Grateful - not end up in the frying pan

Most days from son'rise to son'set are busy.

Not our farm but Broken Hill - quickest I could locate

New challenges emerge and I just don't know where to start as we settle in to our tree change lifestyle here on the farm.

There is a lot to do or NOT ; there is no real hurry.

I was reminded last night never to take anything for granted because we can lose loved ones in a blink.

Time after time I am humbled and inspired by words on redefining joy in our lives, no matter what the present circumstances.

I followed the journey of a blogger called Emilie with terminal cancer for a while.
Early in her journey she wrote ...

If there is a bright side to any of this, it's that the unimportant, superficial things in our lives have suddenly fallen away, and we are intensely focused on what remains truly important, which is each other, our family, and making the most of the time we have together now. Emilie Lemmons

Tragically, her time with her two young boys was cut very short.

Try as I might I can't help worrying about how much time any of us have.

The message I try to focus on - is life is far too precious and we should just live intensely in the present, absorbing and embracing life as it happens. Plan for future yes but live for today.

It means letting the superficial things in life go and stop sweating the small stuff. In the end will they matter ?

I thankful for the laughter, squeals and chattering that spills drink and crumbs through my home. {The floors are concrete now so it really doesn't matter}

I am grateful beyond measure that these sounds fill my ears home and heart because it means I have children who are happy and healthy. Children I never thought would bless my life.

I am thankful for my health and theirs. Our health isn't perfect and we have ongoing health issues , but we are still blessed.

I am thankful for my family and that most of time we get along and help each other out... thankful my Brother, Sister in law, niece and nephew who came to spend a few days with us. Plus extended cousins who came to visit too. We were all grateful the temperatures this year were in the 20's ° not 40's °.

credit

We had so much fun catching Yabbies in the dams - approx: 70 yesterday (from 2 dams) and again today (1 of same dams). I bet the Yabbies were grateful we only relocated them to another dam and not the frying pan {yet}. I guess it is all any of us can hope for any day not to end up in the frying pan and to keep swimming another day ! (Do yabbies even swim ? hmm)

Have you tried Yabbies ? How do you cook them ?

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Power of your love

Just a quick one tonight , we sang this song at our local church this morning.

We have missed a few weeks due to being away, illness and farm visits.

I ♥the Power of your love



A powerful song of faith for me. It moves me to tears often.
Actually the artist/musician/pastor who wrote this song 'married'  my husband and I. The female artist singing sang at our wedding in a humble warehouse...many 21.5yrs moons ago. I must dig out our video.


We attend a different church than the one in the video now but it still holds a place in our hearts.

Unrelated perhaps to Christian faith but totally to the power of love we saw the movie RED DOG tonight, a 'tale' of love and faithfulness, and grief and more grief. It was funny and I highly recommend it to everyone.
It confirms our decision that Red kelpies or a cross will the next family dogs we own.
I have a very cute story about when we gave teen a new puppy for Christmas when he was three... later ...
Linking in with Thea's Sunday session.

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Friday Facebook Flog #5

Hooray for Friday and time for another Friday Facebook Flog #FFF.
I like the encouragement I am seeing as people connect with each other.

 

Please !

 

Yes, it seems like some might be flogging to just gain numbers (or to spam people) - who knows the truth. I hope it is because we want to connect with each other and establish meaningful relationships :) to extend our community.


My opinion is a new or fledgling blog or even a fan page of an established blogger needs a platform to start from . I've just seen such encouraging comments so let those join in who want to ...

Just a word of caution if you only want to LIKE people as your fan page - make sure you are already logged in as your fan page profile not personal. Especially if you LIKE people as both and you get them twice in your feed stream.


#Tip - upload a photo from your computer or a url if you don't want the generic FB logo.



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Friday Facebook Flog #4

Can't believe it is Friday already and time for another Friday Facebook Flog #FFF.
I like the encouragement I am seeing as people connect with each other.

 

Please !

 

Yes, it seems like some might be flogging to just gain numbers (or to spam people) - who knows the truth. I hope it is because we want to connect with each other and establish meaningful relationships :) to extend our community.


My opinion is a new or fledging blog or even a fan page of an established blogger needs a platform to start from . I've just seen such encouraging comments so let those join in who want to ...

Just a word of caution if you only want to LIKE people as your fan page - make sure you are already logged in as your fan page profile not personal. Especially if you LIKE people as both and you get them twice in your feed stream.

I apologise in advance to anyone I have unliked as ME - I am still working through the list to rectify a few double ups on my Fan pages.

#Tip - upload a photo from your computer or a url if you don't want the generic FB logo. 




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Friday Facebook Flog # 3

There are still a few who missed out on Friday Facebook Flog #FFF. They asked me to please do it again. I don't need any encouragement to help people connect with each other.

 

Please !

 

 

Yes, it seems like some might be flogging to just gain numbers (or to spam people) - who knows the truth. I hope it is because we want to connect with each other and establish meaningful relationships :) to extend our community.


My opinion is a new or fledging blog or even a fan page of an established blogger needs a platform to start from . I've just seen such encouraging comments so let those join in who want to ...

Just a word of caution if you only want to LIKE people as your fan page - make sure you are already logged in as your fan page profile not personal. Especially if you LIKE people as both and you get them twice in your feed stream.

I apologise in advance to anyone I have unliked as ME - I am still working through the list to rectify a few double ups on Fan pages.

#Tip - upload a photo from your computer or a url if you don't want the generic FB logo.



 
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Friday Facebook Flog

Everyday there are new fan pages popping up amongst some of my favourite bloggers. I know I am missing some of you :-( 

How do we get others to ?

I started my fan page last month (along with 3 dozen others to name a few).

We all want people to find and   Us.

The idea is to link up your Facebook fan page - and flog it - so I can make sure I you and others can find you too.

Perhaps you would also those on the list above you too.

Then come back later to visit the rest on the list and their pages too .

You can even just say hello !

This is a blog hop - post a link to this post on your blog or Facebook- if you the more the merrier!

I saw this linking idea @ Ghostwritermummy .

Please Add your facebook page link. 

Note - to like you might have to switch profiles if you want to LIKE others as your FAN PAGE and you don't want to LIKE in your personal profile.

This is the BLOG HOP code -to access this page and grab the appropriate code for your own type of blog

<a href=http://www.inlinkz.com/script.php?id=58129&nojump=1&key=IL.e2FACXWBr2>get the InLinkz code</a>  

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A Mother's heart ...making a difference.

The inspirational Bec is guest posting today ...a special post on children in need which is dear to my heart and how you can make a difference this Mother's day.   

Child’s i Foundation (www.childsifoundation.org) was started by my friend Lucy Buck after she witnessed the huge problem of baby abandonment in Uganda.  She would have to attend funerals of young babies who were abandoned, knowing that no-one loved them, no-one cherished them and no-one knew they were gone.  Child’s i Foundation gives families another option and gives babies a chance of a future, instead of a life in an institution where they are an orphan and not a treasured member of a family.

I left my TV career and lived in Uganda last year for 3 months which was an amazing experience and I will be returning this year.  You can read about my time in Uganda on my blog - becinuganda.blogspot.com. 

My inspiration and strength comes from Lucy.  She made the courageous choice not to feel helpless nor to see these young women and children as beyond help.  She took the initiative, emerged from the safety of being behind the camera as a TV producer and stepped up to the challenge of making a change in the lives of these vulnerable babies and desperate mothers.

Child's i Foundation currently offers 3 services:

• Malaika Care is a transitional family & baby centre in Kampala which provides high quality and short-term care for abandoned children aged 0-2.  The children are provided with the best possible medical and educational care as well as responding to the emotional trauma and psychological damage of abandonment.

• Malaika House provides support to women and children to prevent baby abandonment.  It offers a community drop-in centre and outreach service offering support and advice to women in the local community. The aim is to help the women to become self supportive by offering them catch up education, skills training, counselling and health & nutritional advice.

• Malaika Family Placement aims to place all children in a family.  Ideally the child’s own birth family will be traced and explored as a placement option, however if their birth family is not a possibility then alternative adoptive families will be explored from the local community. 

Coming from a background of reality television, Lucy wanted to replicate some of the aspects of this style of program which capture the attention of people.  This became the ‘i’ in Child’s i Foundation which stands for interactive and the social platforms of Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and blogs are used to promote the charity and engage supporters.

The strength of Child’s i supporters and the power of social networking was realised when 3 month old Joey, who was abandoned in a taxi park, was the first baby adopted into a family and soon after was diagnosed with a heart condition.  Without an urgent operation he would not survive.  The team in Kampala set to work by creating a video about Joey, setting up a donation page and telling anyone who would listen that Joey and his family needed help.  Within 38 hours, Joey’s operation was booked in a South African hospital and $15,000 was raised to cover the life-saving heart operation.  Joey is now a healthy little boy and without the generosity of others he would not be.

There are many stories from my time in Uganda – emotional family reunions, seeing hope emerge from despair, comforting a new arrival who weighs only 1 kilo at 1 year of age, teaching a child with learning difficulties a new word, witnessing the transformation of a child who was sad and detached from being abandoned into a happy and confident child. 

This Mother's Day we are asking people to forgo the usual chocolate and flowers and purchase a gift that will help one of our beautiful babies and their family.  The gifts include cleaning drinking water, a carer's salary and a care bundle for a baby going home.  

Please visit the website to see what a difference your gift could make - http://gift.childsifoundation.org.  If you choose to purchase a gift we will send a handwritten card to your loved one to let them know what was purchased for them.

Having lived in Uganda I have witnessed first hand how even the smallest things can make a huge difference.  Please visit our website, Facebook page  and You Tube channel  to see for yourself. 

Please email me any time with any questions, would love to hear from you - bec@childsifoundation.org.

Will you please open your hearts this Mother's Day and consider a gift that will make the WORLD of difference.
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This week I tried something new ...

For a few weeks I have been wanting to join in Kymmie's @A day in the life of us "This week I tried something new"

This week I can actually report two  three* new things - the most important being -

#1 I started the 31 days to build a better blog. It's a new way of looking why and how I blog and how to improve it.

#2 The last two weeks the Brothers and I have had 4 trips to the Dentist - it is about 25 kms away. I normally go the same way , have done for years. Yesterday , it took me over 45 mins - average speed under well 60km per hour (my guess- don't bother with the maths it's not the point).

Yesterday was trip 3 - I got every red traffic light, the train at railway crossing and every slow or ignorant driver possible (those who drive slow in the right lane especially). Lucky I did not have any children with me  as I raced to the Dentist - who if you are even 3 mins later will postpone the procedure.I just made it.

Today I decide to use the recently re - discovered  GPS (lost in the depths of the pocket behind the passenger seat -oops my fault). I put in the address and it suggested a different way , totally bypassing the old way except for first 2-3 and 500m. I wasn't sure because the GPS has a nasty habit of sending me a longer way or the wrong way.

I digress here ...Sunday night while a was towing a 23ft trailer it sent me up a dead end NO Through Road, it just a short street where they had blocked the road from the Great Western HWY. I didn't see it till it was too late as it was on a slight incline . I can tow a trailer for 300kms , turn corners but not reverse trailers - EVER. Well without it ending up the wrong direction.

My hubby, also towing a 32ft trailer with the truck, was stopped up another road waiting for me to bring dinner ... $#*! I knew for him to turn around and help me would have been quite a feat too.
What did I do ...lets just say I went up the curb , drove across the grass verge, a driveway and continued on my way =) - never mind the bumps.
 
Okay - so back to today. I tried the new way and it only took about 30 mins. I still got red lights, though I am sure - less and no waiting over 5mins at the railway crossing.It was mostly 2 lanes all the way too. I knew this way existed but I'd never I tried it. It's the new best way.

I could add I also gave myself an extra 15 mins (count that as the #4 new thing because I am always leaving at the last minute possible)

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Day #3 of 31DBBB is to promote a blog post.

Joining in memes like Kymmie's is an excellent way to self promote , and even better if it is a blog hop. It will show on all participating blogs who add the blog hop code. I know at the moment I get a lot of visits via Maxabella  loves Grateful blog hop. We all promote each others' posts .

I try to promote other blogs regularly.  When I host Wordless Wednesday I tweet their tweet buttons at the bottom of their post after I comment. I will tweet a link myself in the form of a brief comment. I have yet to add those buttons myself ...another thing to add to my blog makeover.

I also have # Wordless Wednesday search column in my Tweetdeck and if I see bloggers I recognise I will yretweet. It's important to me to do this as an appreciative gesture - since quite a few of them link back to my blog because I am the host. It helps promote and share the linky love.

Already , I have been Re-Tweeting those bloggers I follow with 31DBBB tweet posts too.

In the past I have stumbled a few posts too. It is one tool I could use more.


I have to decide about adding a widget for 'blogs I follow recent posts with title's'. The 'kind' that says when the last post was updated. Often I will click over blog hopping from one to another without passing Go on my google reader if I see a title that catches my interest.


How else do you promote yourself and other blogs ?
Have you tried something new this week ? Please go tell Kymmie.

 

FYBF is being kindly hosted by gorgeous  Glowless this week

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Rainy days & Mondays

It's one of those days... remember Rainy days & Mondays.

Do I feel down ?...maybe.
I am certainly anxious as we head off to a followup appointment for my husband about his cancer.
Six months ago we got the diagnosis that his tumour was malignant and would require radiation therapy.
The radiotherapy has been done & dusted. The rest is uncertain.He will have regular followup and scans for the next few years.

It just undoes me every time we go there. I can't explain it.

It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life that no man can help another without helping himself." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Now for a little linky love

Something to giggle about kids & lubricants @Very bored in Catalunya (guest poster)
A message about our elderly are sad & forgotten ...why @Living life as me
Something heartwarming @Life with Kaison
Something cute ...

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Random A ...

Brought to you today by the letter

1. A - finger acrobatics, 2. a plate 20, 3. a005, 4. "A" come altalena

A is for Apple slinky ...cut neatly in a spiral .This slinky doesn't do stairs LOL.
My boys call them curly wirly apples and they eat more apples than they did before so I can't complain about the extra 3 mins it takes.
It saves on half eaten apples too.

A is for

a community for blogging parents. I joined but being time 'tight' -virtually bankrupt I haven't fully participated as much as I would like. They have groups for everything & everyone. Blogging tips, advice and they list heaps of giveaways.
They have a conference coming up in 2011. I'd like to go more than anything but due to traffic jams & detours on my life's (& hubby's) roundabout I can't commit to anything.

A is for ARKS ~ Acts of Random kindness. I'n November I'm hoping to participate in 30 day giving challenge ... in a small way without using too much $$$. I love some of the creative ideas. I'm not sure how I'll go but anything is ok if it makes a difference.

Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something. ~Author Unknown

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Do you jiggle or dangle ?

... do you even know what I am talking about everybodys jiggling, everybodys jiggling we love our Liptons jiggler tea its quality number 1



Aussies do you remember this ad ?

I won I won a Lipton tea pack , with a fantastic Tefal quick cup from the gorgeous Leigh who blogs at All for women ,Crazy meezer and That's Noice.

I tried it out and I love it already.It's prefect for me during the day.
I am forever boiling the kettle and forgetting, then re boiling ...oh maybe 2-3 times over 4 -5 times a day.Now at the press of a button I have a steaming hot cup of tea in 3 secs well not including jiggling time ;). It's instant not preheated.

DH is forever waiting for the kettle ...not any more that will save his energy and me waiting.
It's energy saving up 65% and is filtered water too.
I also won some beautiful sunny yellow Maxwell & Williams mugs and some Lipton tea.

It is also safer when you have toddlers around who might grab a kettle with hot water still in it.
Tefal quick cup can also give filtered water (@room temperature).
Thanks Leigh and Lipton for my prize.

Right now, 50% of Lipton Black and Lipton Yellow Label sold in Australia comes from Rainforest Alliance certified farms.Lipton aims to achieve full certification by 2015. It's the first tea in Australia to receive certification.

To win I had to share my favourite tips for being a “little greener at home”... It's worth reading all the submissions on All for women blog.
What little things do you do at home to be a good global neighbour?
Ps I'm a jiggler ! Come have a cup of me with me ...and Leigh when she organises the next blog meetup ...
I love this ad too
♥

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