Monday 30 April 2007

Today's Plans - Update

So I promised to tell you all how I did with my plan.

  • Bible study - Done!
  • Vetamorphus readings - I thought we had to be up to Revelations 11, and I got up to Revelations 4. Turns out we were only supposed to be up to Revelations 5, and I managed to get further than anyone else.
  • Vetamorphus seminar paper - Still not started
  • Watch Little Manhattan - Done! It's a good movie. If you haven't seen it, do so.
  • Knit elephant front - Done. I also knitted the elephan face, both of the elephant arms, and the backs of both the elephant ears.
  • Sort papers (hah! I'll be lucky to put away 3 or 4!) - I put away about 5 papers.
  • Cassettes 2 and 3 of The Last of the Mohicans - Listened to cassette 2 and about half of cassette 3.
  • Pay drs bill - Nope
  • Scottish Dancing - Yep

Friday 27 April 2007

Today's Plans

I don't have much to post about today, because life has been rather 'normal' lately. Basically cleaning and spending time reading. I did manage to rack up a huge libary fine, and am in the process of racking up another (the libraries are not local, so I wait until I am there to return items. Which is fine unless someone reserves them just a day or two before they are due in!).

So here is my goal list for today:
  • Bible study
  • Vetamorphus readings
  • Vetamorphus seminar paper
  • Watch Little Manhattan
  • Knit elephant front
  • Sort papers (hah! I'll be lucky to put away 3 or 4!)
  • Cassettes 2 and 3 of The Last of the Mohicans
  • Pay drs bill
  • Scottish Dancing
I'll let you know how I do. At the moment I am feeling supremely blah, so I may only get a few things done. But something is better than nothing, so that's a consolation.

Thursday 26 April 2007

What I am Reading at the Moment

At the moment I am reading:
Anna and Mister God by "Fynn". This is a compliation of his three books about Anna, being Mr God This is Anna, Anna's Book and Anna and the Black Knight. It's a great book, and is very dense. The thoughts of Anna are absolutely amazing.

I just finished The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel. It was amazing to read about just how carefully positioned all aspects of our planet are! My father was an ameteur paleotologist so I knew a little about the Cambrian explosion, but it is amazing to read about how every single aspect of our planet is perfectly designed for life - and how miserably other planets fare when compared with ours. This book has given me a lot of material to use with my friends from school when discussing science with them.

I'm also hoping to read Breath by Donna Jo Napoli and Stories of the Scottish Border by W. Platt. I am listening to The Last of the Mohicans on cassette.

Wednesday 25 April 2007

WFMW - Preparation for the Cold Season

Here are two tips that will keep the pain of the common cold at bay!

1. When you go to bed, put Vaseline between your nose and your mouth. Yes, I know it feels gross. But what it won't feel is sore in a few days once you've blown your nose 500 times.
2. If your throat is sore, gargle with a cup of apple cider vinegar. Again, I know this is gross, but you are going to do it if you want relief from that sore throat. Make it better with a teaspoon of honey at the end of it.

That's it from me for now. Check out other Works for Me Wednesday posts at Rocks in My Dryer.

Tuesday 24 April 2007

More OC Photos - Care Group

This is the last lot of OC photos until I get emailed the ones from the nature park. These are of our early morning (6:30AM) Care group quiet time.

Swee. Swee is our Care Group leader.


Carolyn.


Rebecca, Zynne and Jane.


Yi Mei and Yi Peng. In that order. Yi Mei is Christian but Yi Peng is not yet.


Veng. This isn't from our Quiet time, but it's the only photo I have of him.

Monday 23 April 2007

More OC Photos - Birthday Cake Evening

Joab.


Joab, Derrick and Hugo. Later poor Hugo got stuck talking to both Brenden and myself. Brenden is as hyper as me. We might have scared him.


Who else but soemone as hyper as me would do this in a photo? At the Alpha camp last year Brenden and I had a leg balancing contest. I won.


The cake. I promised Rebecca I wouldn't have any, because she thought I only wanted to stay up to eat the cake, which actually beolonged to another caregroup. In the end there were three pieces left over and I was very good and did not eat ANY of them. Although the next evening I did eat 6 chocolate mousses.


Jason. Or rather one of them.


The other Jason.


Michael and Hugo.


Rebecca.


Keith. Keith cooks me lots of yummy vegetarian foods. They are very good.


I just have a few lots of photos left - my caregroup photos from our group quiet time and hopefully Hugo will email me the photos from when my caregroup went to the nature park and the fairy penguins. There are some great photos in there!

Saturday 21 April 2007

Eating a Horse

At the OC I was waiting for my lunch. Mikey saw me and ran over, wanting to sit wth me. I said that he would have to sit with his parents and besides he already had his food. So he said I could come and sit with him. I replied that I hadn't eaten my food yet, and I was "hungry enough to eat a horse! Except I don't eat meat, so how would I eat a horse."

Mikey thought for a moment and said "with a fork."

Friday 20 April 2007

Frugal Fridays: Candles

We all like candles. Nice scented ones that perfume your whole house. Long tapering ones that create a romantic mood for dinners. What we don't like is the price.

So how can we reduce spending on candles? Here are two basic tips:

1. Put them in the freezer. Freeze your candles before you burn them. Then they will burn longer and more steadily, and smoke less. It sounds odd, but it does in fact work.l

2. Make your own candles.
There are two ways to do this. The first is to buy wax and cord etc etc and make candles using all of these lovely materials. But the point of this is to SAVE money. And there isn't really any point. What you should do is save up all of the leftover wax from candles that you have already used. Keep them all in a jar of some sort. I sometimes sort mine into unscented, and different scent types (for example, fruits will go together).
When you have enough wax bits melt them in an old double boiler. I stress OLD. The inside container will never be the same, so don't use your favourite fondue set one. Get a piece of string and tie one end to a pencil. Lie this string in the container that you wish to pour your wax into, with the pencil on the top (so that the string will hold steady and not move while the wax is setting). Once your wax is all melted, mix in any other scents that you want and food dye if you would like. Pour into your container and allow to set. Keep all of this OUT OF THE REACH OF CHILDREN! Molten wax is VERY HOT and if they get a hold of it it could scar them permanently.

There you go! Your own (virtually free) candle!

Tuesday 17 April 2007

More OC Photos

Here are more photos from the OC. Today we have just have photos of people who were helping the the KFC.

Tiffany. Tiffany had the misfortune of having bands put in right before the OC, so her speech was less clear than usual.


Hannah and Mavis.


Hannah (and Mavis in the corner) rehersing ARISE! in our room.


Chiann. Chiann is in my caregroup and was working with me with the KFC.


Geck. (Sorry, I think I've spelt your name wrong.) She was also in my room and she is the younger sister of Veng, on of the guys in my caregroup.


I still have heaps more photos, so come back tomorrow to see some more!

Monday 16 April 2007

Elephants on Parade!

I still have more OC photos, and am going to get more via email from our trip to the nature park. But for now I'm going to talk about something completely different.

Fina is having a baby. I love babies. Katrina (who I clean for) has just had a baby. I really love babies. Katrina's baby was a boy, and I don't know what gender Fina's will be. So I've made some presents for the adorable babies!


Here is the elephant I knitted for William, Katrina's baby. I don't know William likes it, but his big brother Ethan thought it was great.


And here it is again!


Here is the elephant that Fina's baby will have if it is a girl. I haven't made a second boy elephant yet.


And from above!


And here they both are together!

Sunday 15 April 2007

The Many Faces of Mikey

Here is the next lot of photos from the OC. Basically, my friend Mikey made a face at me. So I asked him what other faces he could do. Here they all are!









Saturday 14 April 2007

Frugal Fridays: Reserving Library Items

If you don't use your local library, then you really must. In fact, in Victoria you can join ANY public library regardless of where you live provided you bring along some basic ID (in my case my student card) and a proof of address (any letter sent to you). I am a member of 9 different library systems, and most library systems have 4 or 5 different libraries within that system.

Obviously, library items themselves are free, and you can not only get great books at your library, but CDs, talking books and DVDs. So check out your library before hitting the video store!

The biggest problem with libraries is that the items you want are not always in, and some libraries are badly organised and it can take you ages to find the item you want. So what do I do? I reserve it! This means that as soon as the library item comes in it goes on a shelf for you to pick up - very handy! If it is already in then the librarian goes and looks for the item for you, and again, puts it on a shelf for you to pick up.

One thing to be careful of - some libraries attach fees to this. The main library I use has this service for free, but other libraries vary their prices. The most expensive is $1.70 an item (so I've never reserved an item there).

Also, this is getting a library item from within the system. You aren't asking them to get you an item from another library system in another town. The item is on their catalogue. Inter-library loans cost money, and always more than $1.70 per item.

So that's my frugal tip for this week! Check out the rest of the great tips at Biblical Womanhood.

Friday 13 April 2007

Giant Swing

So, who wants more photos? Today's theme is Me on the Giant Swing. The giant swing was FUN! But it was also very scary. The best/scariest bit was not the inital fall, but when you go to the other end and suddenly did a freefall. My stomach felt like it got left METRES behind.
When I got off Sam Mok said disappointedly "You didn't scream," and I replied "That's because I'm not chicken." Sam Mok did in fact scream.

Me dancing into the line. Hey, I never said I wasn't weird.


Yi Peng, Yi Mei, me and Samantha Mok wait (im)patiently for our turn.


Sam Mok.


Us all pulling on the rope. If you don't help you don't get a turn.


More pulling on the rope. They got heavy as they got higher.


Me all kitted out with my safety gear.


Getting the safety talk from my buddy Brendan. There are other photos of Brendan. He is possibly the only person in the world who is as hyper as me.


Being pulled up.


At the top. It is very high.


This is the bit where my stomach is in fact not in the picture.


Still swinging.

Thursday 12 April 2007

Easter

Over Easter we had our church OC (Oceania Convention). It was easily one of the best experiences of my life. I really felt the presence of God over the course of the camp, and it was great to spend more time with people from my caregroup, other caregroups and interstate.

I was helping out with the kids program, which was also really fun. I have a video (I think without sound) of their performance of ARISE! which I plan to post when I work out how to do it. I also have lots of other photos both of the kids and of my friends who are older than 10. Here are some of my favourite photos with the kids at the OC:

Denise and I. Denise is 8.


Me showing off for the kids. I am flexible.


Omatiya showing off for me.


Omatiya and Alfred.


Stay tuned for stories and more photos. I have lots more (some of the littler kids, some of the bigger 'kids', stories and photos from the nature park we went to afterwards, and lots of other things.) So come back soon. And for those of you from church who did not go on the OC - you missed out!

Tuesday 10 April 2007

I'm Back!

I am back after a long break, because I was busy being lazy. No other reason. Well, that's not exactly true. Not much happened for a while, and then I was all out of the habit of blogging when it did start to happen.

So I am now aiming to get back into the habit of blogging. So now that I've no doubt lost all my readers, I'd just like to say that I'm back!