Quiet Time

This morning, as I was having my 'quiet time',

I began to think about the term 'quiet time'.

Over the years I have really struggled to

make my time alone with God a consistent thing.

As the girls were growing up,

life was anything but quiet!

As the sun peeked over the horizon

the day began and straight away the cares

of the day began to press in.

A baby needing to be fed, a toddler crying,

dishes to wash, baking to be done,

and pretty soon that much needed time alone

with God was pushed aside and the

distractions of life took over.

I was always searching for that elusive 'piece of quiet'

to sit and calmly take in what

God wanted to say to me for that day.

But, over the years I have come to realise

that it is "God that supplies the quiet,

we just need to supply the time"
(I read this quote in an Emilie Barnes book and rephrased)

God doesn't expect us to come to Him

with a quiet spirit in order to have a quiet time.

We come to him with our cup overflowing

with confusion, worries, troubles, disappointments;

and He graciously and lovingly

pours it out and fills our cup with

His peace and love and joy.

He knows that life is busy and sometimes

we're overwhelmed with our to do list.

But if we would just stop for a moment,

give God some of our precious time,

He would bring the quiet that is needed

into our hearts.

Our quiet time is a gift from God,

not a gift from us to God. He wants us to come

alone into His presence and bring our cares to Him.

The quietness comes from our relationship

with Him and coming to Him and letting Him

rearrange our thought processes.

He calms the inner storms and brings

His peace that only He can give.

Sometimes we only have 5 minutes to give to Him,

we pour out our cares and He pours in His peace.

Other times, we have an hour to give to God

and these times can be so beneficial.

We don't need to 'get quiet' in order

to draw near to God, we just need

to be willing to come to Him with a

humble heart and ask Him to bring

the quiet that we need so desperately.

I have found that often times, just going for a walk

and talking to God can bring a calm to the storm.

There can be traffic going by,

other walkers passing, birds chirping or

any other amount of distractions,

but there can be 'quiet' in that time if we

focus on what God has to say to our hearts.

Remember, it's often that still small voice

that we are listening for.

I know for me

when the girls were little, I would make excuses

for not having a quiet time.

It just wasn't quiet. I thought I had to have quiet

in order for God to hear me.

God hears us even in the middle of a cyclone

and yes, sometimes it felt like that kind of chaos.

It's a heart issue. Bringing our hearts

in tune with God.

Waiting on Him. Having an attitude

of humbleness and meekness. In the middle

of all the clamour, calling out to Him

to bring His peace.

I am blessed now

to finally be able to spend that hour alone

with God, without distraction, but oh

what peace I could have enjoyed if only

I had realised that I needed to

give God my time and

He would have brought the quiet.

Psalm 107:28-30

 Then they cry unto the Lord

in their trouble, and he bringeth

them out of their distresses.

He maketh the storm a calm,

so that the waves thereof are still.

Then are they glad because they be quiet;

so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

 It's been a while......

Well, it was brought to my attention yesterday, that's it's been a while since I posted anything on this blog, so I did a quick look through my zillions of photos and chose a few to post an update. 

The most exciting, biggest news was that our oldest daughter Lauren, who I haven't seen in 2 years and who hadn't visited over here for 5 years, surprised me for Mother's Day!!

I was very surprised and also amazed that my family kept it quiet for so long. 

I must say that I was a little emotional when she rocked up in my front yard! 

I love surprises like that! God is good!

We had a lovely, albeit, brief time together and enjoyed a Mother's Day get together at the church, lots of family time, a BBQ and time by the fire and then I was able to take Lauren back to Darwin to catch her flight, and despite locking the keys in the ute (for the first time in my existence) we were able to enjoy time together and make it to the airport in the nick of time. 

I rejoice in God's goodness that although the last few years have been difficult healthwise for Lauren, God has been in control the whole time and we are still able to enjoy these blessed times together. 

In other news, the grandchildren are growing so fast, 7 and counting. 

(another one coming in November)

Both George and Esther just turned one and Miriam 6!!

It seems like such a short time ago that we became Grandparents for the first time. 

And in case you want to see how old we've all gotten and how small but also how large our family has grown, here are our annual Mother's Day photos! 

It's been a long time since we had a family photo with the girls and Dave and I. 

So very blessed xx

Intermission

Wet Season and Life in General

Just taking a short break from 

the Canning Posts to give you 

an update on recent things here

in lovely, sweltering, humid, Katherine. 

Well, we are well into our wet season here

in the Territory, which means hot and humid days

that build up and hopefully rain occasionally. 

I love the clouds and the thunderstorms

that this season brings, but finding the time to 

go out and photograph them is another story. 

But, thankfully, on Saturday we had some time

to spend together as a family, with James and Abbi

and Miriam (and Laine of course), over at our

'new' depo (shed) that we have recently started renting 

for our business. 

It is only just out of town, but it is so

peaceful and quiet out there and the view of the 

clouds is better than our front verandah,

with less houses around. 

We were blessed to watch a double rainbow

appear in the sky and a little spattering of rain,

not much, but beautiful nonetheless. 

As you can see, I couldn't quite get the whole rainbow

in the photo, with the lens I was using, but it 

was so impressive. 

We were able to take some tea out to 

the shed and have a nice meal in the little

granny flat attached to the shed, 

which has air con, a definite bonus! 

No, that shed is not ours, 

that's Dave's dream shed, it's $2000 a week,

so it was a bit out of our price range! 

As to life here at present,

well, it's been very busy.

I am kept busy with wedding preparations

and normal day to day life.

Emilee is busy with wedding things and 

working for Dave doing freight, or whatever

else her and her ute are needed to do. 

She has now finished up at Brumbys but

will continue working for Dave once she's married,

as it's only 2 days a week. 

Maddy is always running back and forth

to her job at Brumbys, and running errands

for me or visiting Abbi and Miriam

(getting in lots of Aunty cuddles).

Chloe keeps very busy doing her

school work 3 days a week,

her work at the Day Care centre,

once a week,  her written work and her night classes for her

Cert III in Early Childhood Education course,

once a week, working at Brumbys after school hours a few

times a week and helping me around the house. 

Dave is very busy with the milk run

and freight and building some cupboards etc

for  a lady in the church, doing some recycling 

(with cans and also pulling apart engines etc)

and all sorts of other little jobs. 

We now have a part time employee to help 

with the milk run which frees Dave up to do other jobs. 

Dave is also teaching through the book of Revelation

in adult Sunday School, which has been very good

and everyone seems to be enjoying the good teaching and the debates

that come up occasionally.

We have finished up Teen Group for the year

and we only have 2 more Youth Groups to go before

we finish up for the holidays. 

There are only 3 weeks left to go

until the wedding! 

Where has the time flown?

Another daughter leaves the nest

and we'll be down to just 4 of us. 

Maddy and Chloe are excited

that they will finally get their own rooms,

for the first time in their lives. 

They have been busy collecting room décor

and making things to redecorate and personalize their

own little space. 

Dave is making Chloe a new bed

which she is very excited about. 

In the holidays it will be a time

for a big spring clean, declutter,

reorganize, rearrange etc. 

Little Miriam is not so little

anymore and is growing so quickly.

She is talking more and more 

and developing her own little personality. 

She has learnt to say the Auntys names

and also 'papa' and 'mama' for 

Grandpa and Grandma. 

Yes, it melts our hearts. 

She loves to draw and at the moment, 

everything she draws is a turtle. 

Well, that's about all for now. 

Of course, there's a lot more going on

but that's about the jist of it. 

Our Trip

Days 21 to 25

The End

Well, the time has finally come,

that I am at the end of documenting our epic trip.

I have combined the last few days

as I didn't take as many photos.

After waking early in the morning,

mainly due to early risers all around us,

moving out to catch the sunrise over the rock,

we packed up camp, went to a lovely

café for some nice hot coffee and croissants,

then headed on our way towards Alice. 

One last lingering look at the rock as

it disappeared over the horizon,

and a bunch more photos of it's disappearing act,

and I turned my eyes forward.

We stopped down the road a little ways

to refuel out of our drums, that still held some

fuel. It was still very cold.

We drove along the Stuart Highway,

enjoying the different scenery

and passing by Mt Connor in all its glory.

We didn't stop at the lookout as I have a ton of

photos of it from a previous visit, so I just happily

snapped a few out the window as we went by. 

We arrived in Alice Springs late afternoon,

tired but excited at the prospect of 

some '5 star living' for a change.

But, first things first, we really needed to 

do some washing and get some clean clothes

on our backs. So, off we went to the laundry

to begin the mammoth loads of washing.

We planned to stay in Alice for 3 nights

as we had a truck that we were looking at

purchasing (which never eventuated).

We settled into our luxury accommodation

and that night we all had the longest showers

of the whole trip, trying in vain to wash the red dirt

stains out of the creases of our hands. 

We actually didn't sleep very well

being in strange beds and indoors, 

with no dingoes or campfire crackling

or camels roaming or birds chirping. 

Emilee's bunk bed squeaked so much

that she ended up camping on the couch. 

In the morning, we found another bag of washing

so we got that done and dressed in clean clothes

to head into town and do some shopping

and sight seeing and a little trip up to the lookout. 

We ended up having a nice, relaxing

time in Alice, not doing a whole lot

as we didn't really feel like going

off road to look at other sights

and Dave didn't want to put our old girl

through too much more dirt roads and corrugations. 

We went out for tea at a lovely steakhouse,

which was a real treat to sink our teeth into a nice, big, juicy 

steak. The first in a while. And of course, 

a Gloria Jeans Coffee each morning. 

Leaving Alice, we headed North.

We stopped by the side of the road 

to have some lunch and saw our old mate

from the Canning chase game, go by. 

He tooted and a little while later,

we caught up to him, and overtook him,

and the chase began again. 

Late afternoon saw us passing through

Tennant Creek, seeing old mate again,

then driving an hour or so until we

came to a nice quiet gravel pit to camp for the night. 

It was actually warm for the first time in ages.

Emilee and Maddy cooked tea

and I went off to explore on my own,

camera in hand and eyes to the heavens,

marvelling once more at God's beautiful creation.

It was a full moon, so I took

a few star shots, but because of

the abundance of light, they weren't the best,

so I was content to sit by our last campfire

and enjoy it while I could. 

It had been an amazing trip,

and I was quite sad that it was almost

over and we had to go home.

In the morning, we headed out,

passing familiar sights as we drove

and stopping for a nasty coffee at a little 

roadhouse along the way. 

At Hi Way Inn, we caught up 

with our chase friends for the last time. 

The road stretched on and on

and the sky was clear. 

All too soon, we were back in Katherine,

with memories made and many stories to tell. 

God is so good! 

And for those interested, here is a map

of all the roads we've travelled on 

in our life here in Australia. 

What an amazing country that we

are so blessed to live in.

And what a lot more there is of it to explore! 

Canning Trip facts:

6,433km travelled 

25 days total

We met 85 northbound vehicles on the actual track

and 2 dirt bikes and 2 bicycles. 

14 days on the actual Canning Stock Route

(and we could have easily have spent another week on it)

13 showers (I think?)

Countless delicious meals and cups of billy tea. 

Thousands of photos and videos taken. 

Billions and billions of corrugations

Thousands of sand dunes crossed

Heaps of memories made

Quality family time spent together

And one tired old cruiser, puff puff puffing 

her way home, but ready for the next exciting adventure! 

PS be on the lookout for my video of

all the action. (be prepared to feel sick 

with motion sickness whilst viewing)

Not to be continued...………

Except for the video

But more adventures planned for the future

Camp Out

Genesis 1:14-18

¹⁴ And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament

of the heaven to divide the day from the night;

and let them be for signs,

and for seasons, and for days, and years:

¹⁵ And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven

to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

¹⁶ And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day,

and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

¹⁷ And God set them in the firmament of the heaven

to give light upon the earth,

¹⁸ And to rule over the day and over the night,

and to divide the light from the darkness:

and God saw that it was good.

Ok, so I'm SUPER excited about this first photo!

This was my first ever attempt at star

trail photography, using time lapse photography

and image stacking!

This photo consists of 129 photos, at 30 second

exposure, using image stacking

to achieve the final result.

I have always wanted to try it and didn't really know

how, but, thumbs up to Google!

Anyway, SUPER EXCITED here!

Now, onto other things.

Firstly, here is one of the 129 photos used

in the star trail photo.

Still beautiful, I think.

Anyway, on Tuesday night, we drove 40 km

out of town to camp out for the night.

Sometimes, we just long for the peace and quiet that

goes with being out under the stars, away from

town and noisy neighbours and barking dogs.

And then, of course, we were hankering for a fire,

roasted marshmallows and the quiet life.

We had to wait until Maddie finished work at 5pm,

then had to be back in the morning for Emilee to

work (Dave didn't have any milk to

deliver on Wednesday

which was why we took the opportunity).

So, we loaded up, drove out of town,

set up camp and settled back. Ah. Joy. Bliss.

Here's our little home away from home.

Chloe has an interesting way of anchoring

her swag down. Use an ant nest!

Here's Emilee in the morning,

and Maddie starting the fire and Chloe

bringing wood, or leaves, or something.

You just never know with her!

Dave and I were snug in our little rooftop tent.

We probably jumped the gun a little with the weather.

We've all been getting excited that dry season is

just around the corner, but the weather hasn't cooled

down terribly yet, so it was quite

warm until later in the

night. Mozzies were buzzing,

but they didn't bother us.

The warm weather didn't stop

us from lighting our fire

and sitting around it with Billy tea and bikkies.

(We just sat further back)

Of course, as usual, I wandered around taking photos

until it got dark enough to set up the camera and

let it do its thing until bedtime.

In the morning, we packed up and

headed back into town

in time for the days routine to start.

School, work, housework etc etc.

But it was a nice break, very brief,

but enjoyed nonetheless.