Life in Alphabet - F

is for Faith. I've blogged about my faith before (see the post from my photo challenge). That basically sums up what I'd write anyway.

However, I thought I might also include my testimony below, for anyone who would like a little more to read... I wrote it on 15th June, 2006 for our small group at the time. It was the first time I'd ever written at testimony and it was easier to write than I thought. Having been a Christian my whole life, I never had one of those 'life changing' experiences where I suddenly found and 'gave my life to Christ' after living without Him, so didn't really think I'd have much of story to tell... however, as I wrote, I realised that I did have a story of my faith journey over the period of my life. So, here it is (although the journey has continued since then, the story remains fairly the same!):

There was never one unique point in my life when I became a Christian. I was born into and raised by a Christian family and learned about the Trinity of God every day, in every day living. I was baptised a week after I was born and confirmed my faith 14 years later at my Confirmation.

I went to a Christian kindergarten and primary school and I still remember that in everything I was taught, it was done with Christian morals and values, whether the class was Maths, English or PE.

When I reached high school, I again went to a Christian college. It was during these years that I began to really use my faith and grow in my relationship with Christ. I began to attend youth camps, first yearly and then I would go to as many as I could each year. During these camps I made close, Christian friends who still remain my closest friends even today. I was challenged in my faith, but within the comfort of a Christian environment.

After graduating high school, I moved to Melbourne and really found the value of the friends I had made at camps. I joined a Student Fellowship ‘group’ who met each Sunday night for a service and attended the camps that they held. If it wasn’t for the Christian friends I had already made, I think it would have been hard for me to find a church and possibly would have left the faith. Already knowing them when attending the new church (after only ever going to one church with my family my entire life), was a big help in finding my place and continuing my Christian walk.

The biggest challenge of my faith came when I met Big Spring. Although he was a Christian, he came from a different walk of faith to me, as well as a Baptist church, which was quite unlike the Lutheran church I grew up in. Attending the Baptist church with him, it helped me to step out of my comfort zone, away from my parents’ faith and finding my own faith. Up until that point, I didn’t even realise that it was my parents’ faith I’d been following.

My parents found that quite difficult and for the first time in my life, I had huge barrier in my relationship with them. Thankfully having Big Spring in my life, he was able to support me through the tough time and help me bring my relationship back to what it used to be, as my parents grew as I had in my faith walk.

Now nearly five years since that fall out with my parents, my faith is much stronger and I am much more open to new experiences of church. Putting my faith in God is a much easier thing to do and I really see the work He is doing in our lives.

Recently, at my nana’s funeral, part of the Eulogy read “She was a wonderful Christian example to her family and friends, as she lived her life sustained by her LORD who is ever faithful to his people.” Even in her last few years, when her health and mind were slipping, she remained strong in her faith, if nothing else. Until reading the Eulogy, I did not realise the impact she had on my life. It wasn’t a life changing event, but she was a constant in my life. Up until her final moments, Nana found comfort in hymns, prayers and partaking in communion. The quote above has made me motivated to have something like that written about me in my Eulogy. She was ready to go home to her LORD and I want to have faith as strong as that when God calls me home.

Life in Alphabet - E

is for easel. We gave Little Spring an easel for Christmas and I'm absolutely amazed at how much she loves it! She really love painting and constantly asks if she can do painting. She certainly thinks outside of the square when it comes to choosing her canvases though... she does use the paper, every once in a while (!) but she finds many other creative ways to paint... on the windows, on the floor, on her body. Her latest canvas/victim is her doll....

Setting Little Spring up with her paints at her easel keeps her occupied for a long time. I really love that she enjoys it so much - I'm really not a creative person, so it's good that she's content painting by herself, while I'm nearby, but not needing to be with her, painting as well!

Instead of making her wear a smock (which she doesn't like wearing), we just strip her down to her nappy and she can paint to her heart's content, without us worrying about her clothes (although with the Crayola paint we're currently using, it comes off in the wash anyway, which we thankfully discovered after she did get paint on her clothes!

Life in Alphabet - D

is for deliveries. (Thanks to Big Spring for this great word!) Deliveries have become a big part of our lives since moving to Cairns. It seems that every week we are expecting something to be delivered to our door. With my Avon business, I have boxes of products arrive. Big Spring has a Nespresso machine and he has to order pods (refills) on line (he's currently waiting on a delivery now!). Over Christmas, we had multiple parcels arrive, filled with Christmas presents as we weren't sharing Christmas with family, so relied on Australia Post to do our gift exchanges! We also buy a lot of books/resources on line as we can't access shops like we used to in Melbourne and Adelaide, so there's often a parcel in transit making its way to our doorstep.

After all that, though, do you know what my favourite deliveries are? The unexpected ones! And they always seem to arrive at just the right time! You can read about one of my favourite unexpected ones here. The unexpected parcels are much less frequent than all the above ones mentioned, but oh so wonderful when you find it in the letter box, on the door step or waiting patiently until you can pick it up from the post office, wondering what it is you are picking up and who it's from!

So, a big thank you to Australia Post, FedEx, Australian Air Express and any other couriers involved in delivering products and love to our door!

Life in Alphabet - C

is for Cairns. Seeing as I live here, it's a pretty big part of my life! And how did I end up here, so far from family and friends?

Big Spring was ordained as a Lutheran Pastor at the end of 2010. His first assignment/placement was up here in Cairns. So, in January 2011, we moved up here, a week before Cyclone Yasi hit Far North Queensland. It was an interesting first week here, settling in and preparing for what the experts thought at the time to be a Category 5 (the highest category) Cyclone. I've never seen a supermarket so busy, or with shelves so empty.

We've been here almost a year now (wow! Where has that time gone?!)... each grocery shop I do for our weekly food, I'm stocking up on food as well, to have our cyclone kit ready in case of future cyclones and/or loss of power over the coming weeks/months. It's an interesting mind set to be in! I'm not worried about a cyclone coming... I just want to be prepared and not be one of the many people trying to find food at the last minute, that doesn't require electricity to cook/prepare.

So, cyclones aren't the only thing interesting up here in Cairns. It's actually a very beautiful part of Australia, especially during the dry season (~April/May - September/October). There is so much to do up here - there's the Tablelands to the west with coffee plantations and some wineries. To the north is the Daintree Rainforest, beaches and holiday resorts. To the south are beautiful beaches, a spanish castle ruin and to the east, the Great Barrier Reef. And that's just to name a few things. Locally, there's the Esplanade, the Skyrail taking you over the beautiful Kuranda ranges, the mangroves walk near the airport, not to mention the friendly, laid back lifestyle!

Personally, it's been an interesting year, adjusting to a very new lifestyle, climate and support circle. Aside from the humidity, I really love living up here. Yes, all our family live a great distance from us, and we had to leave some close friends behind, but over the past year, I've been making new friends and building those relationships into deep bonds. I now have people I miss when either they or we go on holidays! And, we've had friends and family come and visit us, so we're certainly not lonely!

(image credit)

If you aren't familiar with Australia and Queensland, Cairns is on the east coast, far north (just before you get to the top, right hand tip of Australia), as you can see on the above map.

Life in Alphabet - B

is for baking. Such a yummy word! I love to bake! I even have a blog page dedicated to my love of baking (it includes general cooking as well, but baking is my first love).

As much as I love baking, I don't do lots of it. And why is that? Time, energy, the heat of an oven warming on an already hot day and the biggest reason? There's only myself, Big Spring and Little Spring living here in the house, which means we are the ones that eat the baking... all by ourselves. It's delicious - I must say - so we can't resist! It's not good for our waist lines. So, I don't do baking as often as I'd like. Poor Big Spring. When I actually do some baking, it's usually to take somewhere so he misses out on the pleasure (unless I'm feeling generous and leave him some to try!).

On our trip to the States for Christmas 2010, I received a wonderful surprise from my aunty... her mom's (my grandma's) recipe tin. Filled with so many delights! I'm slowly getting through many of her recipes, both main meals and baking. One of my most favourite, easiest, absolutely mouthwatering recipes is Grandma Ellie's Brownies. So I could share these recipes with all her (Grandma Ellie's) descendents, I transcribed the recipe tin into a recipe book and send it out to all the women of the family. It was so nice to share the treasure of her tin with them!

I love this photo as it captures 2 things I treasure dearly... the bowl is a mixing bowl that was my Nana's (Dad's mum) and the recipe book in the back ground is the one I mentioned creating above - filled with Grandma Ellie's recipes

Are you playing along too with "Life in Alphabet"? Don't forget to paste your link to your post in my comments section below so I can read it!

Life in Alphabet - A

is for Amy. Since starting my new look blog, I haven't mentioned her name, to protect her privacy, but I thought for this one post, I would make an exception. On the spur of the moment, I decided to post my "Life in Alphabet." With 'Little Spring' being such a big part of my life, how could I go passed using her name for the letter "A?" Amy was, and is, such a huge answer to prayer. I can't believe that she's been in my life coming up to 3 years in August. Actually, she's been in our lives much longer than that... since November 2008 when we found out we were pregnant with our beautiful daughter (although we didn't know she was our beautiful daughter until she was placed in my arms seconds after she was born!).

Of course, Amy has her moments (currently going through the 'Terrible Twos' you hear so much about!) and she has such a streak of stubbornness (I have NO idea where she gets that from (says I with tongue-in-cheek!), but I love that feeling when I look at her and my heart skips a beat and I get butterflies in my stomach because of the rush of love in a moment.

I love that I always miss her when she's sleeping. When she's sleeping, that's my time to take a nap, catch up on things I need to do, or spend time doing something I want to do for myself. But, I still miss her when she sleeps. So quiet, calm, content, I just want to pick her up and cuddle her and squeeze her tight while rocking in our special glider chair that was bought before she was born to nurse her in and is now used for cuddles, comfort, prayers before bed and reading stories together.

I love her creativity. For Christmas, she got an easel and a paint set. She also got some stencils and more paint from her family in Victoria. She absolutely loves painting and constantly asks to paint! I don't know why I bother dressing her in the morning... instead of putting a smock on her to protect her clothes, Cairns weather makes it easy to just strip her down to her nappy and let her paint to her heart's content... on the paper... on her arms... on her legs... on her nappy... and even on the puppy were were dog-sitting while its owners were on holidays. Oh, did I mention she likes painting the floor and doors as well!? Thank goodness Crayola products all wash off so very easily!

I love the new words she tries constantly now. My favourite is "cuggles, mummy". (Translation: "Cuddles, Mummy.") Every day she surprises me with new words she knows, that I didn't know she knew!

I love how she loves to pray. And bless Mummy and Daddy at night, before bed (and anyone else who's in the house at the time!).

I love her love of music! She always asks for music to play. Depending on the beat, she'll start dancing to the music. She's got quite a rhythm! She loves a broad range of music... from Playschool to rock!

I could go on and on about the things I love about my little angel... but I'll stop here and just share these precious 'few' things with you!

What's not to love about this gorgeous girl, with the huge smile that always appears when a camera does... ready to take a picture!

I'd love to follow your "Life in Alphabet" too, so if you'd like to play along, please paste your link to your post in my comments section below and I'll be sure to read!

PS FYI - the letter at the beginning of the post was done by me in the MyMemories software program I was given. Don't forget that you have a chance to win a copy for yourself, so be sure to enter here. I promise that it's all legit and there's no catch... purely an opportunity to get a free copy of a great software program that was given to me for free to review and giveaway.

New Year "My Memories" GIVEAWAY!

Happy New Year everyone! Yep, you read write in the title, I'm hosting a "My Memories" giveaway! Stay tuned for details later in this post!

I've only just gotten into scrap booking in the last couple of months and have been enjoying it. However, I LOVE designing things on the computer so when I received an email from My Memories, asking me to trial their software, I jumped at the chance and am so glad I did. My Memories is a digital software program that you can use to either create your own scrap booking page from scratch, or use one of their many, many templates to capture your photo memories. And My Memories Suite isn't limited to just scrap booking... you can create cards, calendars, photo books, even videos!

My first project I experimented with using the My Memories Software was something fitting for wrapping up the year:

I created this from scratch, just playing around with many of the options available. It was very quickly done, but I wanted to make something I could use to show you an example of what can be done. You can imagine how much more can be done if you spend much more time on your creation!

Below is what I did with one of the templates, which of course was even quicker because all I had to do was slot in the photos and add the writing and not muck around with designs. I would have created a collage of Christmas 2011, but we didn't take many photos, so used photos from Christmas 2010, definitely a favourite Christmas memory while we spent time with my family in the States.

So, as I said, I'm hosting a My Memories giveaway. The prize is the My Memories Suite (full version) which one lucky winner will receive, completely free of charge (worth $39.97 US)!

To enter the My Memories Suite software giveaway, please fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Good Luck!