Annie's Blog

we finally were able to drive to the beach the day before I left for home.. the sea looked very angry right on the sand dunes , these pretty little pink flowers were poking their way through...  very very pretty, even Master Four thought they were great. when I got back and was editing the photos I took, I remembered I had a neighbor who grew up in Gympie and called these flowers, Aunty Dot's weed! Aunty Dot was her sister! look how strong the ocean was! the family found a more sheltered place to have a little swim.. then we went to Moffatt Beach and ate our fish and chips as the sun went down...very nice.. A nice little time to spend at the beach after a wild few days of the cyclonic influence going past.. and before I finally had some way of returning home, luckily by bus and trains,  as they had started moving again by then! I found less mess at home than I had expected, no flooding downstairs but no power on, which was a little frustrating....

stuck at the beach with the grandkids, because of an excess abundance of rain, floods, and lack of transport..no trains buses until at least Wednesday. According to the neighbor at home they had no power early this morning,  so I will certainly enjoy cleaning out the fridge when I finally get back..not!  ...assuming the trains start again soon! I hope Keith got out of town OK. He was playing at his home town of Caboolture the other night, I read in the paper when I was having a coffee waiting for the bus at Landsborough on the way up on Friday!! I think he was supposed to be meeting Nicole (Kidman) somewhere, probably at her parents in Sydney! no trains... no buses... poor Roger didn't make the final.. I'll just have to enjoy the scenery up here...the Buckinghamia are looking pretty good. Some of them were a little knocked around after the high winds...but generally not too bad. I wonder if anything will be left of mine when I get home! Or ...

It was raining the other day at the train station It is still raining, even more heavily today than before... time to go for a walk in the rain.. that was yesterday, not today. Lets hope this ex tropical cyclone Oswald hurries along past today on his way to the parched paddocks south of us...and doesn't leave too much destruction or many flooded creeks, rivers and paddocks in his wake...already there have been reports of tornadoes to the north of us last night and earlier this morning!

In Australia at the moment, there are flooding rains in the north of the state.. In the south there is still a continuation of the heatwave, and there is still a risk of fires in at least Victoria today and tomorrow. The rain is moving south...so here is hoping that the risk of fires and heatwaves will abate soon... There is a famous Australian poem written by Dorothea Mackellar that begins, I love a sunburnt country a land of sweeping  plains Of rugged mountain ranges, and droughts and flooding rains... well, you can read all about it above, in the photo from the local library... but now you know, it is really true, every year it happens... drought, and flooding rains...happening now in a state near here.

For the record here...I sat up and watched President Obama's inauguration.. actually I was awake and and discovered it was being beamed live into our television sets here far across the world!

The story for today's post comes again from The Sound Bites Ministry .  I do appreciate reading the weekday emails from this ministry.  And this one that I read the other day was particularly important: NOTE: On some calendars this Sunday, January 20, is referred to as "Sanctity of Human Life Sunday," and on other calendars it is called "Human Relations Day." This coming Monday, January 21, in addition to being Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and the US Presidential Inauguration, it  is also the birthday of our son, Dustin. As I was thinking about all of that, I recalled something I had shared here before that I felt worth repeating at this time. STANDING UP As a few of you know, our son, Dustin, in whose memory this SOUND BITES Ministry™ was founded in 1999, had many disabilities, both physical and cognitive. He could not walk on his own, he could not feed himself, and he could not talk. But he made a difference in the lives of many, many people bef...

In response to hearing of several people coping with grief at the present time,  I would like to reprint a very short article from the   Sound Bites Ministry : TRUE WORSHIP Unfortunately God and grief are not words that are used very close together in some forms of spirituality. I remember being in a church service where the worship leader asked the congregation to forget about all the "stuff of the week" and enter into worship of God. It seemed as if he thought that we could just come to God and grief would just fly away. I wanted to remind him that the Christian faith believes in a God who comes to humanity in their "stuff of the week" condition, not their dressed up Sunday best condition. True worship does not come by denying our pain and asserting that God is worthy of worship. True worship comes only as we are real and authentic with God about our struggles, doubts, and pain and then make a choice to worship. We can enter into real worship when we...

How to survive the heat.... jump right into the water... and flow with it.. Reading one of my favorite bloggers tonight, Ann Voskamp, writes in her blog Holy Experience... Even in the Bleak Midwinter calls upon us to join her in memorizing Romans... and invites her friend Liz Curtis Higgs, author and Christian speaker  to share on her blog: Thirty years ago I was decidedly going the wrong way. I hadn’t killed anyone, but considering how many times I parked my inebriated self behind the wheel of a car, I might have ended someone’s life, including my own. Though I didn’t throw anyone in jail, I belonged behind bars for selling drugs to my coworkers. Though I didn’t persecute Christians, I wrote a paper for my college Philosophy class titled, “Why I Don’t Believe in God.” I am the last person you’d pick to teach the Bible, right? The very last. But God had a plan. He did, he did. A plan for Liz, just as he has a plan for you. It’s not who we wer...

How to survive the heatwave, when not at the beach fun with board games inside in the airconditioning with family and friends... not to mention watching the tennis on the television... sometimes I am lucky enough to go down to Melbourne\  and see the tennis  while visiting family but since they have been up here visiting .. and only flew home yesterday, it is fine to stay put for a while and do nothing much ... and watch it on the tv. unfortunately, the Australians are not doing too well!!!

How to survive the record breaking heatwave Stay cool ... Come n in the ocean's fine. Jesus is the Living Water... what was it He said Come Unto me all who thirst and I will give you Life. I could be wrong with the exact words of that quote  because I have broken my glasses  and am unable to look it up in the bible right away. Photos t aken at Moffatt Beach at New Year 201 3.

the ocean would be the best place to be in Australia at the moment... well maybe not on a day above 35 degrees, as they will be tomorrow. perhaps the air conditioning might be best, especially for the elderly and the young ones! Thank God for air conditioning when there's a heatwave! May God go with you today and this week. Esecially with all those impacted by the heat and fires in Australia. And with a little family traveling back from a visit to family in the bush.

The Beach is the place to be during Australia's heatwave days. Currimundi Lake was the place to be for us during New Year and family visitors The kids really love the place. Something for everyone! May God go with all the firefighters throughout Australia in the next week of massive heatwave temperatures. Many thanks for Ian Davidson and David Allen for their permission to use the words of a song sung at Sunday service on 16th December 2012.

some images for contemlation and a quote and a link from   Ann Voskamp   : It’s an astonishing thing to know God’s clear will for you in the next year: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you…” (Thess. 5:1 8)   DAILY PLANNER link

Interesting to see how quickly Christmas turns into New Year...with a birthday celebration in between. How the cassia has come back to life so nicely... a wonderful sunset to end the old year... love the way one can witness the New Year celebrations all around the world for 24 hours. the last vestiges of Christmas remain... out to lunch with family on New Year's Day  then out to the airport for some special visitors look, here they come now Hello everyone, so nice to see you again...time to have some fun again! Happy New Year Everyone.