Home from Camp

I am home, rested and clean and I have to say it was fun. The cabins that we were staying in were indeed tin sheds with concrete slab floors and were packed full with 12 bunkbeds in each 'room', so 24 girls and leaders all together. Want to see what that looks like? Here you are.

The beds were quite comfy and after a spray of Mortein just to be sure there were no fleas I was happy to plonk my stuff down and look around a bit. We had arrived at Appin at about 7.30pm and we were eventually all organised and settled and headed to the 'hall' to have the evening entertainment of skits, then supper, information and then finally bed. After others shouting for the lights to finally be put out I decided to try to sleep with earphones in with music playing to drown out the chatter. At 2am it was quiet, 6.30am start aaahhh and another lovely sunny day greated us once the shock of about 4 hours sleep had departed these old bones.

Saturday was full of camp certification stuff so learning how to light and put out fires, cooking on the fires, first aid, finding your way by the stars, learning about nature in your area. Here are some of the girls on their way and 'learning'.

After a quick lunch the girls were put into teams and were to do 'Challenge Valley'. Challenge valley was an adventure obstacle course and it was hardcore. I thought some of them would do it but I never thought ALL of them would make it through, doing all the obstacles, and having fun whilst doing it. I was cheering them on from the sidelines, I was not going to crawl through leach infested water. Here are a few pictures.

These girls that I have the blessing to spend time with and teach them are incredible, strong, spiritual young women. They are fun and funny and I had so much fun hanging out with them for the weekend. We spent Saturday afternoon playing funny games like 'I have never' and when I get a bit competative they think it is so hilarious. A standards evening and then a camp fire and obligatory sing a long finished up the night. It was really cold Sat night so sleep was hard to come by even though I was tired.

I had sent the girls out to play a joke on Brent, one of the male leaders that were there with us, they were going to toilet paper his tent but got scared when other people heard them coming and told them to go back to bed so they thought it would be funny to cover mine and Gell's car in toilet paper instead!

Sunday - another gorgeous day, started ridiculously early at 5.45am with a testimony meeting, then breakfast and then church. Showers over flowed, toilets clogged up and so come Sunday lunchtime I was ready to leave and head home to my clean, hot shower and warm comfortable bed, but what a fun weekend. I'm not saying it was perfect, because it wasn't, but the fun and pleasure it was to spend time with the girls and Gell and Becky (the other leaders from Baulkham Hills) outweighed any deficiencies. I laughed so much and I love to laugh. Funny, fun weekend. 

Off to Camp

Today, well this evening I am off to Young Womens Camp. I am really not looking forward to it, well spending time with the girls I am, but the actual accommodation and the organisation of the event have turned me off a bit I must admit. I am trying to convince myself that all will be fine and we will have a great weekend, so fingers crossed for the weather, fingers crossed that the whole place is not a mud pit and fingers crossed that the beds are even just slightly ok oh and don't forget the weather. Sun please come out to play.

Naturally I will let you know how we go next week with some pictures of the shananigans thrown in. Have a great weekend.

So Thankful

This week poor little Sophie has been under the weather. She has had a head cold for what feels like months and she seems to be just about over it and then it comes back and we are back to square one with the runny eyes, runny nose, temperature and lots of snot. On Tuesday morning as I was trying to get us ready for swimming lessons (that she loves) she told me her ear hurt twice within about 10 mins. That was a red flag to me as she is never that specific, so off to the medical centre we went and in the meantime she went downhill really fast to the point where I had to carry her (she weighs 20kg @ 3! ) and she just laid on me.

I am so thankful that I live in a country where I can take my child to a medical centre to see a doctor when she is ill and not have to worry about whether I can afford to take her or not. I had to wait for a while but really is half an hour really such a big deal? I am sure that there are so many parents in this world of ours that would give so much to just have to wait for half an hour to see a doctor for free.

A very nice, very friendly doctor looked in Sophie's ear, told me it was cherry red and she did indeed have an ear infection. He gave me a prescription for antibiotics and I knew from previous experince with Amoxycillan with Olivia that it really really works and works fast.

I am thankful that I live in a world where incredible, inquisitive, brilliant people such as Alexander Fleming back in the 1920's discovered a substance that killed other germs, penicillin. How thankful I am that I can just spend $17 on a little bottle of medicine and within 2 days a very sad, poorly little girl is back to her normal rambunctious self and desperate to go to pre-school.

I know that so many people in this incredible world that we live in don't have these opportunities and benefits, and this week, I am so thankful for so many things that I know I take for granted so often, but I wanted to say out loud today, "I am so grateful for the freedoms and advantages that this land down under offers my family and I."

I'm back baby!

Yeeeeee Haaaaaaa  I am back!

My sewing mojo has been found again from whence it was lost and I am really happy. I went to my usual Friday craft night last night and with a big smile on my face sat down to lots of laughs, lots of chat and lots and lots of sewing.

Headbands done. A blue spotty with bow, blue spotty with pop of red and black stripey with bow.
Baby boy tag ball done - well I didn't stuff it or sew it all up on Friday night that happened on Saturday, but I am loving it.

What do you think?

Saturday was a good day that included time together as a family, some houses looked at, a car looked at AND an offer put on it AND accepted (well all going well with getting the pre-approved finance organised). Then lovely Thai food for dinner all finished off with The Adjustment Bureau.

Have you seen this film? It is such an interesting premise to me, and I am such a huge Matt Damon fan. I'm not going to tell you what happens in case you want to see it. I enjoyed it but from reading some reviews this film really seems to have polarised the reviewers.

It feels so good to have the desire to sew back again. Tag squares, girly balls, wraps, an Edward and Elouise elephant and another snow mum pillow are all on the cards over the next month or so. Sssshhh promise not to tell, I'm going to try to sell them and see how they go. If they sell well an etsy shop may be on the horizon next year. I'm a little scared incase they don't sell and it is a huge flop so I don't want to build it up too much until I see how they are going. Fingers crossed for me.

Monday is here with lots and lots to do around the house as well as popping out to take little miss Sophie to swimming lessons. Must run.

You can also find me linking here today.

Where has my Mojo gone?

If you have been popping in here and all you have been seeing is a big fat nothing new, I am really sorry. I seem to have lost my Mojo. It has well and truely gone and I am trying to get life back in order so that perhaps I can find it again. I really hope that that works.

Things have been happening and have been on my mind so I need to write them down, then perhaps I can move forward a bit.

Todd has been gone on a trip, his annual company conference in Phoenix, Arizona and so before he went the house was busy with washing, ironing and packing and lists as he is a real list man. He did most of the washing and ironing himself whilst I had a day out at a conference for the day. I attended a conference for women called Time Out For Women.

It was an incredible day. For those of you reading this that are not of my faith I will explain quickly what it was about - this was a conference attended only by women with speakers who share our faith and whilst keeping it very real spoke to us all and encouraged us all to live a life which is filled with faith, hope, optimism and a love for Jesus Christ. We were encouraged to resolve to change 1 thing in our lives that is stopping us from BECOMING. Becoming what? well what ever we want, a stronger woman physically, spiritually, mentally, a better mother, a better wife. I know that there are a lot of things that I have neglected and don't do and rather than feel guilty about all the things that I am not doing I felt empowered to change 1 thing that will make a change to me mentally or spiritually or physically and once done that then do one more thing. I'm not going to jinx myself with laying all that bare here yet but 2 things are being worked on, 1 for the girls and 1 for me. So far so good. I'm feeling good about the direction that we are moving in, perhaps good habits are starting to be made again.

Initially I was very unsure as to what the conference would entail, I mean I know that there was going to be people speaking to us but only 4 and they were going to talk all day, and I had heard rumours and I thought hmmm not sure about this. Infact my friend and I had a plan B and a plan C for the day if plan A - actually attending the conference wasn't what we wanted it to be. The B and C plans did include visiting the new Costco and Ikea which are just down the road. However I am pleased to announce that these were not even thought about once the day began and we had the best day. I was uplifted, I laughed, I felt a part of something new, I felt rejuvenated and bolstered in my resolve to live the way we do and I had time out with friends. Fantastic. I really really enjoyed it. Apparently there is talk of them coming to Melbourne next year and Katie and I have already said that we would book our tickets and go down for the weekend.

If you ever get a chance to go GO. It was $40 very well spent for me and a fun day out.

Todd is home tonight after being away for 9 days so normality will resume once again until Saturday when he leaves again this time just up to Brisbane but for 10 days. Perhaps I can get some sewing in in the next couple of days.

In conjunction with this awesome conference where I had resolved to change one thing that has become a burden to me for a really long time, I had a bit of a blast from my past contact me on facebook wanting to be my friend. I was stunned. It has been 16 years since I saw or heard from this person, I was really keen to find out what he had been doing with his life and so I accepted his friend request. Not surprisingly I have been a bit nostalgic about years gone by this week and some old music got pulled out which made me smile but also in a good way it has made me think about where I am now. Not literally but am I living fully? am I happy with me? how is older Samantha different to younger Samantha and does some young Samantha need to be found or lost? do I need to reassess and put into action some things that perhaps may make me feel better about me? We can so easily get stuck in a rut can't we and always other people seem to come first before us. 

Well I have been in a very deep rut for a really long time and it is time for change. I started the change by cutting my hair and changing the colour slightly. Just this small change has made me feel so much better this week or so. I really like the cut and colour, I feel better and so better choices have been made, I have been to the gym, eaten healthier and I feel good.

Long may it continue and may it help me to find my sewing mojo again.