Cassie's Cuddles

Today we walked Ellie to school, and came home and finished school for Camden and Lachlan…yay! Poor Steph has 20 more paces than the others, so she might take another week, ugh! She went in with Jared again today to work in the Library, evidently she is a good worker helping Jared to catch up.

 Today I also played “guess what I’m talking about on Facebook” I guess it is a bit like chinese whispers, ugh!

This afternoon I took the children (and Jared came too), to see High School Musical 3. I felt a little uncomfortable with it, too, um, what shall I say? Let’s put it this way, Gabriel and Troy should be walking down the isle. I did like the songs though. I think I whispered to my daughter “don’t dance like that with someone unless you are married to him”. Then it would be romantic!I had a talk with a lady the other month who told me that she hoped that her daughter would keep her self for marriage, although she doubted it. The girl she was talking about is only15. I said that I have taught my children that God wants us to keep ourselves for the one that we marry. Mothers and Fathers, don’t forget to teach your children this. Temptation will come, but with biblical teaching, they will be better prepared to withstand it.

Today I cried, not sad tears, but happy ones. I had two lovely ladies, Lisa and Sevy, give me a lovely Christmas present. Lisa made a beautiful bag for me, and Sevvy filled it with all craft goodies, ribbons, material, scissors, all manner of things. I had seen Lisa’s bag during the year, and people were saying “I’d love one of those”, and I did the unthinkable, and said it too.

This is Sevvy and Lisa, thank you so much for thinking of me, and for being so generous. I know I don’t deserve such a special blessing, but I realllllly appreciate it. I feel very loved.

It has been such a busy few days. Today we had a market, Alycia made $40, Lachlan 20, Camden 10 and Steph $20. This was clear, after they had given their tithe to a young man who is a missionary in China. They actually gave a lot more than their tithe, which made me very happy to see them give money away cheerfully.Alycia manning the store.Steph made two nappy cakes at $50, she got an order for early next year, but she still has these two. They are made using the best quality nappies, lotion, hat, and booties, and a baby blanket sewn by her. I think she clears about $10 when she sells them.

Take a look at the other stalls..

There were a number of other stalls, all the children tried their best. I felt bad that I couldn’t buy something from each stall to encourage them.

On Sunday morning Jared went to Morwell with Lachlan and Alycia. I went to a fire awareness meeting  next to our street run by the fire station. I felt horrible missing out on morning church for such a thing, but they didn’t run it any other time. After the hour long lesson, I was freaked out! In the afternoon I went to a commisioning of Issac Motor Yat, who will be returning to Sudan to teach and preach. It was a lovely service full of praise to God. Despite Cassandra turning on the “I don’t want to be here button”, we all felt inspired and up lifted after the message. I was encouraged to see children who recognised other missionaries from the Dayspring cards, when they told me, I felt very happy. Never underestimate the faith of children, and the work that they can do.

 Saturday we went to Morwell, to the German club. STeph and Lachlan were taught German by a friends for a number of years back in Moe. Mr and Mrs Mocnik have become very special to us. Mr Mocnik cooked the potatoes pancakes.And Mrs Mocnik did some major organising..On the way home we popped in to visit Jared’s G’ma and Pa in Buln Buln for a few hours.

Friday night I went out with my homeschooling mothers. It was a fun night with a lot of laughs. The meals where huge! We went to Sophia’s in Berwick.

My dear mother has been searching out her name on my blog, so I thought that I would say something about her…She is very special to me, I am very similar to her in personality, but not in gifts. My mum has a very awesome ability to make a house look wonderful, even if it is a dump. Mum use to come up and visit me in Moe, the place would look like a wreck, but with little effort (or so it seemed), she would turn a mess into a fresh feminine sparkle. Mum always has flowers in her house, but never clutter. I have never seen her house messy, mine is never neat! Why didn’t I inherit that gene? I have said to mum constantly over the years that she should go into interior decorating, she has a gift.Ok, so this isn’t a picture of my mother, and she has never even looked like this, but hey, it gives me a laugh!

Today we went to a homeschooling market, not our one, that is on Monday. I also dropped off Jared’s gardening duva for a service…exciting stuff eh? I am going out for tea though, so I am pretty chuffed about that.

 Here are some pictures of Alycia’s paddle balls to sell for $2 each, and Lachlan’s lacing cards for littlies.

Dotted between school, the children made some items for the homeschooling market. Firstly Alycia made some paddle balls, we cut out some scrapbooking paper to give them a cool look.

We are also working on a couple of clip boards with a matching pencil…

And some magnets, these are my favourite, because they are so easy that Alycia can do them on her own, and yet, they look great!

There are more, but I have to get more magnets for them.

Steph has been working on some baby blankets for her nappy cakes, and on about 10 cushions. Lachlan has started on some plaster caste, and some bookmarks, and some lacing cards for toddlers. I’ll have picks another day.

What a busy couple of days we have had. On Friday night we went to the Presbyterian Theological college graduation. The night starts at 8pm, so I think that is why the male lecturers sit up the front….to avoid grumpy babies in the pew! As it was, the children behaved. We had a brilliant sermon from Rev Benn. He preached about being men of integrity. He also said that we need strong godly fathers and mothers, something that is not preached about enough these days. Rev Benn, obviously had a godly father, and in turn, he himself is now able to guide and direct his grandchildren in God’s ways.Camden ready for church!

On saturday morning we dropped off Alycia and Stephanie to my mother and fathers to stay a few nights while the rest of us went to warrnambool.  When we arrived we unpacked, and then set off to the beach. We climbed, and enjoyed the sea breeze, ah, beautiful! I love the sea, wild one minute, peaceful and tranquil the next.

On Sunday, Jared preached three times at Warrnambool Pressie Chruch. We went to two of them with him. For Lunch we went to the park with the minister and his family, and another church family. It was a great time to get to know them a little. Jared preached on the inspiration of Scripture. Because we know that the Bible is God breathed, we should know that it is without error, because God is truth, He does not lie. The Bible is like no other book ever written, so we should read it, and obey it, and to not neglect it. I thought that Jared did not have the interest of the young people’s service, but not long into the sermon, there was silence, you could tell that people were taking it in…

Monday was a bonus day. We went to Portland. On the way we climbed gravel hills..Jared said that they were flatter after I got up!We walked along the pier.

I had a little rest on Monday after tea, and look what I woke up to!

That has to be worth an hours sleep don’t you think? And that my friend is why I never have naps! There were two eggs stuffed into that kettle. Oh, and the chocolate milk was lying on it’s side inside the fridge, without a lid on!Here is our first Christmas photo (and probably the only one).