water into wine

My housemates and I held a dinner party at our house last night. It was great, although a little small in numbers because we didn't account for the long weekend and invited people too late. Whoops.

We've decided to hold a party every month. June is our "month off" to plan for the rest of the year, and we just had a dinner party anyway :) Next month is "Christmas in July" because having winter with no Christmas is rubbish.

We're back online, so where'd everybody go?

Discovered a few cool websites recently. Simple Savings, Ozcycle (the Australian version of freecycle becuase they're not allowed to use the freecycle name, it's copyright) and Azure Websites who have a free 21 day internet business course. It's pretty good so far, but I got caught up in some other stuff and am now a week behind..

Hope to see some life on here over the weekend!

Things have been up, down, around and sideways since I was last blogging proper. Lucky for you I can't remember it all, so just a few things there that stuck:

1) I had a few teething problems with which visa to apply for but we are now back on track again with the help of a migration agent. Looks like things are going to be okay on that front. Prayer still welcome :)

2) I made The Best Satay Chicken EVER the other day. It works well with rice or in a wrap and Grant has become a massive fan. Roasted veggies - capsicum/bell pepper, potato, carrot and zucchini/courgette, chicken thigh fillets (sliced and lightly fried til almost cooked) and 1/2 a jar of ready made extra nutty satay sauce and lashings of coconut milk. Throw it all into a non-stick wok and let it simmer, giving it a good stir every few minutes. They have this stuff in Heaven, I'm telling you.

Forgot to post these last night:

1) More time with the Great I AM: lots more time praying for and with each other too

2) Jen is working on applying for a spouse visa so she can stay in Australia and marry Grant :)

3) Wedding plans! We have hardly any, but it's a while to go yet before we get married so we're alright. Will let you know as we go!

4) Jobs - Jen is looking for one, and Grant's workplace often has so much going on that Grant can't get his own work done, which frustrates him greatly.

So, a month after having blogged that I should blog more, here I am. As usual I have voiced several dozen blogs in my head, but each time I got to the AboutLife homepage my mind went blank and I lost concentration on my own stories. Reading other people's posts is more interesting and less demanding of my writing abilities. :)

In the same (or similar) vein as the six word memoirs:

I have no job, it's scary. ("it's" counts as one word of course)

Blogging is therapeutic for me. I rant, chant, rave and gibber it all out here and feel much better for it afterwards. I also like reading peoples comments, it gives me perspective (and sometimes makes me feel justified in my rants..).

AL has been going for 3 years now. The earliest entry I can find from anyone is dated 29 Nov 2005. A good day, the 29th Nov ;) I joined on the 10 Feb 2006. This year we'll "celebrate" AL's 4th birthday. We'll have global AL socials if we remember :)

Did anyone ever tell you how beautiful you look when you're looking for what's beautiful in someone else?

- Barbara Johnson

I used to find it strange that so many women are "obsessed" with being beautiful. I used to find it shallow for someone to think that their outward appearance mattered so much, that they would spend hours and hours and endless amounts of money to achieve the look that they aspired to.

Sydney? We're going to Sydney?! Are you serious?"
"Yes Jen, we're going to Sydney" he replied with a smile.
"Seriously? Sydney! As in Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney?"
"Mmm hmm. We're spending the whole day there."
I became far to excited to be coherent and spent lots of time hugging.

This came up in a dream I had recently. It was the last thing that I thought about/spoke in the dream just before I woke up, and it stuck so I wrote it down.

Jesus doesn't think the way a lot of people do when they do things for others. When Jesus fed the 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fishes, he didn't turn around to them afterwards and go "Right, you owe me 5000 dinners!" I can't see Jesus doing that somehow.

John 2
Jesus Changes Water to Wine

1On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, 2and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
3When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine." 4"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied, "My time has not yet come." 5His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."