Work, weddings, and 5 years

This week, as well as being a hard week, has been a very exciting week!

It was a hard week because I started work, and though sometimes I love my work, I DO NOT like the first few weeks of the year. I'm partially writing this so that next year I will remember and be prepared.

Do you want to know a secret? The first 2 weeks of doing my job I was actually really depressed because I kept thinking "I can't believe I've signed up for a job that I find so hard. How am I going to survive this year?"

But then I got to the 3rd week, and it all started to come together.

The truth is that I am not a desk job/organising the masses kind of person- but that is one aspect of my job. And I can bear it when I also get to spend times with Women and Kids and teach the Bible. But on the weeks when all I do is sit at a computer trying to organise materials and teams of people I get very depressed and very stressed. So while I feel overwhelmed that this time next week everything will be up and running- I am also relieved at the thought.

It was an exciting week because of weddings!

As previously started, my friend Fi is getting married. It's been fun chatting about it, fun thinking about it. I get to be a bridesmaid which I am very excited about (and honoured). I have friends who have been bridesmaids a few times and so things like dress shopping and hens night and hairstyles are just things that don't excite them. But having only been a bridesmaid once when I was in year 8 (for my Auntie Clare)- this stuff is very, very exciting for me. And even more, it will be so precious to get to be so involved in such a special day- and to assist her and encourage her as she prepares for this new stage of life as a wife. Dresses and flowers are all very well, but to be able to pray with her on the morning of her wedding is I suspect going to be the most special thing.

And- it was an exciting week because yesterday Tim and I were married 5 years. I am very thankful to God for the way he has sustained us through this time (not to mention for all the fun we have had along the way:) ). One thing we did yesterday was go through all the ways that we thought each other had grown in the years of marriage. It was encouraging to know that in Tim's eyes I was a better wife now than when we married and vise-versea!

Anyway, that's my week (trying to think up a more exciting end to this post but can't be bothered!)
love B

Yay!

And on a happier note.

My friend Fi and her boyfriend Matt are engaged!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I'm just a little excited)

My prayers are with you both during this exciting time.

love B

Back to work stress

Today is my first in the office day of the year.

And yes, I do realise it's Australia Day.

My first 7 days of work were non-office days, two Sundays and one wonderful week helping out on a Youth and Children's leader's training camp.

But now the rubber hits the road:

-Sunday School

-Creche Rosters

-Tuesday Playgroup

-Wednesday Playgroup? (Not technically my responsibility but I don't think it is anyone else's yet either so have to make sure that someone is sorting things out)

-Koorong shop

-Craft Supplies

-Toy cleaning (Tomorrow is the day where we get all the playgroup toys out and sanitise them for another year of fun in the mouths of local children)

-Schedual and planning for Tim and my Junior Youth Biblestudy/group

-Praying for my sanity and that God in his mercy will use this crazy, disorganised servant to bless the children and women of my church.

And that is why I am working on Australia day.

love B
PS (photos of new house and NZ coming up when we actually have internet at home)

I'm back

I'm back.

Back in the country

Back in Sydney.

Back at church.

But I am not back in Stanmore. Because as of Friday Tim and I moved into our new house! I actually really like it. I'm not sure if that's because its so new that it's like we are living in a hotel (only a hotel filled with boxes), but I suspect it's just because it's such a cool little place. There is still lots of fun to be had- we don't have any hot water because Tim didn't realise it was gas and so didn't organise for gas to come in, and there are an awful lot of boxes (some full some empty) cuttering the pathways between everything but it's got our stuff in it and our pictures and it feels like home. The home feeling was heavily emphasised also by the three couples who provided lunch, dinner, and cookies/tea for us (and these are two couples we know vaguely and one I had never met!) The benefits of living in a Bible College community house.

New Zealand and Melbourne were both amazingly wonderful. I don't really have time to go into detail but as this is the one time I get internet access before Tim and I head off to a camp I thought I should at least let you know that much.

Feeling overwhelmed with the prospect of the year ahead, but so much more calm after today- just seeing the people i serve and going "Oh that's right, I love these people" makes the work ahead seem more achievable.

love B

Mood lighting

Tim and I are in NZ.

Yes I know what your thinking! Get off the computer and get exploring. Well, Tim is upstairs negociating with the car rental car to get our car early so we can do that. But with free internet at our hotel I thought I might as well get on here before we head off into the wilderness.

Our hotel was a cheap option. It is the funkiest hotel I have ever seen. Very, very modern furniture. The tinest room you have ever seen. An automatic "wake up" system which involves turning music on, putting on the tv with a screen advertising their breakfast menu and telling you the current Christchurch weather, and putting on "sunlight-like" light above your bed. But the coolest thing is the mood lighting. 5 different colours of lights depending on what mood your in. My favourite was the red.

A new year

You can tell you are having a roaring NYE when you are writing on your blog at 10:42!

Actually, I recon it's just about perfect. I'm hanging out at Tim's folks house, there is a beautiful rainy breeze wafting through the fly-screen, Lord of the Rings is being watched now that Back to the Future is over and i am downloading photos to facebook so that I can free up the camera to take photos in NZ. I have never been a big NY party person, and I think, with our trip starting tomorrow i really just wanted a quiet night.

My New Years resolution was to Morn with those who morn and to be joyful with those who were joyful.

I think I did it. Or at least I got better at it which I guess was what I was really aiming for.

I don't know how to think about next year. I know it could be good and i know it could be hard. This year was. And in fact, knowing what know about Life and God and the world I suspect both will be true.

My aim for this year i think is pretty simple. I just want to keep serving God, keep serving Tim, keep serving the people of Chatswood Baptist. It may not sound very grand or exciting, but sometimes it's the simple things that are the hardest and the most important things.

I don't know what this year will hold. But I suspect the first 10 days will be awesome!
New Zealand here we come!
love B

Family

I've been thinking a bit about family lately. Not that this is complete surprise, given we are staying in Melbourne and it's Christmas time.

We've got to spend lots of time with Grandparents. Photos seem to be a bit of a theme. Nan and i got out the photos from when I was little. "You were so lovely. So friendly and happy. Don't know what happened!" Grandma and Grandpa feel sad because though we always take photos they are always digital. They want something they can hold in their hand or put in an album to remind them of the years that been. That for them is a big part of how they cling to us when we are often far away. I'm printing some out this week for them.

Tim and I were given a great honour as some of our dear Melbourne friends asked us to be the God parents of their soon to be born child. They said they wanted God Parents who would be godly models that they wanted their child to emulate. It's one of those compliments that makes me feel both very happy and unworthy.

On Christmas Eve night we had our first Christmas party of just the immediate Grant family. Tim's parents, us, and his siblings and their respective attachments. Elise Tim's sister said "It's so much more fun now. Their used to be only three of us, but now I have two sisters and a husband." I get a bit teary when I think about those words.

People always talk about "Do you have a family?" or "Starting a family". I get really, really mad when i hear that. It seems to imply that because Tim and I are as yet to have children that somehow we are not really a family, that we don't fit into that category because there are only two of us. That we are not in and of ourselves legitimate.

But it's even more than that. Do I have a family? YES. I have the most marvellous, wonderful family! I have brothers and sisters and Aunties and Uncles and Cousins and Children and parents and Grandparents. Some are because of the blood in my veins, some are because of the wonderful man that I married. Some are because of dear relationships with Christian brothers and sisters.

And I am so thankful.
love B