Interesting Links

Here's a few interesting things I've read recently or semi-recently.

 

Caitlin's been an Ann Voskamp fan about a year (ever since she read "One Thousand Gifts" ) and in the last month I've started reading her blog. I especially enjoyed this article, and I hope to read the book soon.

Why you really need to think about losing (Becuase this is how you win)

 

I ocassionally pop over to LAF and read some of their articles. I thought these two were interesting.

The Death of Pretty

Would you like lies with that?

I thought this was pretty cool, though Lachlan was skeptical.

Grains of sand

 

And you've probably seen this before but we thought it was funny and worthy of mention. Disclaimer: I have never, ever in my life done schoolwork in my pyjamas, so I don't know what they're talking about. You may need a slightly quirky sense of humour or be a homeschooler to find this funny. Thanks, Alice for posting. :)

Australia Day 2012

It's never quite Australia Day without a picnic. Due to a few busy days leading up to Australia Day we were thinking that we'd just have a quiet day at home. But thanks to the Wyllies we donned our Aussie attitude and joined them and others for a picnic (even though we didn't eat lamb).

It threatened rain all day, and as we had just set up our chairs and transferred all of the picnicware the heavens opened. We defied it for a little while, but soon George and I (and other sensible ones) took shelter in the car, while we waited for decisions to be made whether to go home or find shelter on the other side of the lake.

Thankfully, we decided to stay and the rain cleared up, and there was time to play in the sand...

and on the playground equipment.

Fun on the swings...

and fun on the frogs.

Like mother, like daughter.

The ladies sat genteelly

and some of the others had fun at the cricket ground. It isn't Australia Day without some cricket.

One poor lonely spectator.

 

The younger kids played in the sand and swam in their clothes.

Sebastian also tried out some fishing, or that's what he thought he was doing. He didn't seem to catch much.

Sitting on the buoys together.

And now I have to get right back to my book "Adam Bede." I've just reached a crisis, and I'm dying to know how it turns out. I'm looking forward to finishing it and writing a review. My idea of the book has changed so much in 334 pages and I still have about another 250 to go, so I'm looking forward to finding out what else is hidden among these leaves.

Casting Crowns in Concert 2012

Victoria Azarenka just won the Australian Open and I need something to lift my spirits. What better than to look back and post my Casting Crowns photos. We arrived to a wet Sydney and while the others went to find some dinner Tegan, Emily, and I stood in the line. Thankfully we brought umbrellas, so we juggled umbrellas and books and camera bags and tried not to get too wet.

Thankfully, not too long after a lovely American dude came and showed us somewhere to stand undercover. And then not too long after that we were shown into the conference centre.

Waiting for the concert to begin. The different faces of our group except for Cassandra, whose photo was not presentable, due to closed eyes.

Do you like Emily's choice of literature? Actually, Tegan brought it to lean on while writing, obviously before the concert started.

Our pre-show entertainment, Randy Stonehill. He was, lets say, interesting in a quirky sort of way. At least we weren't bored.

Then it's dark and we wait. And all of a sudden lights start up and the music goes and "Courageous" is reaching every corner of the building. I can feel my heart vibrating.

It was a phenomenal night. I had goosebumps singing "Who Am I?", felt teary while they sang and played the music video for "Another Birthday," and all in all it was a great experience.

One thing I really loved about the whole experience was the attempt to ensure that Jesus was the centre not Casting Crowns. Earlier that day, the band members had walked through the seating praying for the people who attended, that it just wouldn't be a fun Christian family night out, but something a little or a whole lot more. There were several prayer times and mini sermon sessions.

I was particularly impressed with the reminder that we find our identity in Christ and draw from Him as our source. If we find our identity in our talents, in the way see ourselves, in the way we perceive the way others perceive us, we're going to become dry. We need to come to the Well.

They sang a lot of songs from 'Come to the Well." The only ones I could have asked for would be "Wedding Day" and "Face Down." But singing the songs as worship, I found again all those hidden gems in "Jesus Friend of Sinners" and "City on a Hill."So convicting to remember that we shouldn't just hang around with the people we feel comfortable with, but remember that the dancers give the poets life, the poets give the soldiers strength, the young ones add fire, and the old ones add wisdom.

First concert experience 100% awesome. And hopefully every time I wear my "Come to the Well' shirt, I'll remember to actually wear the life too.

Points of Interest-A Smorgasboard of Different Thoughts

Charles Dickens Bicentennial

February 7th will be 200 years since Charles Dickens was born and with it comes all sorts of Dicken's paraphernalia. This year two new Dicken's BBC miniseries come out. A new "Great Expectations" and also "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." They're redesigning the old Dicken's box set and releasing a new one with the Dicken's BBC miniseries that have been produced since 2000. The biggest thing that I am excited about is the "Dicken's Women" show that is coming to Australia. While the title sounds dodgy, it's actually clean. Miriam Margolyes (who play Mrs. Bumble in the old Oliver Twist) brings to life 23 of Dicken's characters (mainly women), some of which include: Mrs. Micawber, Miss Havisham, Little Nell,  and Miss Flight. She's in Canberra from the 23rd-25th of February at the Playhouse.

While I mention these miniseries on my blog, I have no idea what the content of the actual production is like. Please do not watch these DVDs just off my recommendation. I have not seen them and do not know what sort of content they may have.

Attention Casting Crowns Fans

Casting Crowns are coming to Sydney on the 25th and Brisbane on the 26th. Tickets are still available, if you're keen. Some of us might see you in Sydney, along with the 5,000 other people attending.

Greg v Sam

Who's your favourite yellow Wiggle? I personally think that Sam has a better singing voice. The Wiggles entertainment has improved greatly (in my opinion) since Sam has joined them, and while I know that he was only an employee, and that the Wiggles group is Greg's baby, I still do like Sam better. And I just wonder what will happen when Sam leaves and Greg comes back? What do you think? Or do you even care?

Ferdie Buttsworth

And while this isn't making news online, it's something we're pretty excited about. It's only another 3 1/2 weeks until Ferdie is due, which means that we could have a new niece or nephew in a couple of weeks. We're pretty excited. Olivia is firmly certain it's a boy, and won't let anyone refer to it but with the pronoun he, so we'll see. I've been thinking along the girly line, but I was certain Georgia was a boy, and was (obviously) wrong. Hopefully it won't be too long until our wondering will be cleared.

What do you think/ Pink or blue? Boy or girl?

Set Your Mind at Rest...I'm Alive

Well, I thought that I would set your mind at ease. I think that you've probably woken up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat often enough, and it's telling on your health. Well, yes, to come to the point, I survived having my wisdom teeth removed. Just, maybe?


Do you want to hear the story? Well you're going to, whether you want to or not.


William and I slept over at Sean and Cassandra's on Wednesday night since they were home late from the tennis. Cassandra gave me her left over Apricot Delights for breakfast as a last hurrah. I mean they have "apricot" in the title, they've got to be a healthy breakfast. Healthy breakfast? BAR. HUMBUG.


I spent the morning settling my nerves, hungry, and crying over Angie Smith's book "I Will Carry You." I mean at least I wasn't going to die, or was I?


Finally, the time of my fate comes and we arrive at the surgicentre, bucket, towels, and tissues in hand. We're shown into the consultation room and while we wait to see 5 different people, so I can tell each one my name and date of birth and what I was willingly going to let them do to me, we watch "Ready, Steady, Cook.' You'd think they'd think to put a different style of show on, rather than showing the hungry, the thing they most desire-food.


The anaesthetist comes in wearing his bright red square glasses and shakes my hand, until it hurts and I think that it's going to fall off. Meanwhile, I feel like a dork in my beautiful smock, booties, and shower cap. And finally, I'm shown into the lovely operating room, complete with lovely operating gadgets. And I lie on the bed, and they put oxygen in my nose, and I wonder if they'll clean it before they put it up the next person's nose, and I get to wear groovy sunglasses, and the anaesthetist talks while he's inserting the drip (painful), and my eyesight goes fuzzy, and I tell myself, "don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep," and THEN...


I wake up. I feel like they've given me Mick Jagger's lips and that my tongue is 3cm thick, but other than that strangely refreshed, realising that the most painful part of the whole operation was having the drip inserted.

I was expecting to come home, with my mouth so numb that I couldn't close it and with blood pouring out, but as it turned out I was able to shut my mouth, and thankfully not look too dopey, and I didn't really have any bleeding afterwards.

And I tell you, having a large family is totally awesome, especially when you're an invalid. I arrived home, lay on the couch, watched tennis, always had someone around to replenish my chocolate milk addiction, and Mum who kept track of my painkiller instalments. For the first 12 hours my mouth was so sore I could only fit a straw in it, so I drank 1 1/2 litres of milk in about 10 hours. Thankfully the next day I could fit a teaspoon in my mouth so ice cream and chocolate custard were on the menu.


It took a lot longer than I expected to be able to start on more substantial food. It really wasn't until Monday that I was able to start eating lumpy food, and by then tinned spaghetti and soup weren't really all that tasty anymore. It also took me a lot longer to recover than I expected. Still on Tuesday, I was easily fatigued, but a theatre nurse friend told me that a general anaesthetic usually knocks you about for around a week, so then I felt the right to be invalided again. Today was my first day without taking painkillers and it feels nice to finally be off the stuff.


And now I can't believe this time last week I was hungry and nervous. I'm glad it's behind me, but now I've actually experienced a general anaesthetic, I don't think I'll feel as nervous about it if there is a next time. I might do it again sometime, or maybe not. I mean there's the cost, the humility of looking like a chipmunk with two acorns in my left and one in my right cheek, the pain, and the loss of points in Andrea's learning ladder parties. Also, I don't have anymore wisdom teeth. Hmmm, there's a problem. Oh, and no I wasn't even tempted to sign legal documents, drive, or accept a marriage proposal in the 24 hours following my operations. Shame. And so far, I don't think I have any eye, heart, liver, or kidney damage following the operations. That's a good thing too.

Oh, and the photo are of my special new friends. Max (the meerkat) is my souvenir from Taronga Zoo, Leopold (the rabbit) arrived in a lovely spotty parcel from friends as a get well present, and Raine (tag name "Raining Cats and Dogs") came from Mum. If you didn't know I love soft toys.

Oh, and just in case you've never had your wisdom teeth removed, I thought that I had better clarify, that regarding signing of legal documents, driving, etc, they were things in the paperwork, that I was told not to do 24 hours following surgery.

Our day at Apia International {Guest post by Emily}

On Tuesday, Mum, Caitlin, Victoria, and I headed up to Sydney to spend a day at the Apia International! Victoria and I had never been before so Caitlin kindly bestowed us with tickets. It was so much fun and I'm going to start saving up for next year now. :)

Our first match of the day was Caroline Wozniacki vs. Dominka Cibulkova. Personally I thought that it was the best match we saw (especially since I was going for Wozniacki, and she won!)

                                                                  Cibulkova serving

Preparing to serve

Woznizcki was down two breaks in the third set but still managed to come back and win. It was SO exciting!

Game, set, match, Wozniacki!

                                       
                                      After Wozniacki's match, we went and bought lunch.

Okay, next match of the day was Petra Kivitova vs. Alexandra Dulgheru. Though it wasn't as exciting as Wozniacki's, it was still really good and Kivitova is one of my favourite players. :)

Match point, Kivitova

                                       Talking with commentator Sam Smith after the match

Our next match of the day was Marion Bartoli vs. Jelena Dokic (AUS).  This was probably the most un-interesting match as Dokic got thrashed 6-0, 6-3. We still supported her though because, after all, she is an Aussie. :)

                                                Dokic's coach (left) and friend (right).

Okay,  the final match of the day was Leyton Hewitt (AUS) vs. Victor Troicki. This was a real thriller! The only disapointment was that Hewitt lost, but he fought really well and it was a really tight match. It had me on the edge of my seat almost the whole time! :)

C'mon Hewitt!

And so ends our day at Apia International!