's brown boots because I'd been wearing them last night, they were comfortable, and they looked good :)
Anyway, I got to the place, and I walked in and I'm thinking "Okay, I feel SO out of place!" It's a tradesman's store, I'm wearing high-heeled boots and a long denim skirt, and clip-clopping everywhere...
There was a few tradies there, and some of the looks they had on their faces made for a good laugh at myself. I clip-clopped my way through the store looking for the tape measure, but couldn't find it and so I ended up having to go and ask at the desk. I finally got it, paid for it, and clip-clopped my way out.
It was pretty funny, and it made for a good break in my day and gave me a chance to laugh at myself!