Beautiful Nightmare

The blossoms in Albury are In.Credible. Really. They've all started to fall off now to make room for the luscious greenery of early summer but there are still enough around to be gorgeous. Last week I even had the beautiful experience of eating my lunch in the botanical gardens sitting on my quilt underneath a blossom filled tree as the petal softly fell around me. There is nothing like it. It's like a little bit of heaven.

BUT. They kill me. I have had the worst hay fever I think I've ever had this spring. It almost didn't exist for the 2 weeks I was in Adelaide so I know it is all the pollens here (and quite possibly the dust from the farms that are not too far away...) and I'm devastated. Spring is practically ruined by itching, headaches, raw throats, blocked sinuses and a constant pile of soggy tissues. It looks so pretty. And yet it's making me miserable. How unfair is that!

To add to the hay fever symptoms I took some over the counter hay fever tablets thinking they would make me feel better. Instead they took away some of the itchiness (but not all!) and added the kind of dry throat that makes it painful to swallow. The non-drowsy ones made me sleepy (imagine if I'd take the drowsy ones!) and I had even worse headaches. Not pleased at all, and feeling quite the pill popper, I spoke to my Chiropractor and the loveliest lady at the health food store about alternatives to chemicals that weren't doing anything useful anyway.

Here's what I'm doing to manage it:

~ I've cut down (not out!) dairy and grains. Salad anyone??!

~ I'm taking a garlic, horseradish, fenugreek and histidine tablet up to 4 times a day as I need it. It's all natural (and probably has more than those things in it) so my body just gets rid of what it doesn't use instead of building it up like chemical tablets do.

~ I'm drinking many many cups of fenugreek tea. An acquired taste but super effective.

And I feel so much better! I still have a bit of itchiness and stuffiness, especially in the morning but the tablets and the tea work wonders and don't have any side effects. I also feel better knowing only natural things are going into my body. I wish I had NO hay fever but I guess it has taught me to understand my body a little more and appreciate that while nature is attacking me in one way it also has the remedy for me.

I can see the beauty in that too so maybe Spring isn't so bad after all!

{Both pictures and textures by me}

Wordless Wednesday

(Because I get the feeling that from now on you wont be getting much more out of me on a Wednesday than a picture. I'm working Wednesdays.... Good, but tiring.)

Lavender at Dusk

Taken in Adelaide on a slow walk home from High Tea on North Terrace.

NOTE: My "Have Read It 2009" has just past 30 books. Click on the button in the left hand column to see what I've been reading and make suggestions for me.

Because They Hear

Before leaving for Adelaide I was working on a very special, multifaceted project for a very special little guy.

Johan is the son of the best man at our wedding and our godson. He lives in Alice Springs (but not for much longer...) with his dad, mum and little sister Ruby. He's 2 and half years old now and a little bit of a superhero champion. You see he's had a few

health and developmental struggles. The most recent focus point for his health (aside from the weekly physiotherapy and daily work his rock star parents do with him) has been the implanting and turning on of a Cochlear Implant to try to give him more than the 10% hearing he's had so far in life.

Can you even imagine they joy of learning to hear??

Can you imagine the wave of emotions as you see your child learn your voice properly??

I don't really know if I can.

Turning on the implant doesn't mean he can suddenly hear 100% but it does mean he will slowly be able to hear more and more over time. I don't think he will ever have more than about 70% hearing. I guess no one can know for sure. Right now though he can hear more than he could without it which makes it an incredible gift. It's an answer to prayer.

We believe that as godparents it is our role to pray for him, teach him about God and love him. Praying for him from a distant is easy because distance doesn't matter to God! Loving him is easy enough through prayer, phone calls to his parents to check up on him, sending little gifts and catching up when we can (not so easy!). But teaching him about our Saviour has been something that has escaped us. We've sent him books - which he loves, but I have felt for a long time that it all falls short of fulfilling the teaching part of our calling as godparents.

Then, soon after we received news that he'd been accepted to have a Cochlear Implant, an idea came to me. I know it was from God. How could it not have been? He gave me this idea to use some of the gifts he has given me to make a gift for Johan. And so I present to you the one of a kind, never to be repeated, first album to be recorded by Joel and Rachel....

Now Johan can hear the Word of God from his godparents as he follows along with the books (which we definitely sent with the disc!). Now Johan will know the voices of two more people who love him and the words of the One whose Love is above and beyond all.

Blessed are your eyes because they can see and your ears because they hear.

Matthew 13 vs 16

Thank you's - or - Notes from the speech I'd give when receiving the Grammy Award for our Album:

~ Thanks Apple for making such easy and brilliant programs! GarageBand was so easy to understand and use to record this CD even though I'd never used it before.

~ Thanks Minuteman Press for great printing at a great price - again. (They printed a front booklet, double sided; a back cover and 2 CD labels. All exactly how I wanted it)

~ Thanks Morgan for not barking in the back ground.

~ Thanks Photoshop for letting me rock out my ideas.

~ Thanks Stock.xchng for high quality free stock images.

~ Thanks internet world for having free templates for me to get all the dimensions right. No thanks for them not being exact. Live and learn.

~ Thanks Joel for being the other voice and godparent.

~ Thank you Sam & Tara for inviting us to be Johan's godparents. We are honoured.

~ And major thanks to the Father for awesome ideas, pretty decent skills, the equipment and funds to put ideas into action, brilliant people who can make people hear and for giving us an amazing little guy to bless.

Why I am Full

Nine months after moving to Albury from Adelaide I have returned for a visit. And I am more than OK. Aside from dying of travel sickness on the way over that is!

Albury has become so much home for me that being back here doesn't have the pull on me that I'm sure it would have if I'd come even just 6 months ago. Holding off to visit was the best thing I believe I could have done. Holding off on visiting gave me the chance to establish myself as a person in my new home, to make friends, get work (2 jobs people!!), settle my house and love where I live. Holding off visiting my old home until I had a new home means visiting the old one is positive, exciting and enjoyable rather than a painful reminder of where I might wish I'd rather be.

Being here is wonderful. I am having the most precious time with friends and family I have loved and missed. I am eating out nearly everyday (sorry budget!) and enjoying meals that helped shaped my love of Adelaide (ETC's Roasted Field Mushrooms in Balsamic dressing changed my life!). I am seeing the results of things that had been changing when I left - mostly buildings. I am sharing revelations with friends who have known me for years. I am meeting babies that are only weeks and months old. I am still laughing at my Nana's outrageous stories! I am celebrating birthdays and weddings and pregnancies. I am grieving with those who are hurting over injuries, illness and injustices. I am jamming a lot of life into 2 weeks.

And yet there is within me my new home, my new friends and the life I am missing there by being here.

What an incredibly wonderful problem to have: so much love in my life that where ever I am I am missing someone or something important. Could a person be any more blessed than to have loved ones wherever they go?


The title of this blog comes from the song Majesty which says "Majesty, Your grace has found me just as I am - Empty Handed but alive in your hands". I am daily reminded that I am empty handed in the sense that I have nothing of value to give to Christ but myself. All my own efforts are nothing without his grace. And that's the way he has planned it. Imagine for a second if something I could do was enough to pay for what he has done for me, or even enough to say thank you in a way that paid true tribute to the redemption he has given me. Imagine that I knew what that something was - wouldn't I spend my life doing that thing? Wouldn't I fill my hands trying to give him that gift in return? How then would he continue to give me the life and gifts that he does? If my hands were full of the things I chose to place in them how could I possibly have them open to receive the far more perfect things he has for me?

My hands are abundantly full because my Saviour fills them daily with goodness beyond my imagination. I hope that I am always willing to empty my hands of my own plans and machinations so that he might fill them with his love and blessings. That he might fill them with his wisodm and his plans. That I might always have my hands full of Christ and empty of me because that is the kind of living we were made for - Life to the full in Christ. (John 10:10)

Family Circus

One of the most super fun things a person can do, in my opinion, is go to a family run country style circus - in a small country town. There's just nothing like sitting on rickety bleachers with less than 100 other people watching a show than is less than polished but highly entertaining. Oh. And eating fairy floss!

When I saw the red and yellow tent going up and the elephants in the paddock (sadly not in the show anymore) I decided I had to go. Joel isn't around this week but he wouldn't go with me anyway. So I posed the question to some friends and they graciously agreed to come with me. I had a blast! It has such a home made, still practicing quality to it that i couldn't help but love them for making the effort to entertain us. There were some definite skills that left me pretty impressed. The guy balancing on the rolling pipes and the guy on the tight rope being the major two. And the clowns were funny but not too over the top. A good wholesome and fun night. And home by 9:30pm!

It's actually a really nice change to see the human side of a performance and not mind when they drop the juggling ball or miss a trick. It makes reminds me that maybe not everything in the world has to be perfect for us to enjoy it. Next time you see a tent maybe you should stop and spend a few dollars and an hour or two of your time in a simpler place.

Rach is Coming!!!

I'll be in Adelaide for the next two weeks visiting friends and family and staying with Miss Z who is excited that I'm coming to stay because "we can have ice cream when Rach is here"!! We sure can baby! And I'll wear my gumboots too!

Let me know if you're in Adelaide and want to catch up and it hasn't already been arranged - Excited!