Tonight's Grat

My husband is in a drama at our church on the weekend and I'd forgotten that a lady had arranged to drop off his costume at 7 this evening.

When the door bell rang, I instantly thought it was going to be someone trying to install free energy saving light bulbs again but was slightly taken aback to see a friendly face smiling at me.

I was caught off guard as I had already prepared my "we've already got energy saving light bulbs thank you" speech and hesitantly invited her inside.

In a flurry I started apologizing profusely for the mess. We're in the middle of shifting house and there is stuff EVERYWHERE! Boxes, piles, wrapped furniture pieces etc.

We'd just finished eating dinner so of course added to the 'house' stuff were the night's dishes and mess. I felt so flustered and embarrassed. I'd met this lady a few times at church but I didn't really know her very well... not that well!

I then started to remember how just half an hour prior my two year old daughter had thrown a Scoop truck at my head for no apparent reason (other than the emotional strain of moving).

I'd actually lost the plot at that point but thankfully my husband arrived home from work just in the nick of time to a blubbering mess. He kindly fed the children while I put our baby to bed and regained composure.

Now as I stood chatting to this lady I realised that I probably still had mascara all down my face and how bad I was sounding as I kept rambling about the mess we were standing in and trying to explain our plans to move to Thailand etc.

Okay so this story does have a point LOL! I am grateful for this LOVELY lady who (without really knowing me at all) stood and prayed for me in our entrance way and offered her support. She was so excited about our planned trip and we were able to share so much with her which she later told us meant so much. Long story but anyway, I am so appreciative for this opportunity tonight to get to know this lady more. I have a feeling we are going to cross paths a lot more often now.

Where's my socks gone?

Oh they've been BLESSED off!

Where do I even start? I have missed so many opportunities to write about all the things I am grateful for but believe me I have been voicing them and I am truly appreciative.

Okay, I'll start with yesterday. My mother and father-in-law recently returned from their holiday so they offered to have my two eldest children for a sleepover so that I could continue packing our house (we're moving overseas). When I dropped them off, I was sent home with two huge casseroles (many meals worth) and then when the children were dropped home tonight... dinner again! I feel so blessed. I'm not a lover of cooking dinner at the best of times but especially when I had so many tasks to get done. This meant so much to me.

My own mother came over for the day on Tuesday and helped me sort and pack boxes all day, as well as entertain the two youngest children. She's also such a blessing in my life.

I have also been blown away lately by people's generosity, thoughtfulness and willingness to help.

I am also so grateful for the way God continues to reveal to us how He has everything under control. We've found people to rent our house (without even advertising) as well as buy our couch (again without advertising). I am amazed at how all the pieces of the puzzle are coming together.

And now I'd better go and find my socks!!

Relationship Grat

I am grateful for the things in my relationship, big and small that make it what it is! We had our first session of premarital counselling tonight, and I am just so grateful for a partner who is willing to engage in this with me and to really discuss and be open about our relationship!

I'm also grateful for the little things, like the fact that he is so gracious in helping me out with the little things in life - he even cooked me steak tonight so I wouldn't have to deal with cooking red meat, despite the fact that he didn't feel like any (I am on strict orders from the doctor to eat more red meat!).

So yes, lots of reflection and gratitude for my relationship!

Sew much time!!

I am grateful for a couple of things...one is for my lovely mother-in-law for having my eldest daughter for the most part of weekend, allowing me a whole stack of free time with only my littlest. The second part of my grat is that with all my free time, I actually managed to drag out my sewing machine - which is a really nice one that I have not had much success getting to work - until tonight!!!! It all just seemed to fall into place and I could suddenly do all the things I had previously been too dumb to work out!!!! So...I managed to make a couple of pretty basic and (unattractive?) bean bags and then a little doona and pillow set for the girls dolls - very cute! So grats for a lovely day and entering the world of the nifty-thrifty mum!!

You never know gals...I might be making you your very own beanbags yet LOL

Mel xx

Hairy Grat

I am grateful for my hairdresser, who, I finally realised works on a Thursday night!!!!! Yay, after finding it so difficult to get my haircut...I was told I could come at 7:30pm on a Thursday evening...which I did and whalaaaa $25 later I love my new haircut and it was just such an easy process:-) I am thankful it was so cheap...I am thankful it is so close (5 mins around the corner) and I am thankful I was not the girl paying next to me who's hair cost her $109!!!! Hahaha 

Mel

Money doesn't really matter that much

Hiya girls! Sorry it's been awhile since my last blog!

I am so grateful this week for the priorities I have in my life. I'm grateful that money isn't one of them, and ego isn't either! I've had a 'challenging' (read between the lines) week with a client of mine who has these two priorities as 1 and 2 respectively in his world. How much I don't envy that life. A life that is driven by these things. I know we all need money, it makes the world go round- sure- but wow, to have it as a 'i need more' kind of priority, well frankly, I think just stinks!

One of the richest men in the world was asked a question by reporters, "how much money is enough?". You know what his response was??

"Just little bit more."

How sad.

Girls, it doesn't bring happiness, it never will. I'm so grateful for my job, my pay cheque and being able to 'fund' my life, but man...seriously, life has so many better things to offer than just dollars!! I totally get why Jesus said that its tougher for a rich man to get to heaven. Especially based on some of the greed I see.

So thanks God, for perspective; for being able to enjoy the funds you provide; for being grateful for them, but for mostly for them not being a 'god' in my world. Man, I'm so grateful for that!

Love you gorgeous women!

Tam x

The BIG G

I woke up this morning really early. It wasn't by choice I had some intense aches and pains which unfortunately woke me out of the dead of sleep. But given my busy lifestyle of young kids, working from home etc etc I really love a chance to spend some time alone with God, reading the message (bible), bits from my various books, listening to songs and journalling. All sounds a bit spiritual, maybe, but snuggled on the couch with a doona, hot drink, heat bag and Ipod, the picture is complete!! It is during these late night / early morning experiences with God that I have come to really love and understand how incredible he is. I cannot fully describe it within this short grat, but these moments have changed me more than anyone will ever understand. How grateful I am that I have discovered a way of connecting with God, which challenges me, changes and directs me and helps me to feel a sense of love from an awesome creator. It is in the times when I am struggling with grief, despair, personal insecurity and many more challenges that I feel this amazing protection, love, compassion and wisdom. So my gratitude for today is for my rude awakening this morning which turned out to be an incredible time hanging out with a very BIG and wise friend. Hmmm its true what they say, the more time you spend with someone the better you get to know them.

Mel

I'm getting really old!

I am grateful for my husband.

He came home from work feeling really bad that he had not organised anything for my birthday tomorrow which I totally did not care about because we've had a bit of stuff on lately (and even if we had nothing on, I think he spoils me every day even when it's not my birthday).

So then he kept saying that he had to go out and buy me something special, to which I was like, "Don't be ridiculous it's a Tuesday night and only Safeway is open" but he was feeling terrible and wanting to at least buy something small that the kids could give me.

So after some negotiation we agreed that he'd go and get something for the kids and then we would celebrate early with my favourite Indian dish from our little Tandoori Lounge Cafe around the corner.

I am glad for this lovely man who turned a seemingly 'nothing' night in to a fun night. I am grateful for an evening of chilling out, stopping the madness, lounging on the couch, eating Indian until I almost burst and remembering what I already have...

Four of the most precious gifts I could ever hope for, my lovely man and three wonderful children.

At (nearly) 32 years of age (there's a few hours to go), I truly am a blessed girl.

[And on a more humorous note, while my husband was running around putting the bins out etc I even wrapped my own presents from the kids and chose myself a nice card from my card drawer! Happy Birthday to me... ]

My sigh of satisfaction

Well here is my grat for this lovely sunny Monday! I am grateful for things that come easy in life...to me specifically. After a fantastic morning at Playgroup (I have often gratted about how much I adore this group) I came home and reorganised my deck area. I like to make a habit of every Monday or Tuesday, swapping over my toys and arranging the deck area with different activities for my little ones to play with. After a really windy weekend (meaning I had to pull my deck blinds up and toys in to stop them being blown away) it was great to be able to get out there again today and set up some special activities. 

After doing this for about half an hour, I had a glance around and did a mental check on the experiences I had set up. Did I have a good variety out? Had I accounted for a variety of multiple intelligences, allowing for the different learning needs of my children? It was then that it occurred to me (hence my grat) that I had in fact set up experiences which included the naturalistic intelligence (worm farm and insects area) musical and kinesthetic intelliegence (dance mat with dressups and instruments) spatial intelligence (puzzles) linguistic intelligence (cubby with deck chair and a bag containing a tiny book, toddlers book and a cook book) and finally interpersonal intelligence (a kitchen area allowing for social interactions and role play). I quickly evaluated these things and with a sigh of satisfaction went inside and ate my lunch!! And so, my grat for today is that how much I appreciate the experiences I have had being trained , volunteering in and also getting paid for...all coming together to enable me to be able to this type of thing with an ease and quality without having to think too hard about it.

Mel

Money matters...

A group I run called Marvellous Mums had a shopping spree fundraising tour back in May and ever since, the tour company has been refusing to pay the money that we raised because the owner had had a stroke and wouldn't allow anyone else to deposit money to anyone.

A couple of weeks ago I ended up having to send an email threatening to take the matter to VCAT, which I really didn't want to have to do.

Anyway today I received a call from Gabriel in the office who told me he now has the authority to pay me the commission from our shopping tour YAY! I am so grateful that I will now be able to pay myself back for lots of expenses I paid for at the start of the year as well as have some money left over to do something special with the group.

Clean out time!!

Ok today I am grateful for some clothes and shoes I got from my big sis yesterday!! I had been really needing some warmer clothes and yesterday I got a chance to look through some clothes she had cleaned out of her wardrobe ...BINGO! I am really enjoying wearing  a 'new' warm jumper today and some very comfy runners! Oooo I love options (and big sisters!!!)

SNAP THIS!

I am SUPER grateful for our newest member of the family...our new SLR camera!!!!

After a very LOOONG wait, we finally got one!! YAYAYAY I feel very grateful that I will be able to capture our family memories in a way that will last forever. 

BLOGGER!

I've been writing on a blog called Lovingmums for a couple of years now and only just recently have people started commenting and reading what I've written. It's been so encouraging and unexpected. I am grateful for these words of affirmation and the 'blogger' relationships I am developing with some other online mums.

A step forwards

I am grateful for a friend who allowed me to come along for moral support today while she attended an appointment she has been putting of for a long long time! It was great to see her plucking up the courage to go and also great to be able to be part of making sure she didn't feel overwhelmed by the experience!

Productive weekend

I am grateful for a productive weekend in which I learned a lot (at a workshop), but also had time to spend time celebrating a birthday, clean the house, do the washing, spend some time relaxing and get a good start on an assignment. I feel like I have managed to organise my life a bit so that being away for four days this week will not be an issue - yay! Now of to bed, zzzzz.

All the way from the USA!

Hey Grat girls,

I'm really sorry that I haven't been gratting lately, but my mail server isn't working.

I have a couple-a-hundred grats, but so that I don't bore you I will sum it all up into 10 great grats

I AM GRATEFUL:

1. For a fantastic trip over to the USA

2. For brilliant friends who have been excellent hosts, hospitable and generous in every way

3. For a week of feasting on a variety of different US foods

4. For generous contacts who have offered their condo for two months-rent free!

5. For beautiful weather every single day!

6. For a terrific Sat evening church service and message about the gifts of the Holy Spirit

7. For an opportunity to enter an talent contest

8. For 5-star accommodation

9. For multiple new acquaintances who have needed a kind word or friendly gesture

10. For God's AWESOME provision

:)

We have been in the US for just over a week and already sense God's incredible provision and guidance!

Ash and I have become grat buddies over here-we focus on what we are grateful for each day and thank God in our prayer time!!!

Love you girls lots!

Liesl

Sore but happy

I am grateful for sore muscles today which means that after a verrrrrry long time of not doing anything physically challenging, my pilates class is helping me to stretch back into shape...the right way! Ouch but Yay

A few more

Things I am grateful for my kids... MORE SPECIFICALLY

...that my daughter has started to take steps on her own

...that the girls have had a great play outside in their dirt patch and sandpit before their sleeps today

...for my oldest daughter swimming with all the big kids on her own today for her swimming lesson

...that they are both sleeping at the same time so I can actually do my grats!!!!

Bargain Below

This morning my friend and I went to Savers a fantastic op-shop 'superstore'. I picked up a couple of warm Pumpkin Patch jumpers, jackets and tops for my daughter who is growing at a rapid rate!! When I went to check out, it all cost the amount that one brand new t-shirt would cost from P.P!! What a GREAT way to shop!!!!

You've Got Mail

I am grateful for my email account. Every now and then I log in and I am thrilled to see a jumble of tasty, interesting emails that I can read and enjoy! So today I was excited to see some emails regarding the kids market I am a stall holder at on Sunday, some grats from my lovely grat girls...then there were a couple of fantastic devos that I printed off which really hit me where I needed it...and then of course a couple of messages from FB and other random emails from friends. Wow, how amazing that we live in a country where we can sit in our homes and access all of these things - and feel really connected to people in so many different ways. Snaps for my 'emails' today!!

Swimming!

It's funny how things work out. When I first wanted to book my eldest son in for swimming lessons, I rang around all the local pools trying to get him in on a Saturday. Unfortunately it is really hard to get in on Saturdays so I settled for a pool that offered a Friday class with their assurance that when a Saturday spot became available, the next term, my son would have priority.

Well the end of the term came and went and despite trying to change his swimming time, I was unable to. 'Okay' I thought I'll just have to stick to the Friday morning and I reconciled myself to the fact that his teacher was excellent. As the term progressed though, I really began to notice how busy Fridays were and kept wishing I could change the time. Then the swimming teacher was going away on holidays for two weeks and my diary had clasehes that I just didn't know how to work out. Eventually I got the guts up (I am not very confrontational) to call up the pool and ask to swap again.

I gratted last week about how I had managed to change the lesson time to a Wednesday afternoon... so yesterday we set off for the new lesson. It was a long drive there as we got stuck in peak hour traffic but eventually we arrived and I found the new teacher AND an out-of-control group of kids! This teacher had no control over the class. I've never seen anything like it. The other children in the group were jumping off the step when they were meant to be sitting and waiting as well as getting in and out of the pool, splashing each other and general misbehavior.

I was so proud of my son as he sat on the step by himself doing the right thing (partly because he's not confident enough to be jumping around in deeper water) and partly because he would not want to get in trouble in that scenario. Parents were yelling at their kids from the sideline, the teacher was speaking in an unprofessional manner and basically it looked like an accident waiting to happen. I sat with my eyes glued to pool in case I had to jump in and rescue someone at any given moment- that's how bad it was!

Anyway, while still in a state of shock, I tried to ask some parents sitting near-by if this was the normal teacher and whether it was usually like this to which one dad replied, "Yes. It's #@*# house isn't it?" and then proceeded to keep yelling at his son to sit on the step. That was the final straw as soon as the lesson finished I was close to tears. I quickly showered my son and geared myself up to go and complain.

The long and short of it was this... I got my son swapped to a Saturday class AND a free lesson this Saturday! After all that I ended up achieving what I'd hoped for in the start. As I said, it's funny how things work out. So I am grateful for this turn of events that has enabled us to get in to a Saturday class where my husband or I or both can watch our son swim.

Magic Sauce

I am grateful for the fact that I get so much joy out of giving gifts to other people when I know that what I have chosen in 'just right'. My mum has her birthday this week and I was able offer to shout her a tour of Vatican city on her upcoming trip to Italy, which I know will be so perfect for her! I have also been sending little parcels to friends who I know are having a hard time and it is just something which I enjoy so much and find so rewarding!

I am also grateful for my mum giving me a bottle of 'magic sauce' - its a type of home made salad dressing we used to have as kids (just olive oil, soy sauce and garlic) and it was named for the fact that we would eat anything if this sauce was on it . I haven't really had it since I left home (nearly 5 years ago) and finally thought to ask for some...since I got it I haven't wanted to eat anything other than salad and veggies!! Grateful for a tasty little reminder of home when I was growing up.

Good from the bad...

I am really grateful tonight for another reminder of how much good can come out of the situations in my life that have, at times, seemed overwhelmingly negative and difficult to overcome. It is always helpful to have a reminder of the way everything works together for good and serves a purpose in my life.

Peas and Corn Grat

I am thankful for our new vegie patch! I am really excited that we finally have the opportunity to grow our own vegies and also for the great experience this is for our two girls!!! ( I might add they are both very excited too - especially our 2 year old who helped plant them all!!)

Chatty Gratty

My latest gratitude for the littlest member of my family. Oh my goodness she is soooo adorable! She has just started to say  a whole stack of new words...like 'up peas' (up please) 'cud dada' (cuddle daddy) 'mih' (milk) 'mawh' (more) 'yeah' (yes) hunghy (hungry) - well these are a few I can recall over the past 2 days. On top of this plus she just chats non-stop, lots of things to say ...I just wish I could understand everything she is telling me!!! 

Not a day goes by that I am not amazed by how affectionate she is... and I wouldn't trade her cuddles for a million dollars. The last thing I want to add is how excited I am to finally put a fountain in her hair!!! She actually looks like a lil girl and it is toooooo cute! 

Ho Ho Ho ah hem

Kids say the funniest things. I had one of 'those moments' today when I was at Coles and my daughter saw an older man with a long white beard. I turned as I heard her delighted squeal, to see her pointing to this older gentleman and nannouncing to the world, "It's Santa Mummy...look it's Santa!!!! (At the top of her lungs, I might add!) LOL What a funny little thing she is...she brings alot of joy to my day. 

Weekend Grat

I am grateful for a lovely weekend with family. My partner and I enjoyed four hours of driving there and back to chat about anything and everything - and in between we had a really relaxing time sitting on the deck, sipping hot chocolate, eating good home cooked meals and chat chat chatting. I even took the time to look back through some old family pictures and reminisce which was a bit of a laugh.

I am especially grateful for this weekend as it may be one of the last as the place my mum lives in is being sold so it looks like we may no longer have any family in the little rural valley where we all were born and spent the early years. Must be time for some new beginnings!

Garage Door Grat

For maybe two years now our garage door has been playing up intermittently. It would work for a while then get jammed half way up and down meaning you'd have to jump out of the car and give it a big push with your hand or the worst scenario was was you'd pull out of the driveway and be in the street only to glance back and the door (which you'd shut using the remote) had not gone down and was on its way back up and you'd have to drive back, jump out, fix it up... not fun in the rain or when running late AND defeats the purpose of having a remote.

Well my grat today is that we had someone come and fix our door by replacing the motor. So now it works properly once again! Yay! And the door goes up really quickly compared to before, plus the new remote works from half way down the street! I am so excited that I'll be driving in and out now without the added exercise of having to get back out of the car.

Hi everyone

Hey gorgeous grat girls,

I'm sorry that I haven't gratted for a while!

I am grateful for

an amazing month of God's help and provision!!!! He has helped us to organise the details of our stay in the US! :)

6 sleeps to go 'til we leave!!

Liesl

Happy Children

I am thankful for my three happy children. We had a busy day today filled with 11 children (all under 4 years old) over this morning followed by a big birthday party at a friend's house this afternoon (with 21 four year olds) but despite the busyness, the children were all very settled all day and went down to sleep like little legends tonight. What a wonderful day when everyone remembers to wear their smiles!

Lazy Days

I am grateful for  a lovely lazy saturday with nothing too pressing to do, but sit on the floor, chat with my hubby and play with the girls! Both hubby and me have head colds, so although our girls were both dressed by 8am, lets just say both the 'grown-ups' lounged in their pj's until noon!!! LOL Ahhhh what a great day!